Specialist · Portland, OR · Member since 2010 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Have a SF rented to a lady with 2 roommates and her large dog. I have a $1,000 security deposit and last months rent of $1,000.
She wrote me a note saying she is leaving in October for the east coast and wants off the lease but will leave the big dog with the other tenants. She will return in April and readdress the dog and deposit at that time.
She is willing to leave her deposit behind and another tenant is willing to take on the lease.
It is such an odd situation. Her and her roommates have been great long-term tenants.
Things seem more complicated these days, what is going on?
Roommate situations get like this, because "life happens". People find a significant other and move in with that person. They find jobs elsewhere, or get transferred in the existing job, and move to that new location. I have one rental that has had roommates for the past 11 years; used to be 3 people. A few times one would move and I would take an application for a new roommate who would replace (replacement always qualified). Down to two people now, neither of whom was on that original lease. But no vacancy in that time has been a wonderful thing.
Sounds like you have the prospective roommate fill out an application and you screen and qualify them like any other applicant. You sort of know that the other 2 get along well enough, and that is a good thing, so you only have the uncertainty of the replacement.
If they've been in there 20 years, my guess is the deposit is insignificant at this point - you'll have some updating to do (that will cost you anyway) for far more than the deposit amount.
My guess is the deposit has to do with the dog staying, that the other tenants don't want to be on the hook for anything that might happen due to the dog. That dog will miss the person that it was attached to.
My spidey senses say to get this entire shift written up and agreed upon in writing by all parties. Is the other roommate going to become responsible for the dog's well being? Write it down, so it doesn't implicitly become your responsibility. Is the security deposit being turned over to the other roommate? Same thing. Leave no ambiguity for the courts to find when something goes haywire, like the dog dying a month before she returns, or the new roommate getting evicted and taking the dog.
I would suggest completing a move-out inspection and return the original deposit minus any deductions for repair/damage to whoever was listed on the original lease. Then as Steve Babiak mentioned screen new tenants and sign a new lease having them provide the new security deposit where it comes from it up to them, and include the dog on the new lease…