Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Texas

Dear Joint Tenant

if your joint lessee walks in the middle of the lease and both names are on the lease, they do not have the right to take their deposit at the time they walk. The deposit stays with the lease until its ends and then may be refunded by the landlord (assuming no offsets are taken by the landlord). At that time, assuming you both paid in one half of the deposit, your joint lessee would be entitled to a return of one half of their deposit. This assumes you do not bring a claim against them for their half of the lease not paid from the date they walked until either (i) the end of the lease or (ii) the date you replace them with an alternate lessee who pays their half of the lease for the term of the lease. Please consult an attorney on this matter to get all of the facts and legal positions straight. But, preliminarily, they are not entitled to refund of their deposit from you or the landlord until the lease is completed.

TDW