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Help with disability and tenants rights to get off out of my lease

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M

mobbdeep

Junior Member
State: Texas

Yes, another thread in regards to tenant rights but this time it's for myself, not a friend. I apologize in advance for the extensive post but I want to make sure I don't miss any details.

My current roommate can't afford her part of rent due to getting into spiraling debt. We discussed finding a replacement for her which I found my girlfriend that my current roommate and I agreed on. I then decided to talk to my landlord about everything and he said he can make it work, send over my girlfriend's SSN for background check and proof of income. Cool, I'm on it. Before I could send the information over, he added my current roommate and I into a group chat and said he'd rather send an email for paper trail and ensure we're both on the same page. Understandable. Keep in mind, our lease ends October 31st, 2024.

Last night, my current roommate and I got an email from our landlord and it was not anything him and I discussed over the phone originally. I can tell the email was a copy and paste from his realtor/broker. Anyway, I called him to go over his email and his options are as followed:

  1. If my current roommate and I wanted to terminate our lease early, he would relist the house through his realtor on the market making it available for new tenants to apply and sign a new term. A padlock would be placed on our door and a 1 hour notice for showing would be in place where the house would have to be presentable for them to show to others. In the duration of it being on the market, we'd still be required to pay rent until they find a new tenant. Once a new tenant is found, our lease would be terminated and we'd get our security deposit back as long as the house is clean. However, no proper timeline of when we would have to vacate once they find a new tenant was discussed.
  2. If my girlfriend wanted to live there with me, we would have to reapply as brand new tenants for whatever the new cost of rent is once it's relisted, and it would have to go through a new tenant rental process for us to be candidates.. which means it would be a gamble that we'd remain tenants or not as my landlord said it's up to him on who he decides to rent to. At the end of the day, that's an opportunity for people who are more qualified to be selected and willing to pay the increase (if he decide to increase rent). I would then be on short notice of finding a new place to live which I don't have ~$4,000 to just move at this time.
  3. We do nothing and my roommate and I continue the lease until October 31st. However, I asked if I could add my girlfriend to the lease to make 3 of us on it, he said no. I asked if she could stay there and not be added to the lease. He said no, she'd be considered a guest which per lease, guests can't be there more than 2 weeks at a time. This also runs the ability for my current roommate to move out whenever she wants forcing me to be fully responsible for rent.
Mind you, there's no question here about the legalities of those 3 options as I know he's within his rights because in the replacement clause, it says "at landlords discretion" which his discretion is "no." On June 27th, my current roommate decided to call our landlord and tell him she's going to be late on her half of the rent. They reached an agreement where she'd have to pay it plus a $100 late fee as she said it was going to be paid ~8 days late. All of a sudden, she was able to get a loan 15 minutes later and was able to pay her part of the rent on time. However, after talking to the landlord over the phone initially about replacing her, he mentioned that she told him the reason why she'd be late was because we both got laid off and had to find new jobs, which was not true. When he questioned me about that, I told him that I was not laid off but am on workers comp due to a work related injury but I have had no issues continuing to pay my portion of the rent since I was put on it in January and allowing my girlfriend to take over my irresponsible roommates place would still guarantee the remaining lease duration to be fulfilled at minimum with no issues. While I do understand that he's now weary of our financial situations and trying to cover himself, I feel like this decision of not allowing the replacement was made after we talked on the phone and he presumably told his realtor/broker our situation who then agreed that they'd take advantage of this opportunity in us taking open #1 so that they can relist our place at a higher rate and find more qualified tenants as my short-term disability plus my girlfriends full time job would not meet the 3X monthly rent income requirement.

After discussing these options with my current roommate, she's began to make it even more difficult by not allowing us to agree on option #1 because she cannot afford to find a new place plus pay rent on June 1st, therefore, I cannot make that decision either. However, she has mentioned that once she can afford to move out (possibly by July), I'm afraid the landlord will not honor option #1 which would leave me as the sole responsible person because she can technically leave as I'm also a co-tenant on the lease. Yes, I agreed and understood all of this when signing the lease. However, nobody can predict these kinds of outcomes but here we are.

With all of that being said, since I was clinically diagnosed with PTSD and unable to return to work at this time, do I have any tenant rights to FHA Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications, or, anything else within my rights and disability diagnosis? If not, I fully understand and will continue figuring out an alternative avenue.

Thanks!

