It’s inevitable. Your college kid calls to announce his or her intent to move off campus. Here’s the part where I cringe: They have it all figured out.

What all figured out means is that they’ve chosen the other kid or kids they want to live with. Maybe they’ve seen a cute or apartment house they like, or an area where they want to look.

That’s it. If they’re really advanced, they’ve done some math and figured out what each kid would pay, and how much money will be left over for beer.

The idea for this blog post walked into my classroom the other week, in the form of one of my students. She was very upset, and equally haughty. “Can you help me deal with my rip-off landlord? He’s totally screwing me over. I can’t believe he can get away with this. Are there any lawyers who help students?”

Always feeling protective of my students, I said I’d help, not to worry. She relaxed, calming down enough to tell me the problem. “This girl, my roommate, who is my friend, which makes it totally awkward, isn’t paying her share of the rent. My landlord keeps calling me and threatening me. He hasn’t even called her, and it’s making it like it’s my fault. I’m paying my share.”

A few minor question later I find out that: a) The lease is in my student’s name only; b) She hasn’t even confronted her friend/roommate once; and c) There is no subletting allowed on the lease.

“What do you mean, your landlord? This all your responsibility. He has nothing to do with this problem, and actually you’re lucky he doesn’t kick you out because you lied about who would be living there. You’re delinquent on your rent, and blaming him.”

Let’s just say that sometimes my students are not fond of me. Her face screamed betrayal. And so what has followed are these 3 lessons on leases and responsibility, which I emailed to my student:

1. Try not to be the sole person on a lease if you are sharing an apartment or house, and sharing the rent. It puts your budding credit at great risk. If you are the sole person named in a lease, and the only one who signs it, you are legally solely responsible for paying. It is not the landlord’s responsibility to hunt down roommates. It is yours. So you become the apartment manager, in a way, if you sign a lease alone. Be prepared to confront your friends if they don’t pay. And if they never pay, be prepared to pay for them or ruin your credit

If it’s unavoidable: Say you rented the apartment first, or your friend and his or her parents have terrible credit, so the landlord won’t accept them as co-signers. In these cases, get something in writing from your roommates stating that they are legally responsible for their share of the rent. Make their parents sign it. Blame your parents if you dread the confrontation. Say your parents co-signed the lease for you and won’t allow roommates without a notarized, signed statement.

2. Be up front with the landlord about who will be living on the property. Landlords have a lot of rights if you are not up front about this. In the same vein, try to get a lease with rights to sublet, in case one of your roommates needs to transfer to another university, or someone’s plans otherwise change.

3. Make sure it is in the lease that the landlord is responsible for repairs. This is one area where students are often taken advantage of. Many times landlords don’t take very good care of student rental properties. Make sure you know your rights. If the paint is peeling, the landlord has to paint. If the toilet is constantly clogging, the landlord has to fix it. Make sure you inspect the property and make noteof anything in disrepair before you sign the lease. Write down that disrepair on the lease with your initials and only sign the lease if the disrepairs are included on the lease as pre-existing conditions.

If the landlord makes noises about this, and says you can forget it, don’t back off. Call any local real estate agency that rents places, ask them about the pre-existing condition lease law, and they’ll tell you what your landlord is responsible for. Then go back to the landlord and explain what is legally your right. If the landlord doesn’t comply, you can file a complaint with police,and that landlord can be prevented from leasing property. Do not be intimidated.

Please share any off campus rental stores—good tips, or nightmares to avoid.

To keep updated on new posts, you can also subscribe to our RSS feed, on Facebook and on your Twitter page. Just add us.