Rental agreement terminated after 8 days
July 18, 2009 | 25,00 EUR | answered by Andreas Scholz
At the insistence of my ex, I signed a lease agreement with him. 8 days later, he informed me that he now has another partner and will not be moving into the apartment. Since I could not afford the apartment on my own, I immediately informed the landlord. She told me that she did not want to hold me liable. My ex was already aware when signing the lease that he would not be moving into the apartment. Now, after 2 months, the landlord is approaching me and demanding half of 3 months' rent from me because they have not yet rented out the apartment. Am I legally obligated to pay? It was not my fault that the lease did not go through. In the lease agreement (standard lease agreement from a store), my ex and I are listed as joint debtors.
Dear Questioner,
basically, as you correctly noted from the lease agreement, you and your ex-boyfriend are jointly liable for the rent, meaning the landlord can hold both of you responsible for paying the outstanding rent. He is not required to only demand half of the amount from each of you, but can request the full amount from either of you. Therefore, the landlord's demand from you is legally justified.
The only exception to this would be if an effective termination agreement had been agreed with the landlord. This termination agreement can also be made verbally, so there is no formal requirement. However, such an agreement would have had to be made by both you and your ex-boyfriend, as both of you are parties to the lease agreement. I assume that the tenancy was terminated with the three-month notice period, so you likely lived in the apartment for three months or were able to do so.
The landlord's statement that he does not intend to hold you liable for your ex-boyfriend's share of the rent is likely to mean that he does not intend to demand that amount from you.
Whether you can hold your ex-boyfriend liable for his share of the rent through a joint and several liability agreement depends largely on how the rent payment was agreed upon before the start of the tenancy, whether it was supposed to be split or not.
If anything remains unclear, feel free to ask for clarification.
Kind regards,
Andreas Scholz, Attorney
