Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Co-Signing On An Apartment

I would recommend that you first approach your co-leasee (the current tenant) and ask is he/she will sign a new lease without you. If your current relationship with tenant precludes you from working something out informally, you may need to directly to the landlord.

You are entitled to give notice (presumably 30 days in most leases) directly to the landlord of your intent to terminate lease. At that point, I anticipate 3 possibilities: (1) landlord can opt remove you from the lease and continue on with current tenant as sole tenant [if so, make sure you get this in writing, or even better go with Option #2 - a new lease]; (2) landlord can sign a new lease with current tenant (if he is able to afford/qualify); or (3) co-tenant will be required to vacate at end of month-to-month lease term. Since the tenant has been there for 2 years and presumably has a good track record, I would hope the first two options are available to the current tenant.

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