Sharing An Apartment

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This website provides information on renting for residency in Lexington, Kentucky. Renting laws change from city to city, and from state to state. You should NOT assume any of the information provided in this website applies to an area outside of Lexington.

>Renting Laws >Sharing an Apartment

SHARING AN APARTMENT

If you are living with (or thinking of living with) one or more people, then you should know about some important legal information that could end up affecting you severely.

Joint & Several Liability

If ONLY ONE PERSON SIGNS THE LEASE, that person is solely responsible for the entire rent and all other conditions of the lease. This does NOT mean that s/he is the only one that pays rent or calls the landlord for repairs, but it does mean that s/he is legally held responsible if there is a problem (even if it is another roommate’s fault). If there is damage to the apartment or one roommate does not pay rent (or moves out), the person whose name is on the lease is held responsible for all payments.

If BOTH YOU AND YOUR ROOMMATES SIGN A LEASE, you are "Jointly and Severally Liable," meaning, each person who signs the lease is responsible for all the conditions of the lease.

If any one of the roommates fails to comply with the lease – including not paying every part of the rent (however the tenants have chosen to divide the rent among each other), and/or damaging the apartment – then all of the roommates have legally violated the lease and are ALL responsible for paying the landlord back.
See Tenant Noncompliance for a full explanation of what can happen to a tenant who violates the law and/or lease. As you read that section, remember that (if both you and your roommates have signed the lease) any reference to “a tenant” now refers to ALL of the tenants in the apartment who have signed the lease. Instead of just one tenant not complying, all of the roommates are considered to be legally not complying (even if it is only one roommate’s fault).
If one person does not pay the rent, the other roommates are liable to the landlord for payment of that person's share or they are all subject to eviction for non-payment of rent. This includes roommates who move out before the lease is over!
It is up to the other tenants, not the landlord, to collect from a non-paying tenant. If the tenants fail to pay the rent in full, then the landlord can evict all the tenants and sue anyone signed to the lease for the money owed to him/her.
It is up to the tenants to collect for the damages from the tenant who caused the damage. If the tenants fail to collect and do not pay the landlord for the damage, then the landlord can evict all the tenants and sue anyone signed to the lease for the damages.
If one tenant breaks any term specified in the lease, then the other tenants are responsible for getting that tenant to compensate for the break. If the tenants fail to compensate the landlord for the break, then the landlord can evict all the tenants and sue anyone signed to the lease.
If one tenant damages the premises, the landlord may deduct the damages from the tenants' collective security deposit without determining or considering who did the damage. If the innocent tenants want the tenant at fault to pay for the damages, it is up to the tenants themselves to deal with the situation, not the landlord.
Any general reference to “a tenant” throughout this whole website applies to all tenants in an apartment if they have all signed the lease.

It may be wise to protect yourself and your roommates by designing a written contract that spells out roommates' obligations to each other – such as what portion of rent each will pay, responsibility for damages, division of payment for utilities, duration of the rental period, responsibility for finding a replacement upon early termination, and payment of rent until a replacement is found.