Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Hi ok so I posted this in r/renters and was advised to post it here as well:
My boyfriend and I have been living in a place for almost two years (will be two years on September 24) and our other roommate gave his months notice on September 4th he was moving out.
Our landlord put it on us to rent out his room, we both work full time so all of our free time has been going to advertising this place. It has been incredibly difficult to find anyone to come see the place especially with the time given, but we have been super aggressive with it. We got one person to apply. Now with about two weeks left before our roommate moves out he comes in with this text saying the applicant we found doesn’t qualify - no reasons given, and we must also move out with our roommate and no further applicants will be considered.
In his message he says the lease is ending, only because all three of us are on the lease and since our roommate is leaving we are resigning a new lease, but we have lived here since September 2024 and only signed a year lease then and have been technically month to month since September 2025.
Is this legal? What can we do?
LANDLORDS TEXT MESSAGE:
(September 21)
Hi (me and bf), thanks for the update on the roommate situation. I’m texting all 3 of you because you’re all on the lease together.
It’s almost exactly 2 weeks to the end of your lease. At this point you both need to make arrangements to be moved out by October 4 when (roommate) moves and the lease ends.
The one applicant you found didn’t meet the requirements and because of the short time window new applicants will no longer be considered. Hopefully you’ve been looking at other housing options.
Let me know if you have questions. I’ll send you all a moveout checklist soon to help with planning the moveout process. Thanks.
LANDLORDS PREVIOUS TEXT MESSAGE:
(September 8)
(Me & bf), just a few points to consider:
(Roommates) last day on the lease is Oct 4.
There is no subletting or assignment allowed so any new potential tenant has to go thru the normal approval process. I’ll send you an application.
If you want to continue the lease without a new tenant you both will need to requalify to financially demonstrate that you can afford the entire rent.
To find someone to replace (roommate) on the lease you will need to be aggressive. List it everywhere you can and show it to anyone who might qualify: 2x monthly rent with 675 or higher credit. Let me know if you have questions. Thanks.
A couple extra things:
We do qualify for the full rent, but it would suck and we’d like to avoid that
We have not violated the lease at any point and always pay rent on time
The advice from r/renters was kind of split on either LL has no leg to stand on vs. if you’re all on the lease together then you’re SOL. Which one is right?
We’re hoping to speak with him on the phone tomorrow morning, what should we bring up?
Advice is much appreciated thank you!