JamesHolwell
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? California.
Sorry this is long, but it is just so absurd that it would be impossible to reduce. (I am not sure if this is the right forum, but it seemed to be the most relevant of the choices; I need some legal advice on what is more of a roommate issue than one involving the landlord.)
I am leasing out an apartment in a complex in Davis, California, which I share with another person, who I allowed to sign on to the lease in mid-September. I believe she is a "co-tenant" on the lease, but I am not sure (I subsidize 25% of her rent since I could not find someone at the time to pay the full amount, but I am not sure what the lease says for her arrangement). She was a stranger, whom found my ad for the place in the classifieds, so it's not the best match, as she has psychological and emotional troubles, and also often refuses to pay the bills and deposit, but up until now, nothing serious has happened.
After she moved in (around October), she suggested that we rent out an empty room we have in the apartment (that we never use) to a third roommate. We agreed, and we both placed ads in various classifieds for it. We didn't get any hits on our ads for a while, but since we live in a college town, I finally found an incoming winter quarter student at around the end of December, who was set to transfer to the local university (he had responded to one of the ads I had placed). I told my roommate that I had finally found someone for our empty room, and told her that if he followed through, he'd be moving here from Madison (from the University of Wisconsin) in about three weeks. The prospective roommate then went ahead and mailed a check for his share of the whole month of January's rent in advance. She (my roommate) didn't voice any problems or concerns with any of this, and we discussed how much he would be paying, when exactly he would be arriving, and that he was going to sign the lease through August. Everything was fine, especially considering it was her idea to rent this room out in the first place, so I thought this was all a good thing.
However, last week, after he (the new guy) moved in, my (original) roommate says to me "I've changed my mind. I've decided I want to furnish the empty room now. You have to kick the new guy out." I said wait a second, it's too late to tell me this NOW—he’s already moved here from over 2,500 miles away, paid the whole months rent, moved in all of his belongings, and bought furniture for his room--we can't kick him out NOW. I asked her why she hadn't told me this weeks (before he came) or months (while we were actively trying to rent out the room) in advance, and she said to me, literally, that she had "just changed [her] mind--people change their minds you know."
This is all absurd to me, but she says that since I was the one that found the new fellow, not her, that it is my duty to kick him out, and that I HAVE to kick him out because "she says so" and that since she’s on the lease, she has every right to make any decision she so pleases, and that since she doesn’t approve (though she approved BEFORE he moved in), that he must go (and she has absolutely no grievances against him, who she claims is very nice, but that she has merely "changed her mind"). She claims that she will not allow him to sign the lease with the landlord, and claims that if she doesn't allow it, that he can't sign the lease at all; and if he doesn't sign the lease, that it is illegal for him to stay here; and that since I found him, she will "call the police on me," since it will have been "my duty to kick him out," and of course, being a rational human being, I am not going to just kick this guy out now for no reason other than "I said so!"
My roommate has various emotional troubles, so I tend to think that this may all just be a big bluff, and she is just merely trying to extort me for something like she usually does, but I do not really know, is she correct--does she actually have this "right?" I mean, this was my apartment, I subsidize a quarter of her rent, it was HER proposition to rent out the extra room, and she knew for weeks in advance that someone had been found to take the room, and yet she didn't "change her mind" until AFTER he had already moved in, and was fine with it until it was too late (and now she’s putting it all on me). I said to her that she needed to have decided all of this before he moved in, and that she had plenty of time—weeks before he came—and months while the room was up for rent—to make this decision that she didn’t want to rent the empty room out anymore, so that all of this could have been averted.
I also tried to explain to her that I cannot just “kick him out,” and I feel personally responsible for his well being, since he just came here from so far away to study here (he flew all the way from Madison, Wisconsin and moved straight in here). She says it's not her problem and that she'll have me arrested. I have NO idea what the laws are, and as far as I can tell she doesn't either; but what do I do in this situation? It is very difficult to deal with a roommate who is mentally unstable, and this is the most irrational, unreasonable, and absurd thing I've ever had to deal with in my life. What should I do? Even if she was forced to leave, and I had to find someone to take over her lease, that would be fine, but something has to give, and I don’t think she should be allowed to get away with something this cruel (she admits it’s cruel but says “so what, I can do whatever I want”). I would even be willing to just have the new guy in a sublease agreement if I have that authority. If worse comes to worst, and I really am doing something “illegal,” I would still rather take the fall for this than the new guy, who I don’t want to drag down into this, as I feel bad for him and don’t want him to have to leave, as he really likes it here, and anyway, he has nowhere else to go (thought my roommate suggests "WELL THEN JUST MAKE HIM LIVE IN A HOTEL. I SIGNED THE LEASE SO I CAN CHANGE MY MIND ON ANYTHING HERE WHENEVER I WANT!!!). Any advice is greatly, greatly appreciated.
