IANAL, and I don’t know what the laws are in your state, but in general- he can’t do this. Since all 3 names are on the lease, he normally must accept a check for 1/3 from each one of you. And then only evict the one that doesn’t pay. Do that next time. Well, first consult a good book or lawyer about Tenants rights in *your area. *
Unless you date a check in the future (and even then it’s hazy)- then yes- no matter what you say orally, the check is assumed to be good when he gets it. About “postdated checks”- you’d need to consult a lawyer or look it up.
In other words- check out the law. Then assuming I am right- next time write the check only for 1/3 the rent. Have each roomie do the same. Then you won’t be stuck with anything but your share. Explain to the landlord why you are doing this- unless he is paying you as an “assitant manager” to collect the rent or something. Becuase that’s what he is doing- so that it is easier on him, he is making you do part of his work. And for that- you have to pay! :mad: :eek:
I would talk to your landlord about the “just one check” thing. That doesn’t seem like he can legally require that. Is it stated in your lease? I don’t know if that matters or not, but if it isn’t, it seems that you should definately be able to pay however you see fit. After all, money is money.
Second off, when I had a similar problem, I would just have the landlord take the missing money out of the deposit. Then it became the delinquent roomies job to reimburse if he wanted his full (or mostly full) deposit back.
I have tried the late fee thing. It is iffy at best. It is really hard to enforce.
Wouldn’t it be better to write a check for the 2/3 that you do have now and get the rest to him as soon as you can? At least that way you’re not doing any illegal and you’re not going to have a $25 bounce fee. Your landlord might grumble, but at least you’ll be getting most of his money to him on time.
A couple of people have inmplied in their posts that bouncing checks will adversely affect your credit rating. Strictly speaking, this is not true. Tons of caveats here, bear with me:
Credit reports contain no information about your bank accounts. Your bank accounts are not credit. Banks do not report bounced checks or insufficient funds to credit bureaus.
Banks (almost all of them, there are apparently a few exceptions) instead subscribe to something called ChexSystems, a third party organization which provides information to financial inststutions about individuals who have had accounts closed due to “cause” (i.e. overdrafts, etc.). ChexSystems can mess your financial situation up BIG TIME, but it has nothing to do with your credit history.
Of course, if a check you wrote to your credit card company (for example) bounces and is not covered by the bank, this will adversely affect your credit history. Not because your check bounced, per se, but because the company didn’t receive its payment on time. Get it? You can bounce a thousand checks, but as long as the bank pays on those checks, this information will never find its way onto a credit report. (Your bank will get real mad, though.)
If you screw around with your landlord long enough, he may evict you and obtain judgment against you for back rent owed him. This sort of information will definitely mess up your credit history.
Cite? Unless there’s something very unusual about how the lease is written, or some fairly bizarre local law, your statement about who the landlord can and cannot evict is not true. Generally, the tenants’ obligation to pay rent is joint - all are responsible for the full amount of the rent. And that makes sense. Under your scenario, what happens after the third tenant is evicted? Is the landlord stuck with only 2/3 of the rent for the rest of the lease? Can he rent the evicted tenant’s bedroom to a stranger?
Good point about laws varying between states, though, and obviously I agree about consulting local advice. I also agree that, absent a contrary lease provision, he must accept 3 separate checks, as long as the full amount is paid. (There’s a nuance that may give the landlord a leg to stand on if the 3 checks arrive separately. Sometimes accepting a part rent payment resets an eviction clock.)
It’s not hazy. Although you’ll never see me tell anyone on this board not to consult a lawyer, assuming that the OP decides not to do so, there’s no need to look up the governing statutes. I’ve gone though the analysis at least twice before in other threads, once as recently as last week. Both times I quoted the applicable text. See my link above.
As I’ve said, each tenant is probably jointly responsible for the whole amount of the rent. But although IAAL, I’m not the OP’s lawyer, I haven’t read the lease, and unless the OP is from Illinois, I’m not licensed in his state. This is general information and not meant to be reliable legal advice. See a lawyer licensed in your state for that.
Ditto everything Random said. If there are three of you on the lease, and your bad roomie flakes out, the landlord can go after the remaining two of you, or either one of you, for the full month’s rent. The landlord is under no obligation to go chasing down the bad roommate for his “share” of the rent, because what constitutes a share of the rent is an agreement between you and your roommates, NOT the roommates and the landlord. The only agreement here is that all or any of the three of you will pay the full rent on-time.
There was some discussion about making the bad roommate pay rent in advance, or pay a bit of rent each week. My advice is not to bother with it. That roommate has already shown that he is too irresponsible to pay rent on time once a month, why would you want to try to bother collecting money from him when it is NOT due? Why would this guy change his behavior simply because you think you’re offering him a better deal on paying his rent? It is absolutely time for him to go. He is already responsible for you floating two checks. How much more do you need before you give the guy the boot?
