VIC Co tenancy, one tennant leaving and wanting a rent reimbursement

[Liz113]

Hi, I’m hopi g to get some clarity around my rights in the current situation in my co tenancy agreement.

There are 3 of us currently on the lease. One housemate wanted to move out and gave 4 weeks notice of when she intended to leave. I was interstate for one of these weeks, however I managed to find someone who agreed to move in and start paying rent from the 23rd of the month, 2 weeks after the move out date (8th). I informed the outgoing tenant of this on the 16th of the month. The outgoing tennant then said they were unable to physically sign the papers for lease transfer until the 26th of the month and the incoming tennant informed her that she didn’t want to live in and pay until that had been done and sent to the landlord, which was done on the 27th. The incoming tenant is now moving in tomorrow and had agreed to start paying from the 30th.
The outgoing tennant is now asking me to reimburse her for the rent between the 8th and the 30th as she says she handed her keys to me and left the property on this date. Is this correct? Am I able to say that as she delayed the paperwork by a week, I’m not responsible for that weeks rent??
She also didn’t notify the real estate agent that she was leaving until I found the new tenant, as far as I’m aware.
The third tennant in the house doesn’t want to pay half of the cost with me as she claims that she had a friend who could have moved in for the weeks between tenants, so thinks I should pay it all (she didn’t help find a new tennant as she’s moving out herself next month).
Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Rod]

Ahh, the joys of sharing a house .....

Someone needs to read the co-tenancy agreement and lease to work out who is right. If the agreement doesn't exactly cover this situation, then the agreement still needs to be read in light of the above to work out what should happen.

Make sure you have forwarding details for both co-tenants as I suspect you will be needing the information for a while yet. It may be you, as the person staying, needing to pay the landlord and sort out the details with your co-tenants later. Though there may be an element of gamesmanship to play if the others value a good tenants rating that may be at risk if you fail to pay the whole rent.