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My roommate recently was arrested over a month ago and I am not sure when he will ever get out. Our lease will be running out in a little over a month. We have both signed the form to vacate on the specified move out date. I have been in contact with him while he is in jail but he has not made arrangements to pay this current months rent. He has also not found anyone yet to pick up his belongings as he doesn't know anyone else from Georgia. Since he has not paid rent, I went ahead and payed the full amount for the remainder of the lease.
What concerns me is that I have come to find out that he is currently a law student and has a laundry list of charges and arrests against him ranging in multiple states. Additionally, he has told me while in jail that he is filing notice of bankruptcy and will have a hard time paying any rent. He had strung me along for a month telling me that I should receive a check soon for rent before notifying me he was filing for bankruptcy. I had no knowledge of any of this before his arrest. Because of his arrest and not able to pay for rent, he wants me to move all of his belongings into his car so that someone can pick them up. I have found that he is a very manipulative person and is trying to hold me accountable for his possessions. Additionally, he mentioned that he is in possession of sensitive information on thousands of people from his supposed law firm he was working at prior (I am still unsure why he has this information after leaving). he said I could also be sanctioned in magistrate or superior court if anything happens to "his belongings". I know that I am not liable for his belongings and I feel that this falls under extortion as well.
I have notified him of the notice to vacate and have given him options to help find people to handle his belongings. I do not want to touch his belongings as he may come after me in another way in another time. I spoke to an attorney and he mentioned about going to the local police station and consulting with them on this matter or discussing with my leasing office on how to go about this. I also thought about writing up a written agreement for my roommate to sign that would state "because of the vacate notice and you are unable to find someone to move your belongs, I have to move your things because I had no choice". does anyone think that this is a good idea? I just don't want this person to come after me once all this has ended. was wondering if anyone had some advice in this matter?
This is interesting situation. Are both of your names on the lease with landlord? Did both of you give deposit to landlord? If the answer is yes to both of those questions, then inform the landlord that the roommate is unable to clear out his side of the apartment. Let landlord deal with it, likely landlord will hold his stuff for 30 days and once those 30 days expire he will dispose of them.
Thank you for the responses. Yes both of our names are under the lease until June 12th. he had signed on in mid January because my last roommate had to leave early. The problem is that my current roommate seems to be personally holding me accountable for his belongings and is threatening to sue me over them. I don't want to touch his belongings because he may come back after me for some reason. At this point, he has time to find someone to move his belongings but it may be hard as he says he doesn't know anyone else. This man has filed over 30 lawsuits against people and corporations and was declared a "vexatious litigant" from a Magistrate judge here because of all of his false lawsuits. I am concerned that this man may come after me once I vacate. My plan was to find a new place and move in the next few weeks. I will see about hiring an attorney to write up a document to send to the leasing office stating that I am not liable for his possessions. Any thoughts?
Unfortunately he can sue anyone under the sun, that do not mean he will win. Being he been declared "vexatious litigant", small court judge might just ignore his lawsuit unless they see merits to his case. With that being said,being both of your names are on the lease, you do not have duty of care. That now falls fully on the lease office. I would just send certify letter to the office at the end of your lease informing the leasing office that you removed all of your stuff as required under the terms of the lease and that any items that are left in the apartment do not belong to you but instead belong to the other person that is on the lease as well. The fact that he might or might not know anyone else in the city to take care of is stuff is not your problem.
You're screwed. Thank God you at least got him to sign saying that he too was leaving at the end of the lease.
If you don't deliver a clean, empty apartment to the LL, along with all the keys, he will file eviction against ALL the tenants, including those who left, and your obligation to pay rent continues, because you haven't returned the apartment. According to your lease, that might obligate you to ANOTHER YEAR of leasing that apartment!
He can sue you for having done anything with his possessions, whether you touched them or not, whether he gave you permission or not. So if it were me, I would be very nice to him, and move his things down to his car, and lock the key in the car, if possible. If you have anything in writing asking you to do that with his stuff, save it. Take pictures of everything in the car. Save that too. Of course, someone's going to eventually call to have the car towed - the city, if it's on the street, or the LL, if it's in the private lot of the apartment, but that's not your problem. Then make another copy of the key to the apartment, and hand the LL back two sets of keys, and a clean, empty apartment. Get a PO box, and give the LL the PO box address for the return of the security deposit. After that's done, get rid of the PO box, in case the jailbird asks the LL for your contact address.
