Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Roommate Abandonment

I had signed a lease with a ''friend'' of mine last June for a one year lease on our apartment. The lease was for June 7th of 2001 until June 31st of 2002. In February of 2002, I came home from work finding half of his possesions gone and the key and gargage door opener on the counter. I tried through his family to get a hold of him because he had owed me back rent and utilities, not to mention the rent and utilities that still needed to be paid throughout the end of the lease. I had talked to him once and he said that he doesn't owe me anything since he signed a lease with our landlord, not with me. However, we did have a verbal agreement to split the rent and utilities in half and if the full rent was not paid, I would have been evicted by our landlord. I also had to repaint his bedroom and the garage because of the damage that he did to the walls and I had to move the rest of his stuff out of the apartment on my own. Is there any recoarse that I can take, considering he owes me approximately $4000?


Asked on 10/21/02, 2:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
JAY Nixon nixon law offices

Re: Roommate Abandonment

Your situation, unfortunately, is all too common, and similar to a number of client situations which I am currently litigating. For that reason, I cannot make anonymous observations other than a few sweeping generalizations, such as the following: Do not commingle your financial life with strangers! Our legal system does not offer satisfactory remedies in such a situation unless both you and the person you are suing for "roomate abandonment" are extremely wealthy. In Wisconsin, you have traditional remedies available to you to the extent that you can prove the existance of a contract or a partnership along with breaches of such legal duties as may be created by those relationships. Litigation in such fact laden circumstances, however, tends to be outrageously uncertain and expensive. If you are less than confident of a roomate's reliability, you should protect yourself by requiring a large damage deposit to be paid in advance by the roomate and held by a neutral third party such as a bank trust department. Good luck!

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Answered on 10/21/02, 7:20 pm


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