How To Safely Arrange For Taking Over The Apartment Lease?
I live in shared apartment. My roommate who was the main person on the lease is moving to a different state. I cannot take over the lease because I don’t make enough money. I plan to post a classified ad to find someone who can take over the lease. Is it a bad idea? What are the potential pitfalls? What to be aware of?
Since your roomates present lease allows him to sublease, you are half way to a solution. Next step is to execute a written sublease with your roomate specifying that you are to pay the landlord directly. The nest step is to find another roomate who is stable and can pay the agreed upon share of the rent on time. You need to execute a written agreement with the new roomate in order to avoid problems down the road. Make sure you include things like utilities in your agreement since they are often the source of arguments. Ever watch “Judge Judy”? I can tell you that the roomate disputes are all too common.
Good luck with your situation.
First of all, the landlord may not allow anyone to “take over” the lease. If your room mate is leaving before the lease term is up, he will probably still be responsible for the rent if you or your new roommate defaults.
You can do a sub-lease, but look at the lease agreement and see if that is allowed. If this is in your roommates name, they have the legal exposure here. Be careful of the sub-lease arrangement, the landlord may still be able to hold the original renter liable if teh second renter defaults.
The pitfalls for you are that you have no legal rights to the apartment. Your new room mate can kick you out.
How well do you know your room mate? Perhaps he will trust you to keep up the payments and allow it to continue in his name until the lease ends.