And, on the bounced check fees, I’m afraid you’re on the hook. If the bad roomie were a nice guy he’d pay for it, but its pretty clear he is irresponsible.
Glad the situation seems to be working out for you this time.
Don’t fall in the trap of being The Responsible Roommate. After college, my former roommate had a new roommate, still in college. He eventually degenerated to treating her like almost a parent figure, actually expecting her to buy the groceries!!!
Well, I have been at several rental arbitration hearings. At such, things can be different than what the Law says. There can certainly be problems if the one roomie doesn’t pay up. The Landlord (well, again,* this* tenant is in NYC and they have *very *strange laws) can often- legally- evict all three if only 2/3rd of the rent id forthcoming. However, as you said- it gets harder & fuzzier if he does accept some significant portion of the rent. Not only does it often “rest the clock” but having part a large % of the rent is a good gesture on your part if it ever gets to court or arbitration.
As to late fees and bounced checks- in one case the ALJ held for the Tenant as the tenant had both told the landlord the check wasn’t good until the 7th, and had writen down that date on the check. True, the ALJ did warn the tenant not to rely on postdated checks and "oral contracts’. If you hand someone a check, tell them “it’s not good until the date on it” and you both agree and shake hands- then that changes things into “hazy” doesn’t it?
However, we both agree on one thing. If the 3 tenants each hand the LL a check for 1/3- the LL doesn’t have a leg to stand on (again, laws in NYC are strange, and the lease may be non-standard). I agree that he might be a legit problem if they hand him 3 checks, each a week apart.
I agree that you’re on the hook for the fees for bouncing a check. No if and’s or but’s about it. About the only way I can see to protect yourself in the future is to make your worthless roommate write his check to the landlord instead of you. I’d get the money you and the good roommate owe and hand it to the landlord in cash, and let the other guy write the LL a check for his share, that way he’s on the spot if it’s bad. I don’t think your landlord can refuse payment like that. You’re giving him the money, and since all three of your names are on the list, then I’m fairly certain he’d have to take it. But I do reccomend that you and the good roommate pay in cash, so that he can’t complain about having to deposite 3 checks.
fusoya, your delinquent roomie isn’t the only one that needs an attitude adjustment. Your attitude towards your landlord stinks. Your landlord is running a business, not a daycare. You signed an agreement that a certain amount of money was due on a certain date. Your landlord’s insistence that you keep up your end of the bargain does not make him inhuman or a bad person; he has no obligation to you or your roommate whatsoever to accommodate you. If he does so, he does so out of the goodness of his heart, not because you deserve it or are entitled to it.
As for the ten days to eviction, that’s generous. I bounced a cheque for rent once by accident, and the eviction notice was on my door the next day. You sound pretty young, so I just want to give you a little bit of perspective on how the world works. Your landlord isn’t the bad guy here.
Give the Bad Roommate a stern talking-to, and have Good Roommate back you up on the following ultimatum:
Bad Roommate will immediately write you one check, dated for each month you have remaining on the lease. The checks will be payable to you. Good Roommate will hold the checks. Every month, when Good Roommate hands you his check on time, he will also hand you Bad Roommate’s check. It’s easier for Bad Roommate, doesn’t ruin your credit, and makes Bad Roommate responsible if he bounces a check. I don’t see how anyone can object – you say “Bad Roommate, you’ve had problems getting me your check on time, and it’s costing me money and hurting my credit rating. I’m not going to allow that anymore. You can agree to this plan, which helps us all stay out of trouble, or you can pack up your shit starting now.”
If your bank charges a fee for depositing a bad check, then you should also collect a cash deposit (which you will seal in an envelope and deliver to Good Roommate for safekeeping) in the amount of that fee. This way if Bad Roommate tries to “stick you” by not keeping enough in his account, you keep the cash and he’s shafted.
I honestly can’t think of any downside other than Bad Roommate deciding to close the account and having you deposit a completely worthless check without informing you. But even then you’d have more legal recourse than you do now. The problem is not money, it’s tardiness with money; so fix the tardiness problem.
In CA we have a “3 day notice to quit or pay rent”. Sometimes called a “three day notice”.
But I will point out that I have also worked with the sort of Landlords featherlou talks about. They end up with the worst types of tenants and embittered. Then often out of business. A Good landlord realizes it* is* a business and wants to keep good tenants, as vacancies and bad tenants cost a lot of money.
Jurph- the checks will just be no good, then our OP’s check will bounce.
Nope, here in Calgary, you bounce your rent cheque, your landlord bounces you. I don’t know how long you have to get out (they rescinded my notice when we found out that my rent cheque bounced due to someone stealing my bank account).
