<p>I’m not a parent, but I read this forum occasionally, and it seems like there’s a lot of level headed people here. Here’s my situation:</p>
<p>I signed a lease at the start of July with a roommate for 9 months, set to expire March 31st. He had an inkling, but nothing set in stone, that he might move to Ohio for work before the end of the lease term. He did end up accepting a new position in Ohio starting Jan 6th. I told him that I was traveling over the holidays and wouldn’t be back until January 6th, and I needed until the next weekend, the 11th to move out. He said fine, and we agreed I would pay more of the January pro-rated rent than he would. His company said they’d pay the lease early termination fee of 1.5 months rent.</p>
<p>I had originally planned to move into a new 1 br apartment, but then got an offer at the 11th hour from a friend to rent a room from him. I said yeah, I’d try and make it work. Only problem was it wouldn’t be available till Feb 1. I asked my current apartment if they’d already leased or taken a deposit for my place yet and if they could change my move out date to Feb 1. They said they could. I called my former roommate and told him the situation thinking it’d be no big deal. He said he needed to check with his company’s HR because he had already paid the early termination fee out of pocket and he was waiting to be reimbursed by his company once he submitted proof that the move out had been completed. He wanted to make sure the new date was no big deal.</p>
<p>He called me back today and said that his HR apparently had not been aware originally that he had a roommate and now that they knew, they were only going to reimburse him half of the early termination fee regardless of when I moved out. I apologized for his inconvenience and said if I’d know they were gonna do that I wouldn’t have even bothered having him ask them about the new date, but I reiterated that I wasn’t comfortable with the situation, and that I was basically moving because of him, and wasn’t going to split the early termination fee 50/50 with him on top of paying my rent elsewhere. He pointed out that my 11th hour change was going to save me on rent (which is true), and had inadvertently cost him, and asked if I could chip in $300 to help him.</p>
<p>I said I’d call him back in a few hours. I’ve already lost my $100 deposit, and I agreed with him that the rent and utilities for the full month of January minus the 3 days he was still there would fall on me, and wouldn’t be split between us. And there could be some moving expenses coming my way. So January’s going to be expensive for me, but I don’t want to do wrong by him or create any bad blood. Do you think his request for $300 toward the early termination fee is fair? Do you think his HR’s policy is odd and that if he pushed the issue, he could get the full reimbursement from them?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think the HR policy is odd. I’m a bit surprised that they did not ask about a roommate previously or that he did not mention it. It doesn’t matter if it’s odd or not. It is what it is. </p>
<p>That said, how much will you “save” by staying until the end of the month? That’s what I would give him just to keep the friendship. In the end though, the lease was terminated early because of his needs.</p>
<p>It was his responsibility to know the HR policy at his company. What if he had misunderstood the whole policy and it turned out he doesn’t get anything? You split his loss? Whatever he gets is part of his work package and has nothing to do with you. You’re paying January rent for the whole apartment and all of the utilities less the 3 days, give ihim the three days which isn’t going make a huge difference anyways but just so you are showing some good will.</p>
<p>Well, my savings over time would actually be fairly substantial. My original plan was to rent a 1 bedroom apartment on a 7 month term (because I’m planning to move in with my girlfriend when her lease expires) with the same giant property company I’m already with. My new plan is to rent a room from a friend for those 7 months for about $375 a month less, plus split bills with him. I didn’t give my now former roommate those exact numbers though. </p>
<p>If I had known how this was going to play out today, I would have just moved out this weekend and couch surfed for a couple weeks to make up the gap, but on the other hand, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything unethical.</p>
<p>You signed a lease knowing he may have to move for work before the end of the lease.</p>
<p>This means, at the time you signed the lease, you knew there would be a possibility of him leaving before the end of the lease and you would have to deal with the consequence.</p>
<p>I think $300 towards the $1600 termination fee is more than fair. It really doesn’t matter if his company is paying part of his share or not. The total is $1600 and he’s only asking for $300 from you. It’s more than fair.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to create any bad blood, I think $300 of the $1600 termination fee is a good deal, unless you’re strapped for cash and you can’t afford it. I don’t think HR’s policy is unfair or odd, and you were aware when you signed the lease that he could move out early.</p>
<p>It’s an unfortunate situation, yes, but if you can afford to do so, I would chip in the $300 to help out, since I don’t think it’s worth the drama. If you can’t afford it though, I would just tell him that you hadn’t planned for that expense, and you’re really sorry but you just don’t have the money for it.</p>
<p>So he’s paid $1,600. He was going to be $800 out of pocket, now he’s going to be out the entire $1,600. He’s asking you to help out with $300, less then 25%? You’ll save $375 in one month at your new place? People move which involve expenses. You’d have done it eventually. That shouldn’t factor into your decision. As noted, you went in knowing this was a possibility. If the $300 isn’t a hardship then I think it’s the higher road. Sometimes we choose to do something even if looking at things from a black and white perspective we don’t ‘have’ to. </p>
<p>You did have the option to stay in the apartment and find another roommate. If you’d done that no one would be paying. The decision was to leave but it wasn’t the only option. You both agreed, I’m just pointing out he’s out $1,600 because you decided not to stay with a roommate. One could spin this many ways. His HRs policy is not strange, you have the option to stay. They are not obligated to you. You both decided to leave so it’s not unreasonable to help a little with the fee, even if he originally offered to cover the entire amount.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter that he’s getting reimbursed for $800 out of the $1600. This has no bearing on you. It’s his perk from his job and doesn’t have anything to do with your portion of the fee. Pay the $300 and be happy he’s nice enough to cut you a break.</p>
<p>You could have kept the apt. and gotten a new roommate, but you chose to leave also.
Thus, you have to pay for a portion of the termination fee. $300 is a bargain. Thank him for not asking you to pay an equal 50%.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about your point about me getting a roommate. I hate to sound like I’m arguing since I came here asking for advice, so I hope it doesn’t get taken that way. </p>
<p>I could have asked the apartment to replace my old roommate with someone new and he would have just ended up paying the releasing fee. However, if they didn’t find anyone, the 2 of us would have both been legally joint and severally responsible for the entire rent even though he had moved. He wouldn’t have wanted that liability. I’m just pointing that out because I was originally trying to get a friend to take over his place for the last few months, but my friend wasn’t interested in such a short term arrangement.</p>
<p>Vyse - I’m confused. I thought you said your previous rm’s employer was no longer going to reimburse part of the termination fee once they learned about his rm? Now you’re saying he’s being reimbursed. </p>
<p>It doesn’t change the fact that you jointly made the decision that you would both benefit most from breaking the lease. You should both contribute to this fee. Three hundred is less then 25% and more then fair. If your parents were offering to cover your portion, for example, this would have no bearing on the split the two of you decided was equitable.</p>
<p>They were going to reimburse him 100% of the lease break fee according to him. That sounded good to me. I recently found out they learned he had a roommate, and they’re only going to reimburse 50%, $800.</p>
<p>I actually think the roommate’s company should reimburse 100% for breaking the lease. Why should OP be out of pocket for anything if he wasn’t the one who broke the lease. The RM only needs to move because his company is relocating him, so his company should reimburse 1600.</p>
<p>Agree with Oldfort. The fact that he has a room mate is irrelevant that the company has caused him to end his lease early and caused costs to be incurred. There is no reason OP should have to pay anything because the company hired this guy.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters. OP shouldn’t have to pay anything towards the cancellation fee since the roommate didn’t mention that he might need to break the lease until after they had signed the lease. If this guy is a really good friend then I’d pay it but not if he’s just a roommate that is now moving and I probably won’t see again.</p>