Why not both? I thought it was pretty entertaining, but I was watching from across the street. It was probably a real tragedy for the poor landlord.
That would be a very nice gesture on their part.
It doesn’t seem that weird to me - I mean, it still seems somewhat weird, since all that stuff that happened when the roommate moved out should have made it clear. But it has become common* in my area for landlords to essentially rent each bedroom separately rather than renting the entire apartment to one or more people. Which means that if Roommate 3 moves out, the landlord finds a new tenant and Roommates 1 & 2 don’t have to cover the missing rent for the third room.
While Kaci was definitely wrong about what her responsibilities were after Jess moved out - it might not have been unreasonable if her prior experiences involved landlords who rented on an individual basis.
* I don’t know if it’s legal, I just know that it’s common.
Yes, that is very common.
If Kaci and the roomie came in together as friends or partners, rented it together, then that is one thing. But if the Roomie was there before or selected by the landlord, it would not be crazy to expect the landlord to fill the vacancy. Is the whole property shared by both? How divided is it?
It depends on how the property is rented out. You would not expect a tenant in a apartment building to cover for vacancies. If the landlord had filled the vacancy and collected the rent separately (which seems to be the case) then Kacis assumption is not ignorant. How was it explained to her upon moving in?
I can definitely see how someone might get the incorrect idea that they only pay for a share of the house. Some college rentals will have lease agreements which are setup for multiple roommates and each roommate pays their share. It would be easy for a young adult to mistakenly assume that each person was only responsible for their share even if someone moved out. Of course, the lease states that the rent is the rent and whatever the roommates pay has to add up to that, but young adults can easily not realize that. Some full adults don’t realize that either.
How much longer is the lease? Having to come up with 2x the rent may be a bit of a struggle. It may be worth trying to work something out with her rather than her having to scramble to get some random person into the place. If your rental market is hot, it may be worth breaking the lease and allowing her to move out so you can raise the rent for the next tenant.
The place is a small 2 bedroom ranch style house. Jess and Kaci (remember they are friends, not strangers) moved in at the same time under the same rental contract.
I don’t think it would be up to me to find her a housemate. The place could be rented to a single person or a family as you are renting the house, not a single room. If Kaci does move out then it would be my responsibility to find a new renter.
Month to month lease.
Not necessarily. I rented a room from an absentee landlord and when 2 guys left, she told us we needed to make up the difference since she felt the renters should pay her mortgage. I said, but the lease is for a room not the house. She said, “Doesn’t matter.”
Well, there’s your problem right there. It comes from all those software EULAs & website signups; you don’t think people actually read what their signing, do you? it’s just a necessary box to click to use to use software/app/website/real life.
Silly, silly, OP.
When I was first presented with a rental contract at age 21, I read the whole thing through. It was about four pages long. The property manager was extremely annoyed. She kept insisting it was a “standard Virginia lease agreement” and there was nothing in there that either they or I could change. Apparently most people just look at the rent and deposit dollar amounts (if that) and then sign. This was back in the days when software was sold on diskettes or even on magnetic tape. And the shrink wrap really was shrink wrap.
But when I bought my first house, there were literally over 600 pages of documents and my signature required in dozens of places. There was no way anyone could read that. The closing took six hours because I kept asking the closing attorney (who I understand actually represented the bank in that state) what each form or document meant. He was very pleasant. The two realtors were not so happy. Thankfully the sellers did not attend. The six hours included a delay because the original mortgage document had the numbers wrong. The payment was calculated on a 15 year mortgage, but the payments were stated to continue for 30 years. Someone had to “generate new paper” and then drive it over.
For the next six purchases or sales we had our own attorney who reviewed all the documents in advance and we were done in an hour. He or she just said, sign here and here while giving a one or two sentence description of what we were signing. Also we got the documents a day or two in advance via email on the last two closings.
It spell checked to contact, should be contract.
This reminds me of my brother’s stepdaughter. I was on a visit home and met her at his house. She was probably early 20s at that point. She was carrying around a nice-looking SLR and I asked to look at it. I noted the Sears label, and commented on it. She said: “Yeah, they keep sending me letters saying I owe them $200, but I told them I don’t have that kind of money, so I’m not paying it.” 
Dang! 
Why didn’t I ever think of that!
Reminds of Life With Father.
One of my daughters works for a residential real estate company. They recently bought a building complex, which they knew to be in a state of neglect and disrepair. What they did not know was that at some point one of the tenants had informed his fellow tenants that he was in charge of the buildings and that all rent was to be paid to him, and many of them did so. So as best as the new owners could figure out from the books of the sellers, there were all sorts of people who were greatly in arrears, but those people believed themselves to be much less in arrears or possibly even paid up in full. It was a huge mess. (I’m not sure how it was resolved, if indeed it was.)