Link to replacement clause:
https://imgur.com/tDnxxGD
 


quincy

quincy

Senior Member
mobbdeep said:
State: Texas

Yes, another thread in regards to tenant rights but this time it's for myself, not a friend. I apologize in advance for the extensive post but I want to make sure I don't miss any details.

My current roommate can't afford her part of rent due to getting into spiraling debt. We discussed finding a replacement for her which I found my girlfriend that my current roommate and I agreed on. I then decided to talk to my landlord about everything and he said he can make it work, send over my girlfriend's SSN for background check and proof of income. Cool, I'm on it. Before I could send the information over, he added my current roommate and I into a group chat and said he'd rather send an email for paper trail and ensure we're both on the same page. Understandable. Keep in mind, our lease ends October 31st, 2024.

Last night, my current roommate and I got an email from our landlord and it was not anything him and I discussed over the phone originally. I can tell the email was a copy and paste from his realtor/broker. Anyway, I called him to go over his email and his options are as followed:

  1. If my current roommate and I wanted to terminate our lease early, he would relist the house through his realtor on the market making it available for new tenants to apply and sign a new term. A padlock would be placed on our door and a 1 hour notice for showing would be in place where the house would have to be presentable for them to show to others. In the duration of it being on the market, we'd still be required to pay rent until they find a new tenant. Once a new tenant is found, our lease would be terminated and we'd get our security deposit back as long as the house is clean. However, no proper timeline of when we would have to vacate once they find a new tenant was discussed.
  2. If my girlfriend wanted to live there with me, we would have to reapply as brand new tenants for whatever the new cost of rent is once it's relisted, and it would have to go through a new tenant rental process for us to be candidates.. which means it would be a gamble that we'd remain tenants or not as my landlord said it's up to him on who he decides to rent to. At the end of the day, that's an opportunity for people who are more qualified to be selected and willing to pay the increase (if he decide to increase rent). I would then be on short notice of finding a new place to live which I don't have ~$4,000 to just move at this time.
  3. We do nothing and my roommate and I continue the lease until October 31st. However, I asked if I could add my girlfriend to the lease to make 3 of us on it, he said no. I asked if she could stay there and not be added to the lease. He said no, she'd be considered a guest which per lease, guests can't be there more than 2 weeks at a time. This also runs the ability for my current roommate to move out whenever she wants forcing me to be fully responsible for rent.
Mind you, there's no question here about the legalities of those 3 options as I know he's within his rights because in the replacement clause, it says "at landlords discretion" which his discretion is "no." On June 27th, my current roommate decided to call our landlord and tell him she's going to be late on her half of the rent. They reached an agreement where she'd have to pay it plus a $100 late fee as she said it was going to be paid ~8 days late. All of a sudden, she was able to get a loan 15 minutes later and was able to pay her part of the rent on time. However, after talking to the landlord over the phone initially about replacing her, he mentioned that she told him the reason why she'd be late was because we both got laid off and had to find new jobs, which was not true. When he questioned me about that, I told him that I was not laid off but am on workers comp due to a work related injury but I have had no issues continuing to pay my portion of the rent since I was put on it in January and allowing my girlfriend to take over my irresponsible roommates place would still guarantee the remaining lease duration to be fulfilled at minimum with no issues. While I do understand that he's now weary of our financial situations and trying to cover himself, I feel like this decision of not allowing the replacement was made after we talked on the phone and he presumably told his realtor/broker our situation who then agreed that they'd take advantage of this opportunity in us taking open #1 so that they can relist our place at a higher rate and find more qualified tenants as my short-term disability plus my girlfriends full time job would not meet the 3X monthly rent income requirement.

After discussing these options with my current roommate, she's began to make it even more difficult by not allowing us to agree on option #1 because she cannot afford to find a new place plus pay rent on June 1st, therefore, I cannot make that decision either. However, she has mentioned that once she can afford to move out (possibly by July), I'm afraid the landlord will not honor option #1 which would leave me as the sole responsible person because she can technically leave as I'm also a co-tenant on the lease. Yes, I agreed and understood all of this when signing the lease. However, nobody can predict these kinds of outcomes but here we are.

With all of that being said, since I was clinically diagnosed with PTSD and unable to return to work at this time, do I have any tenant rights to FHA Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications, or, anything else within my rights and disability diagnosis? If not, I fully understand and will continue figuring out an alternative avenue.

Thanks!

Link to replacement clause:
https://imgur.com/tDnxxGD
Click to expand...
Are you joint tenants (co-tenants) with your current roommate, where you are responsible for the full rent if your roommate is unable to pay?