Sorry this is long, but it is just so absurd that it would be impossible to reduce. (I am not sure if this is the right forum, but it seemed to be the most relevant of the choices; I need some legal advice on what is more of a roommate issue than one involving the landlord.)
I am leasing out an apartment in a complex in Davis, California, which I share with another person, who I allowed to sign on to the lease in mid-September. I believe she is a "co-tenant" on the lease, but I am not sure (I subsidize 25% of her rent since I could not find someone at the time to pay the full amount, but I am not sure what the lease says for her arrangement). She was a stranger, whom found my ad for the place in the classifieds, so it's not the best match, as she has psychological and emotional troubles, and also often refuses to pay the bills and deposit, but up until now, nothing serious has happened.
After she moved in (around October), she suggested that we rent out an empty room we have in the apartment (that we never use) to a third roommate. We agreed, and we both placed ads in various classifieds for it. We didn't get any hits on our ads for a while, but since we live in a college town, I finally found an incoming winter quarter student at around the end of December, who was set to transfer to the local university (he had responded to one of the ads I had placed). I told my roommate that I had finally found someone for our empty room, and told her that if he followed through, he'd be moving here from Madison (from the University of Wisconsin) in about three weeks. The prospective roommate then went ahead and mailed a check for his share of the whole month of January's rent in advance. She (my roommate) didn't voice any problems or concerns with any of this, and we discussed how much he would be paying, when exactly he would be arriving, and that he was going to sign the lease through August. Everything was fine, especially considering it was her idea to rent this room out in the first place, so I thought this was all a good thing.
However, last week, after he (the new guy) moved in, my (original) roommate says to me "I've changed my mind. I've decided I want to furnish the empty room now. You have to kick the new guy out." I said wait a second, it's too late to tell me this NOW—he’s already moved here from over 2,500 miles away, paid the whole months rent, moved in all of his belongings, and bought furniture for his room--we can't kick him out NOW. I asked her why she hadn't told me this weeks (before he came) or months (while we were actively trying to rent out the room) in advance, and she said to me, literally, that she had "just changed [her] mind--people change their minds you know."
This is all absurd to me, but she says that since I was the one that found the new fellow, not her, that it is my duty to kick him out, and that I HAVE to kick him out because "she says so" and that since she’s on the lease, she has every right to make any decision she so pleases, and that since she doesn’t approve (though she approved BEFORE he moved in), that he must go (and she has absolutely no grievances against him, who she claims is very nice, but that she has merely "changed her mind"). She claims that she will not allow him to sign the lease with the landlord, and claims that if she doesn't allow it, that he can't sign the lease at all; and if he doesn't sign the lease, that it is illegal for him to stay here; and that since I found him, she will "call the police on me," since it will have been "my duty to kick him out," and of course, being a rational human being, I am not going to just kick this guy out now for no reason other than "I said so!"
My roommate has various emotional troubles, so I tend to think that this may all just be a big bluff, and she is just merely trying to extort me for something like she usually does, but I do not really know, is she correct--does she actually have this "right?" I mean, this was my apartment, I subsidize a quarter of her rent, it was HER proposition to rent out the extra room, and she knew for weeks in advance that someone had been found to take the room, and yet she didn't "change her mind" until AFTER he had already moved in, and was fine with it until it was too late (and now she’s putting it all on me). I said to her that she needed to have decided all of this before he moved in, and that she had plenty of time—weeks before he came—and months while the room was up for rent—to make this decision that she didn’t want to rent the empty room out anymore, so that all of this could have been averted.
I also tried to explain to her that I cannot just “kick him out,” and I feel personally responsible for his well being, since he just came here from so far away to study here (he flew all the way from Madison, Wisconsin and moved straight in here). She says it's not her problem and that she'll have me arrested. I have NO idea what the laws are, and as far as I can tell she doesn't either; but what do I do in this situation? It is very difficult to deal with a roommate who is mentally unstable, and this is the most irrational, unreasonable, and absurd thing I've ever had to deal with in my life. What should I do? Even if she was forced to leave, and I had to find someone to take over her lease, that would be fine, but something has to give, and I don’t think she should be allowed to get away with something this cruel (she admits it’s cruel but says “so what, I can do whatever I want”). I would even be willing to just have the new guy in a sublease agreement if I have that authority. If worse comes to worst, and I really am doing something “illegal,” I would still rather take the fall for this than the new guy, who I don’t want to drag down into this, as I feel bad for him and don’t want him to have to leave, as he really likes it here, and anyway, he has nowhere else to go (thought my roommate suggests "WELL THEN JUST MAKE HIM LIVE IN A HOTEL. I SIGNED THE LEASE SO I CAN CHANGE MY MIND ON ANYTHING HERE WHENEVER I WANT!!!). Any advice is greatly, greatly appreciated.