Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: landlord sued for damaged house, other roomates refuse to pay

You will have to separately sue the other

roommates to pay you their share. It is possible

that the landlord will be successful in

collection action to collect ALL of it (100%)

from you, and you will have to get the money

back from the others.

If you know where the other roommates are, it

would be in your best interest to tell the

landlord's attorney so that the landlord tries to

collect from them also.

The fact that the other roommates didn't show

up means nothing, except that as a practical

matter the landlord might not know where to find

them to collect money from them. But it does

not change their legal responsibility.

However, the landlord can collect 100% of the

debt from ANY of the 3, depending on whose money

the landlord can find and seize using legal

techniques like garnishment, or garnishing wages.

So if you tell the landlord where the others work, and the landlord garnishes their wages

instead of your wages, then the result might be

what you want.

It is possible that the landlord could collect

ALL (100%) of the money from one of the other

roommates. It is all a question of WHERE the

landlord can find the money first (and easiest).

The court expresses no opinion (usually) about

how much each roommate should pay, just that

somebody should pay.