Job Discussion Forums

captain_fat · Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 10

hello

im wondering if anyone can breifly school me on appartment deposit- etiquite and expectaions.

I have a roommate who will be moving out shortly for personal reasons. We need to find a new roommate by February.

1) If we fail to find a new roommate by then am i responsible to pay her share of the rent until I can find a new roommate? Or will the two month deposit be used to make up for the her share of the rent until a new rommmate is found

2) Assuming the deposit is not used or needed to cover any missing rent for the month of february will anyone see this money if we make it to the end of the lease in December and there is no damage to the appartment

3) When looking for a new roommate to move in will they be asked to pay a deposit? If not is it acceptable to ask them to pay the 2 months deposit to the person leaving assuming the new roommate wil get it back in december (if everything is in good order)

just as backround knowledge my landlord lives in Taipei and doesnt seem too concerned about building aside from making sure its in reasonable shape to lease to tenants

thanks for the help

dangerousapple · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 292

Your landlord only cares about getting the rent, and doesn't care about who pays what share. If he doesn't get his rent you'll get turfed pretty fast. If you make it to the end of your lease you should get your deposit back, but you might need to argue a bit. Landlords hate giving money back for any reason.

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

If your roomie leaves before the end of the lease, leaving you to pay 100% of the rent, you can keep her share of the deposit. It's no different than if she had rented the place on her own and walked out on the lease; she would forfeit her deposit. You could ask the next roomie to pay half the deposit and then refund your current roomie's share if you wanted to be nice.

I suppose if you are nice you could tell her that you will pay 100% of the rent until you find a new roomie, deducting that extra cost from her share of the deposit to be returned at lease's end. If you find a new roomie in the first month, and s/he pays the rent and half the deposit, you could refund 100% of the deposit to your former roomie. 50% could be refunded if you find someone in the second month and have to pay one month's rent by yourself. 0% if it takes two months or longer to find a replacement. You are being nice to do it that way because she is walking away from her co-tenancy agreement with you and leaving you 100% responsible fo the balance of the lease. The reasonable thing for her to do would be to just forfeit her half of the deposit like she would have had to do if she were renting the place by herself.

jeffinflorida · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:18 am Post subject:

Hold the phone... What AGREEMENT did you and the roommate have when you rented the place or they moved in?

If you agreed to each pay 50% of the rent and utilities then the rommie who moved out should have to pay their share - if that is what you agreed.

If you really had no agreement then you are probably stuck to make up the difference.

Did your school get you this apartment or make any commitment on paying the rent?

In the future you should have an understanding regarding terms if one of you moved out.

I had this situation in China. I got hooked up with a guy who had a 3 bed room apt. and he was by himself. i paid 50% of the rent and utils to him - which was ok.

He paid 3 months up front when he rented and committed to a one year lease. He left after 2 months with the intention of not coming back.

I paid month # 4 in whole and then he popped up after being gone for 1 1/2 months, had a set of keys to the apt. after he told me he gave them all to me, and decided to come in one day when he thought no one was home.

He gave no reason for this entry and quickly left. I changed the lock and he tried to come in again. Said I owed him for 1 month rent and the deposit. I said no way man! he called the police! who called the owner, who verified to the police that i paid the 4th month rent to him.

Owner did not give him back the deposit because he broke the one year lease and the dude expected me to pay him all this money. I refused to give him a cent.

So we had this big thing happen because we had no agreement about the future.... the what ifs...

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

captain_fat · Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 10

hi guys we have a new roommate (3 person place) and everything is all in order thank you for you help