questions & answers

Question: I co-signed for my son on his lease in May of 2016. The lease expired without a new lease being written, do he is now month-to-month. Is it possible to remove myself from liability (terminate my part of the agreement) without taking my son off the rental agreement. He had lived there almost 2 years and has established his own credibility. Am I obligated to stay on the rental agreement as long as he stays at the rental?

Answer: Ordinarily, the removal of a co-signer from a rental agreement is up to the landlord before the agreement expires and then up to the co-signer after the agreement expires and becomes month-to-month. Once the agreement becomes month-to-month, both parties can terminate it with 30 days’ advance written notice, so at that point the original co-signor can always speak to the tenant and then to the landlord about the possibility of the tenant and the landlord establishing a new arrangement without the co-signor going forward, although the landlord, of course, can always say no.