Although I haven’t yet researched this at all for Texas and your specific situation, my feeling is that you would be smart to start looking now for a new rental because I don’t think you will have a place to stay when your current lease expires.
 
Last edited:
M

mobbdeep

Junior Member
quincy said:
Are you joint tenants with your current roommate, where you are responsible for the full rent if your roommate is unable to pay?

Although I haven’t yet researched this at all for Texas and your specific situation, my feeling is that you would be smart to start looking now for a new rental because I don’t think you will have a place to stay when your current lease expires.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. How would I figure out if I am. We both signed the lease so I assumed it's either of our responsibility if anything happened.

Also, I am looking elsewhere. I don't care at this point what happens after October 31st. I am not wanting any part of the current lease at this point and want to know if I have any rights to getting off of it with my condition. This has only been making things worse for me.
 
quincy

quincy

Senior Member
mobbdeep said:
I'm not sure. How would I figure out if I am. We both signed the lease so I assumed it's either of our responsibility if anything happened.

Also, I am looking elsewhere. I don't care at this point what happens after October 31st. I am not wanting any part of the current lease at this point and want to know if I have any rights to getting off of it with my condition. This has only been making things worse for me.
Click to expand...
Do you have a single lease listing both of you as tenants?

I don’t know if you can terminate your lease without penalty. I tend to doubt it. I’ll take some time tonight to look over Texas landlord/tenant law - or maybe someone else will come along with links to the laws that apply.
 
M

mobbdeep

Junior Member
quincy said:
Do you have a single lease listing both of you as tenants?

I don’t know if you can terminate your lease without penalty. I tend to doubt it. I’ll take some time tonight to look over Texas landlord/tenant law - or maybe someone else will come along with links to the laws that apply.
Click to expand...

Yes, single lease with both of us. This all started when she offered to be replaced. I did. Now the landlord turned that down but gave us alternatives. Great. I've exhausted all options with her for us to both get out at the same time, penalty free like he offered, and she's refusing because she has nowhere else to go. I have a place to go for the time being... so I'm screwed in the meantime because it'll only be a matter of time that she decides she can afford to move and then I'm SOL.
 
quincy

quincy

Senior Member
mobbdeep said:
Yes, single lease with both of us. This all started when she offered to be replaced. I did. Now the landlord turned that down but gave us alternatives. Great. I've exhausted all options with her for us to both get out at the same time, penalty free like he offered, and she's refusing because she has nowhere else to go. I have a place to go for the time being... so I'm screwed in the meantime because it'll only be a matter of time that she decides she can afford to move and then I'm SOL.
Click to expand...
First, I don’t see that the information from FHA that you linked to will help you.

Here is a link to Texas Law Help with information on rent and roommates:

https://texaslawhelp.org/article/roommates#:~:text=On the same lease (co,rent due and on time.

I guess you can hope that your current roommate finds a new job soon or, at least, manages to somehow continue to pay rent, even at the last minute as she did this time.
 
M

mobbdeep

Junior Member
quincy said:
First, I don’t see that the information from FHA that you linked to will help you.

Here is a link to Texas Law Help with information on rent and roommates:

https://texaslawhelp.org/article/roommates#:~:text=On the same lease (co,rent due and on time.

I guess you can hope that your current roommate finds a new job soon or, at least, manages to somehow continue to pay rent, even at the last minute as she did this time.
Click to expand...

That's what it seems like it'll have to be. I just got off the phone with my landlord after talking in circles for an hour and he's persistent as to not replacing her and only giving us those 3 options. It sucks because he's in his rights to deny a replacement, but his offer doesn't help much if my roommate is denying all options given except the ability to screw me over when she finally has money to move out.
 
quincy

quincy

Senior Member
mobbdeep said:
That's what it seems like it'll have to be. I just got off the phone with my landlord after talking in circles for an hour and he's persistent as to not replacing her and only giving us those 3 options. It sucks because he's in his rights to deny a replacement, but his offer doesn't help much if my roommate is denying all options given except the ability to screw me over when she finally has money to move out.
Click to expand...
Your roommate is not only “screwing” you over. She also appears to be screwing herself if she cannot pay her rent on time.

Unfortunately, your roommate’s lay-off was probably outside her ability to control, much like your workplace injury was unexpected. Although it is always smart to have money set aside for these unexpected events, this is not always a realistic option for many.
 
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