Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Massachusetts

Rental dispute

My 24 yr old daughter shared a room in boarding house with another girl. The lease is in both of their names. The landlord agreed verbally to charge each of them $425/month. My daughter has paid her share for every month in the contract which ends June 30th. The landlord is threatening to take both tenants to court because my daughter's roommate is three months in areas. Can she name my daughter in this suit?


Asked on 5/24/07, 7:05 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Craig J. Tiedemann Kajko, Weisman & Colasanti, LLP

Re: Rental dispute

If the lease says the named tenants are "jointly and severally liable," unfortunately, yes. If the landlord's verbal rent amount quote was different than the amount stated in the written lease, your daughter might make the argument that the landlord modified the terms of the written lease by proposing a different rent term verbally (taking the governing terms outside the 4 corners of the written lease), and failed to expressly make each tenant jointly and severally liable for the amended (verbal) rent rate.

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Answered on 5/24/07, 11:08 pm


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