Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

You and your other two people on the lease are likely equally responsible for paying rent. This means that the landlord doesn't care who the rent comes from, as long as he gets it....all of it. It also means that the landlord can likely go after any one of you or all of you if the entire rent has not been paid. It's not the landlord's responsibility or problem to chase down each person on the lease for each person's portion of the rent. The landlord wants the entire rent, plain and simple, and how you divvy that up amongst the tenants is not the landlord's problem.

If you don't pay rent, and the other two people on the lease don't pay your portion (as well as theirs), you may ALL be evicted by the landlord. If you are ALL evicted for non-payment of rent, there is very little I can think of that your partying roommate can sue you for (since he obviously didn't pay your portion of the rent) -- the partying roommate may have an argument that you caused him certain out of pocket moving expenses by not paying rent and forcing his eviction. The partying roommate may also have an argument that you hurt his credit score by forcing the eviction, but this would be pretty hard to quantify into a dollar amount.

If, on the other hand, you are NOT evicted because your partying roommate paid your portion of the lease, then the partying roommate has a good case against you for repayment of your portion of the rent (and future rent) and a court would likely award him that money. The court will not care why you failed to pay your portion of the rent.

If I were in your shoes (which I'm not), I wouldn't call the police to my home. If there is underage drinking and illegal drug use going on inside the home, the police may very well arrest you along with your roommate -- it's your apartment, your name is on the lease along with the other two, and you are in the apartment when the illegal activity occurs. The police frankly may not care or take the time to decide who has been drinking, who has been doing the drugs, etc -- they may just decide that it's a bunch of kids acting like idiots and take everyone in and let the justice system work it out. Plus, whether you are arrested or not, if the police arrest your roommate, this could possibly lead to your eviction anyway (some leases contain provisions that say the landlord has the right to kick you out if illegal activity, especially drug activity, is taking place in the unit).

My hope for you is that your lease ends relatively soon and you can just walk away from this problem.

Best regards. *****The above is for informational purposes only and does not create an attorney-client privilege.******