Once you have decided to move into an apartment with one or more roommates, you will need to determine how your rental payments will be handled. There are three ways you can set up
lease and determine how rent will be paid:a) All roommates sign lease, and all are then "Jointly and Severally Liable" for rent and damages
b) One person basically becomes "landlord" of apartment by renting one or several rooms of apartment to other people through what is called "subletting."
c) You and your roommates create your own contract.
Subletting is complicated, but it is a great way to have legal backup in event that you have irresponsible roommates. For example, Joe, Frank and Bill move in together, and they all sign a basic lease (making each party "Jointly and Severally Liable." Joe and Frank are responsible roommates, and have their payments ready on first of month, but Bill is broke. Frank and Joe, then, must come up with Bill's rent money since they are all on same lease together. If they only submit their portion of rent, landlord can legally evict all three tenants - even though Bill is only tenant at fault.
However, if Joe, Frank and Bill had been subletting apartment - Joe is sublessor, Frank and Bill are sublessees, Bill could have been held legally responsible. In this situation, Joe would basically be landlord of their apartment. He would be responsible for all landlord duties - one of which is collecting rent from his sublessees (Frank and Bill) and turning it in to landlord of complex. If, as a sublessee, Bill failed to pay his rent, Joe could evict him from apartment, or take rent out of his security deposit, and Joe and Frank would be free to stay in apartment without being punished for Bill's unpaid rent.
Some complexes do not allow subletting. If this is case in your complex, it is be wise to protect yourself and your roommates by designing a written contract that spells out your obligations to each other, such as what portion of rent each will pay, responsibility for damages, division of payment for utilities, duration of rental period, responsibility for finding a replacement upon early termination, and payment of rent until a replacement is found.- which may be better in long run because in subletting, one person must take on more responsibility as landlord and this could cause battles for power in household.