Don't give the jailbird your contact info. Change your phone number. Try to make yourself unreachable. Hope he doesn't get out of jail for a long time.
You're screwed. Thank God you at least got him to sign saying that he too was leaving at the end of the lease.
If you don't deliver a clean, empty apartment to the LL, along with all the keys, he will file eviction against ALL the tenants, including those who left, and your obligation to pay rent continues, because you haven't returned the apartment. According to your lease, that might obligate you to ANOTHER YEAR of leasing that apartment!
He can sue you for having done anything with his possessions, whether you touched them or not, whether he gave you permission or not. So if it were me, I would be very nice to him, and move his things down to his car, and lock the key in the car, if possible. If you have anything in writing asking you to do that with his stuff, save it. Take pictures of everything in the car. Save that too. Of course, someone's going to eventually call to have the car towed - the city, if it's on the street, or the LL, if it's in the private lot of the apartment, but that's not your problem. Then make another copy of the key to the apartment, and hand the LL back two sets of keys, and a clean, empty apartment. Get a PO box, and give the LL the PO box address for the return of the security deposit. After that's done, get rid of the PO box, in case the jailbird asks the LL for your contact address.
Don't give the jailbird your contact info. Change your phone number. Try to make yourself unreachable. Hope he doesn't get out of jail for a long time.
I am scratching my head trying to understand how you think leaving items in the apartment constitute not vacating an apartment which landlord can sue for breach of lease? Landlord legally can deduct cleaning the apartment and removing the items from security deposit. The only reason landlord can sue is if the damage to the apartment is above the security deposit. What landlord will do is store his roommate items for 30 days or whatever the amount is prescribed by law in his state and if the items are not picked up during that time, they will be disposed off as seen fit by the landlord which can include destroying all of the items.
Yes his roommate can sue him for anything he wants, but the lawsuit is not going to go anywhere. The only possible lawsuit he could even file is theft of property and that would mean he would need to provide preponderance of the evidence that his roommate stole something from him which he can't being he is currently in jail.
Your roommate seems like a pretty stupid guy, threatening all sorts of things. He is demanding that you move his belongings and he isn't current on his rent? If he ever sued you, you could counter sue for his portion of the rent.
The problem is with the landlord if you abandon his belongings in the property, not with your roommate. If you can move his things to his car and it's not significantly harder than dumping his junk in a dumpster, then you can do that.
Do not worry about the squawking of this pissant. He seems like a loser who has no idea how the legal system works. If he did, he wouldn't be in jail.
I despise this mean freeloader mentality. There are some people who so easily slip like slime from lie to lie, excuse to excuse, payoff to payoff from people who are scared or just want to get the creep out of their lives.
What kind of stuff does he have? Anything any good? It may be he is hoping it will be stolen from his car and he can sue you....or try...for his valuable possessions, only valuable in his scarey mind.
It may be if you tell him you are not able to remove his items and that you cannot be responsible for other people's items, he will find someone else afterall.
It would be good if you quoted to him from an atty, law officer, landlord. Rather than all or any of the reasons from you.
Even though this roommate in jail is lawsuit happy, there are still expenses and time and anxiety in defending yourself if he takes you to court or even before court. He'll likely say you are responsible for some valuable item or important paper. You might consider having the landlord or a friend come in the apt who can then back up that everything was junk or that there was way too much stuff etc. Take a video. Legal situations, even simple ones, can be smoother with a witness.
-Never ever think to touch his stuff or moving them to his car. -Never touch or open his car. -Follow the attorney's advice if you are confused or worried about whatever threatening. -In the very difficult situation, that you have to leave, you have to inform the landlord about your roommate's condition & his stuff, and let him (landlord) deal with it according to the permissions he has within the law. Even moving his stuff to his car; leave it to the landlord to take the permission from your roommate and moving them accordingly. The most important thing is never think to touch them or open his car. It's not your business.
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I could have given another answer if your roommate were someone you know well and %100 trusted and didn't show this way of speaking. Since, from the beginning, he spoke about suing and threatening with it, you need to be cautious and don't do something that non of your business.
Good luck
Last edited by Authentic Bird; 05-04-2019 at 09:34 AM..
Reason: statement structure
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