July 30, 9:14 AM
I have seen it time and time again.
An Apartmentite lets a family member or close friend live in their apartment without being on the lease or signs a lease for someone and won't even be living there. This situation commonly ends very poorly. Either the person completely and irresponsibly bails on paying rent, moves out before the lease is over with, or truly just ruins the responsible and nice person's rental history.
It's terrible, but it happens so often it's ridiculous. It has happened to me by someone who was a friend since childhood and best friend in my adult hood. They had just split up with their wife and asked a huge favor of staying at my place for awhile until he got back on his feet.
I had an extra room, so I figured it wouldn't be so bad to have him crash at my place for a few weeks. Well, a few weeks turned into a few months, turned into about a year. He never paid me rent the entire time. I never really checked out his room during that time, but when I finally moved out a couple of years later it came to determine that he had spilled all kinds of juice and ruined the carpet, put holes in the wall, and taken the closet door off of the hinges.
Guess what? Since he was never on the lease...I ended up being responsible for all of the damage. I had to pay over $1000 in damages for things that I never did.
The moral of the story is to never sign the lease for someone else or let someone live with you without them being on the lease too. Always remember that if they are not on the lease...you will take the fall if they mess up.
Just be smart and think things through before you jump into a situation that costs you money and friendships.