Can I leave my roommate from hell without being responsible for the rest of the rent?
- As far as the landlord is concerned, you owe rent for as long as the lease is in effect
- You can try to find a new renter to take your place or ask the owner to take you off the lease
If you’re not listed on the lease, you should be able to move out without having to pay more than a month’s rent.
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My roommate is a nightmare. She goes into my room without asking, berates me if I leave a single dish in the sink, says I can’t use our common spaces, and makes me feel awful. I want to move out, but I don’t want to be on the hook for paying rent for the full lease. What can I do?
Unfortunately, moving out of your apartment could be difficult if both you and your "nightmare" roommate are on your lease.
When both you and your roommate are on a lease for a New York City apartment together, you’re both liable for the full lease term as co-tenants. That means that if you were to move out and your roommate didn’t pay your share—or stopped paying altogether—your landlord could come after either or both of you for the rent.
“Your problem is that, as far as the landlord is concerned, you owe rent as long as the lease is in effect,” said Catherine Grad, an attorney at Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben & Joseph. “So a landlord could sue one tenant for all the rent, both tenants for the rent,” or could come after you for more than your half of the rent.
Grad said she hears about these cases “all the time,” and you’ve probably seen examples of terrible roommates on Reddit, TikTok, or even Netflix. Read on for a few ways you could leave your awful roommate.
Moving out when you’re on the lease
If you and your roommate signed a roommate agreement, you should check to see if it addresses what happens if one of you wants to move out. For example, it could include a clause that holds you responsible for paying the rent until a replacement is found, and giving your roommate at least 30-days notice before your departure.
Without a roommate agreement, you’re in a tougher spot. You could ask the landlord to take you off the lease, or ask your roommate to agree to keep the apartment and cover the full bill, but they’d have no incentive to release you from that contract, said Justin Brasch, principal attorney at Brasch Legal.
“Somebody could agree to indemnify the other person against any claims that the landlord might have,” Brasch said. “Unless the person leaving is released by the other person, the landlord views both as equally liable.”
You could find someone to replace you (provided they’re able to handle your roommate’s behavior). But in that scenario, you’d still be listed on the lease and responsible if that new person or your original roommate stops paying.
“Even then that's not a perfect solution,” Grad said. “And it depends on how sour your relationship has gotten.”
In the worst case scenario, your roommate could stop paying or overstay the lease, and your landlord could come after you for the money.
Moving out when you’re not on the lease, but your roommate is
If you’re not listed on the lease, you should be able to move out without having to pay more than a month’s rent, said Andrew Wagner, an attorney at Herrick Feinstein.
“Absent written agreement, you are not obligated to pay rent though the end of lease term,” Wagner said. If you have a verbal agreement, your roommate could sue you for your share of the rent though it would be their word against yours, Wagner added.
If you are on the lease and your roommate isn’t, you'd have to bring an eviction case against your roommate to kick them out, though the process “coud last longer than the lease term,” Wagner added.
In any case, if your roommate breaks the law it can be easier to evict them. Wagner once had a case where a landlord was able to evict a tenant’s roommate because the roommate was running an illegal business out of the apartment.
