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Bryant Cheely
  • Property Manager
  • Baton Rouge, LA
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27
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College Roommate Switch Out

Bryant Cheely
  • Property Manager
  • Baton Rouge, LA
Posted Oct 23 2014, 12:00

Hello All, 

I was hoping to find some advice from landlords who may have faced similar problems. We manage many units, mostly in the LSU area of Baton Rouge, and they are all individually owned. As such, we only accept a single deposit for the unit and a single monthly payment. The tenants sign ONE lease in all of their names, and it is a shared liability. We also require parent/guardian guaranty forms from each of the college tenants. While the tenants each pay into the security deposit, we collect the check from one individual and it is returned to that person or their guardian.  We do not do individual leases (by room), roommate matching, or individual payments, as this amounts to 3x the workload (with most of our units being 3 BR). 

The problem we face are Roommate Switch Outs, either at the end of lease of mid-lease. Since we only collect the one deposit, typically the new roommate moving in would pay their portion of the SD directly to the old roommate moving out - unless the roommate moving out originally wrote the SD check, then we would have them sign a transfer of deposit form. The problem comes when the new roommate pays her portion to the old roommate (who may have spent years there), the old roommate typically receives her full portion of the deposit back, and then a year later when they all move out we perform and inspection and charge the deposit as needed. The new roommate then ends up paying for damage that may have been caused by the previous roommate, especially in the common areas - in the end, the newest roommate feels they are being over charged while the previous roommate go their entire deposit back. 

We do inspect the room between tenants and any work needed would be billed to the previous tenant, but it is hard to determine that in the common areas, especially when two people are still living there. 

If anyone has any advice that may help this situation short of signing individual leases or individual deposits, please share. This was a little hard to put into words, so if further information is required, please ask. 

Thanks, 

Bryant Cheely

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