Horror of Subletting : Tenant and Landlord Nightmare

Recently, Yahoo News covered a story about a Reddit users post about his situation regarding his roommate.  He was trying to find a affordable rental in Los Angeles, and he came across a ad for a shared roommate situation in a advertisement.  He thought he the jackpot and found a great roommate in a great part of town who was willing to cut him slack on his portion of the bills. He applied and was told that his rent for his unit with utilities was $1525 (Normal rent alone for a unit like this would have been $1460 without utilities.  The tenant paid his roommate the portion that they agreed, and everything was fine until he got a notice under the door of the unit that stated the rent had not bee paid for several month. His roommate had pocketed his money and failed to pay the rent.  He posted how he only was paying the utility portion going forward, and he would "his portion" to the manager when the time came.

This is a nightmare for this guy as well as his landlord. The article by Yahoo New's Incorrectly labels this as "Man horrified after discovering landlord’s secret financial move: ‘This is actually illegal’"  Base on the facts of this article, the landlord was not cheating him, but was being cheated.  The guy was responding to a ad for a roommate in a apartment building of some kind so unless the guy assumed his roommate owned the building, then he probably knew he was renting from a roommate. Additionally, if the man had been under the assumption that it was condominium then maybe he could have assumed that it was the owner, but nothing in the article suggests that he does.

Therefore, if he was aware that he and his roommate were paying rent to another party, then the landlord was not doing anything illegal. It was most likely his roommate, and this is kind of arrangement is often prohibited in many leases by landlords and property management companies alike. Our leases for tenants contain clauses that prohibit subletting, and any arrangement would require our property management companies approval .  There are many horrific stories regarding subletting and this is a perfect example of why it needs to approved by landlord.

1. Rent amount would be disclosed to all parties
2. Lease would be modified so new tenant or roommate would be aware of all key terms

Additionally, landlords or property management companies often have requirements regarding criminal or other criteria that would need to be evaluated. Roommates have a good chance to not be running a significant background check on a party, and they could be inviting a violent person into their property without any real screening.

Finally, landlords are harmed because that in this scenario that this tenant feels as though at the time of eviction he should only pay his portion of the rent. Here in Houston and Dallas property management teams have to educate our tenants who have roommates that the rent is "jointly liable" meaning that you can make whatever arrangement among each other, but everyone is responsible for the rent in its entirety. This gentlemen maybe on the hook for the entire amount if his roommate disappears, and they are able to get him to court for a hearing.

This is a very sad cautionary tale for those people looking to be a roommates, sublet a unit, or looking for a "Too Good To Be True Deal".  In this incredibly tight rental and sales market, there are many scammers who are trying to get unsuspecting tenants, so it is imperative to be aware that even if it seems convenient that there are usually restrictions on subletting or unknown people being added to leases. As both our Dallas property management and Houston property management teams will attest to, the need to enforce those terms can become critical if things go sideways and there is a eviction.