Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in District of Columbia
Lease with multiple persons
I live in Washington DC. I am on a lease with two other persons: a roommate, and her father, who is just named on the lease. He does not live there. His name is on the lease so we could satisfy the credit/income requirement.
At this point, my room mate intends to move out and stop paying rent, before the lease expires. I wish to remain here, and cannot afford the place on my own. My credit will never be good enough to satisfy the landlord requirements. My financial resources are meager, being on social security disability, and no free legal aid service will advise me until I have an eviction notice with a court date schedueled (which will probably be too late).
Do I have any legal recourse against my room mate or her father if she stops paying her half of the rent? Can I put a lien on their property and/or bank accounts? If so, how?
Can the landlord evict me if she moves out?
The landlord has been neglecting repairs for some time now. As the worst example, the keys he gave us no longer turn the lock in the apartment door! I have reported this to him by phone and in writing, and he has ignored me. Can I sue him on my own, apart from the other leaseholders?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Lease with multiple persons
You have no claim against the non-paying lessees (roommate and father); this right of claim is reserved to the landlord. The landlord can evict you in the event that the full amount of the lease contract is not paid.
Whether or not your claim of alleged non-repairs on the part of the landlord would give you a right to withhold rent or a right to setoff a portion thereof, remains unclear, but if it involves little more than keys which do not fit the door locks, I suspect not.
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