Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Breaking a lease early

if you aare both on the lease, both of you are jointly and severally liable for rent payments. unless there is some other covenant or clause your landlord may be in breach of, or something in your lease that makes a provision for early termination of your lease, you may be "stuck" with the financial liability if you do not sue your cousin for monies owed to you thru her rent payment delinquencies. if you want further advice, contact me at [email protected] 562-743-1357

Re: Breaking a lease early

Well, you're in a very tough spot, because you are both liable to the landlord for all the rent; he can't double-collect but he can collect from either one. If you can't get rid of this roommate and find another, you may just have to shoulder the load yourself.

Your cousin is liable to you, of course, but it looks unlikely you'd be able to collect a small-claim judgment.

Your best solution depends upon whether your cousin will cooperate or not. If the two of you just left, you could find a replacement tenant or an assignee (if the lease permits and/or the landlord is cooperative), or leave and pay until the landlord re-rents. This at least limits the cost to you and preserves your credit, provided you arrnage to pay, and do pay, until the place is reoccupied.

If your cousin doesn't leave, you would probably be named as a co-defendant in the unlawful detainer action that is almost certain to follow, and that could be both expensive and damaging to your credit.

One possibility is to ask the landlord for suggestions. Everyone has a different slant on these problems. You could also talk to a tenants' rights organization, but not sure what help they could give.

Maybe another LawGuru attorney will have an idea.