Well, who will be left holding the bag if he doesn’t sign? Is he prepared to let his daughter just sink or swim, if the roommates turn out unsatisfactory? I guess is what it comes down to. If I got into some kind of financial difficulty, even now, I know my parents would be there to help me, but not everyone has the same relationship with their children. (Not saying that’s bad, by the way–just different.)
And the alternative would be?
This is a damned if you do / damned if you don’t
Have you met the other parents? I would assume they will be cosigning as well. If you elect not to cosign, then your daughter does not move in. Are you ready for that fallout?
I cosigned one for my son at his first apartment near Illinois State. We were already proving the funding anyway so I didn’t make a big deal of it. After that first time, he never needed the cosigner signature again.
Can you get written cross-contracts with the other roommates & their parents that explains what happens in the event of a default or breach of the lease? If you are left holding someone else’s bag under the lease, then you will have an express contractual remedy and/or indemnity claim against the others.
I just Googled “Roommate Contract” and found some samples you can modify to suit your needs.
That can’t be right. You have to earn 40K A MONTH to rent a 1K a month apartment? Are you maybe referring to your annual income vs your monthly rent?
No, you’re right: your annual income is supposed to be 40x your monthly rent.
So, if your apartment is $2500 a month, they expect you to earn 100 grand. Obviously, some landlords are stricter about this than others.
If she can’t get the apartment without a cosigner and you don’t cosign, I assume this means she will have to stay in the dorms another year? That’s a pretty serious consequence for her (especially if it’s a school where the dorms are overwhelmingly underclassmen) because of what will look to her like an unwillingness to assume a fairly low risk on your part. Doesn’t mean you have to do it, but understand why she will be so upset if she doesn’t. If she has no credit history (like a good kid!), it’s very likely they are inflexible on this.
If you do decide on the cosign, one thing to do is insist that they all go down adn sign the lease together, in a pack, so that there is no question of one of the other two flaking out before they ever get around to signing because deep down inside they weren’t that serious.
Think of it this way: you want to help her mature, and you have an opportunity to do so when she comes this weekend .
so let’s suppose the other “friends” do $15,000 damage (I dunno, a burst water bed?) and skip out on your daughter.
option 1-you don’t cosign:
explain to her that since you didn’t cosign, she gets the “maturing experience” of $150000 debt/bankruptcy.
Results , from a parental point of view: She probably is too clueless to understand what you are talking about— so no maturity gained this weekend.
option 2–you do cosign
: explain to her that since you did cosign, so she gets the “maturing experience” of debt/bankruptcy, and having to explain it to Mom and Dad.
Results, from a parental point of view: the kid will listen to you!
Maturity ensues…
Cosigners were required for my first several leases. My parents had put sufficient fear of God in me that I knew if something went wrong I would ultimately be on the hook for it anyway. Nothing ever went wrong.
If you have a genuine concern that the roommates will flake, cosign for your daughter to get an efficiency/one-bedroom apartment. Sure, it will be more expensive, but that’s the price you pay to manage risk. The side contracts might also be OK, if you don’t mind coming across as the heavy to the other parents.
If you are just being a hard-@ss lawyer who doesn’t think you should have to sign, I say suck it up and sign. Do you really like the other options better, like your daughter selecting her apartment based on whoever doesn’t require a cosigner, or having her give the landlord a huge deposit? Back in the day, they were looking for something like $5000 for an efficiency with no cosigner.
Even if he doesn’t co-sign, he has the option to help his daughter out of a bad roommate situation if it arises. By co-signing, it legally obligates him to pay not just for her, but for her roommates. Having the option is better, strategically. Refusing to sign does not mean a refusal to help his child if she is in need.
My parents have helped me when I was in a bad financial situation, but they would never have signed a legal agreement to promise someone they would do it.
What FilmGeek said. When I got my first apartment the only things on my credit history were my current checking account and the gajillion dollars I already owed the Department of Education for my schooling. Nobody would even talk to me without a cosigner, roommates or no roommates.
What’s the thing that’s like co-signing, only the person signing can’t be gone after until the landlord exhausts every possible remedy against the primary? My parents did that for me on an apartment once but I can’t remember the specific legal term. I’m pretty sure my landlord didn’t know the difference but it put a layer of protection between the landlord and my parents.
Yes, sorry, that referred to my annual income.
Lease looks like something we can work with, tho will require discussions with the landlord. Will give more details later.
Perhaps our biggest objection to the whole process was that our kid didn’t realize the significance of having us involved in her contractual obligations, and that she kinda assumed we would instead of asking. But, like I said, I think we’ll be able to work with the whole situation. Looks like a nice place, with nice roommates.
Don’t sign it.
When I was in college one of my roommates went and told her sob story to the landlord and the landlord unilaterally decided to just let her out of the lease. Just told her to take off and don’t worry about paying the rent anymore. When we complained to them, all we got was “sucks to be you.” Our only recourse was to track her down when the lease was over and take her to court. Not an easy proposition considered she’d already left school and gone to who knows where.
The landlord doesn’t care who gets screwed as long as they get their money. That’s the bottom line.
Yeah, I’m still bitter. :mad:
I’m no contract lawyer, so i might be wrong about this, but…
When roommates sign a lease together, doesn’t the lease constitute a contract not only between the roommates and the landlord, but also between the roommates?
That is, if one person wants off the lease, wouldn’t the lease have to be terminated, and a new one signed? I didn’t think a landlord would be able to unilaterally drop one party from the lease without the consent of the other party.
Yes. That’s where “Our only recourse was to track her down when the lease was over and take her to court. Not an easy proposition considered she’d already left school and gone to who knows where” comes in.
Well that’s the kicker. “Jointly and severally liable” also gives them the right to go after whomever they want. In our case, they chose to just let her off the hook and only hold my roommate and I responsible. Now we were free to sue HER for violation of the lease independently, but that would cause ANOTHER huge set of complications.
Not the least of which being that at that point as we had no idea where she was. Also, that we had to actually be “damaged” before we could SUE for damages. Which meant we either had to pay her part of the rent (with money we didn’t have) or just intentionally let the lease fall in arrears and go to collections. Eventually my roommate’s parents paid the balance since he wanted to renew his lease the following year and they wouldn’t let him unless we were paid up, but that’s another thread. :rolleyes:
My point is that if Dinsdale co-signs, there is nothing keeping the landlord (from my experience) from coming to her and asking for the entire rent. Not just her daughter’s portion. The WHOLE THING. Sure she can sue to get her money back but that involves court cases, time, money, collections agents, etc.
I don’t know what the apartment market is where the daughter is renting, but in a lot of areas, parental guarantees are the market. I know that many of the properties that our company has bought in college town, we don’t rent without some sort of guarantee unless the students collectively qualify at 3X monthly income. Never had a problem leasing the units up.
As far as the joint and several liability, you should be as careful about the people with whom she chooses to live as you are about the guarantee. How well do you know the friends?
See post #3, and post #34.
This was my first thought. After having moved to New York, the prospect of not having somebody co-sign the lease is totally foreign to me. I’m surprised that it’s even an issue.
I do remember, however, that the house I lived in at college didn’t require my parents to co-sign.