Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Roommate leaving, another entering. What happens to the security depoist?
Have lease with 1 person who had a roomate as additional occupant on the lease. This roommate left during a lease period on bad terms.
Original Lessee was able to secure another roomate to help her fulfill the remainder of the lease (pay rent)since she wanted to remain at the apartment anyway.
Several months pass and out of the blue the former roommate calls for her half of the security deposit. I never received new monies from new roommate as I was told by Lessee at the time of the move out/in drama that ''they would work it out''. Now I am in the middle of this.
More info: as I said, the original lease has only 1 person (the one that remained) as Lessee. The first receipts given to this Lessee (for 1st month's rent, last month's rent, and 1 month security) were all made out just to her. However, one half of this original money was in the form of a check made out to me by the roommate's parents (that I cashed with my signature).
The question is, am I at all responsible to resolve this problem? What should I do? Can I be sued for the deposit?
The question is, am I responsible to recover this money

Asked on 4/09/06, 10:08 pm

Alexander Sklavos Law Offices of Alexander E. Sklavos, PC

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Re: Roommate leaving, another entering. What happens to the security depoist?

technically speaking, your obligation is to the named tenant. If you knowingly took money from another tenant, you may be on the hook.

Answered on 4/09/06, 10:38 pm

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