F
fitz
Guest
I live in a 3 bedroom house with 2 other women, all of us are on the lease, which is not up until February of 2001. My psycho roommate moved in without paying the security deposit to me (which I originally paid all of myself). I gave her 2 months to pay the deposit, an amount of $500, which she failed to do. After 10 weeks, when she had told our other roommate that she had no intention of paying the deposit at all, I left the psycho a note, telling her that we needed to talk about when she was planning to move out. She moved the next day, even though both I and the other sane roommate had explained to her that she was breaking the lease, needed to give us 30 days to find another roommate, etc. She is now refusing to pay even partial rent because she is "not living in the house." She told us this on the 5th of June, she moved out on the 28th of May, and the sane roommie and I covered the rent ourselves, expecting that the psycho would pay us back. When she told me she was refusing to pay rent, I told her that I was taking her to court and I wanted the keys to the house back, since I didn't want her to be in the house unless one of us was there with her (translate, not at ALL). All of her things were out of the house at this point, with the exception of the washer and dryer, which I had offered to credit her $75 for toward her share of the rent ($500). I am planning to place a lien on the W/D, since they are the only thing of value in the house, and she left no forwarding address or phone number. She currently waitresses at the same place as my other roommate, but I don't expect that to last long, since she was fired from her last job and is well on her way to being fired from this one. So I have a limited amount of time in which to serve her with the claim, etc. I plan to file the claim in two days. I gave her a letter yesterday, explaining that and offering her until midnight on the 8th to pay in cash or money order. This does not take into account the money she will owe for bills and new paint in her room (she ruined the paint job in the closet). I plan to include those costs in the amount I claim. Is that reasonable? I guess what I need to know, after telling you the whole huge story, is if there are any loopholes that she can use to get out of some or all of this. Also, could the landlords take her off the lease without talking to the other two of us? I don't think that they would, but just in case. Are we allowed to claim rent for this month from her, even though she no longer has the keys? I only took them because we were going to have to go to court, but am not afraid that I may have jepordized the case. Thanks