Tenant vs occupant

[Misfit227]

I have a situation...I shared an apt in Florida with my significant other. They were only on the lease as an occupant. We split up and I moved out. Now I find out that they are moving and had told me that the had signed the papers for the sublease but they weren't. I am paying $2000 to break the lease but I wanted to know if I have any options? I went to the leasig office today and they changed the locks for me but is that legal? We also own a car where we are both on the loan however they are defaulting on that as well (32 days behind). Was I worng to change the locks? Can I go in and get the keys to the car and take it?

[OHlandlord]

Let's address one problem at a time. You were the lease holder on the apartment. The roommate was only listed as an occupant. You moved out breaking the lease, but the roommate stayed and continued to pay the rent? Now that the roommate is moving, you need to pay the lease break fee to terminate the lease.

You didn't handle this correctly, I'm afraid. The time to have your name removed from the lease was when you moved out. You should have had your name removed at that time by getting a paper from management stating you were no longer responsible for the lease, and paying the termination fee. The roommate would have had to have his/her name put on an agreement at that time to stay in the unit. Now you will be responsible for any damages that were done, even after you left. If the roommate left damages, you will have to sue your former roommate to get repaid for these costs that will be deducted from your security deposit.

If your roomate is still in the unit, you may not change the locks. This constitutes an illegal lock out of a legal occupant. If the roomate is still there, provide him/her a key now so he/she can't sue you for this. Management shouldn't have changed the locks until you were both out.

The car is different (since one only needs to live in a unit to become an occupant and have rights to it.) Who's name is on the title of the car? That is all that matters. If you name is on the title, you have as much right to the car as the roommate. A court may believe that you were only protecting your interests and credit record by repossessing a car which had your name on the title. If your name is on the loan only, but not the title, you have no legal right to the car. But it will be your credit that will suffer for this. You can pay the payment, then sue the former roommate in court to get this money back and have the car refinanced to remove your name from the loan. For these reasons, I suggest never to co-sign for anyone else on a loan for anything.