Your roommate left. Their share of the rent didn't.

NY CPLR § 213(2) · CONTRACT BETWEEN CO-TENANTS

Two relationships, two sets of rules.

Every roommate money problem involves two distinct legal relationships, and keeping them separate is the key to understanding your options.

The first is between the tenants and the landlord. If you and your roommate both signed the lease, you are almost certainly jointly and severally liable for the rent, which means the landlord can collect the entire month's rent from either of you and does not care how you split it. If your roommate stops paying, the landlord's remedy is against both of you, and in practice against the one still living there. The landlord has no obligation to chase your roommate for “their half.”

The second is between you and your roommate. Whatever you two agreed, whether in a written roommate agreement, a group chat, or a conversation on move-in day, is a contract between the two of you. When your roommate fails to pay their share and you cover it to avoid eviction, they owe you that money. This page is about that second relationship.

If you were not both on the lease.

The analysis changes slightly depending on who signed what:

• Both on the lease. Joint and several liability to the landlord; contract and contribution claims between you. When you pay more than your share of a joint obligation, New York law generally lets you recover the excess from the co-obligor.
• Only you on the lease; roommate paid you. Your roommate is effectively your subtenant or licensee. The agreement between you, even if oral, governs what they owed and for how long. New York law gives tenants a right to have a roommate in many situations, but that right does not erase the roommate's obligation to pay what they promised you.
• Only the roommate on the lease; you paid them. Your exposure to the landlord is limited, but if you prepaid rent or a deposit to the roommate and they kept it, that is a straightforward claim against them.

What the roommate actually owes you.

Itemize it. Vague totals invite vague denials. Typical categories:

• Unpaid rent share for months they lived there and did not pay.
• Rent for the remainder of the term after they left early, if your agreement had them committed through the lease end and you could not find a replacement despite reasonable efforts. You generally have to make reasonable efforts to fill the room rather than simply let it sit empty and bill them.
• Utilities in your name that they agreed to split: electric, gas, internet, water if billed. Pull the statements for each month.
• Their share of the security deposit if the landlord withheld deposit money for damage the roommate caused, or if you fronted the whole deposit and they never reimbursed their half. Note that a landlord generally returns a deposit to the tenant of record, so if both names were on the lease and the landlord sent the roommate the entire refund, that is money they are holding for you.
• Damage they caused that you paid to repair or that was deducted from the deposit.
• Shared purchases they agreed to split and did not.

Subtract anything they prepaid or that you recovered from a replacement roommate. A fair, documented number is far more persuasive than an inflated one.

Text messages are your roommate agreement.

Very few roommates sign a formal agreement. Almost all of them negotiate by text. “Rent is $3,200, so $1,600 each, due on the 1st, I'll Venmo the landlord” is a contract term. “I'll cover Con Ed and you cover internet and we'll true up” is a contract term. “I'm moving out end of May but I'll pay through June since that's what we agreed” is an admission. Export the group chat or thread in full and highlight the relevant exchanges. Payment-app histories show the pattern of who paid what, which both proves the agreement and proves the breach; see using Venmo and Zelle records as evidence. If there was truly nothing written, the principles in oral agreements in New York apply, and a consistent pattern of past payments is itself strong evidence of the deal.

Deadlines and dollar limits.

A claim against a roommate for unpaid rent share or utilities is a contract claim with New York's six-year limitations period under CPLR § 213(2), generally running from each missed payment. Six years is more than enough if you act, but roommates move, change numbers, and leave the state; the practical window is much shorter than the legal one. The full deadline discussion is on statute of limitations on a personal loan, and the same principles apply here.

Most roommate claims fit comfortably within small claims limits: up to $10,000 in New York City, and lower limits in city, town, and village courts elsewhere in the state. A filing requires the roommate's current address for service, which is often the hardest part once someone has moved out.

What a demand letter does here.

A roommate who has moved out is betting that you will not bother. An attorney demand letter answers that bet directly. It itemizes each category of what is owed with the dates and amounts, quotes the messages in which the roommate agreed to the arrangement, states the total, and gives a deadline. It also explains, in neutral terms, what happens next: a small claims filing, a judgment, and statutory interest. For a former roommate starting a new job or a new lease, the prospect of a judgment on their record is a significant motivator.

Letters also solve a practical problem. Many ex-roommates have simply stopped reading your texts. A letter from a law firm, delivered to their new address or workplace, gets opened. Our letters typically offer a payment plan as an alternative to a lump sum, and a surprising number of ex-roommates take it, because they would rather pay $300 a month than face a filing. See how our flat-fee letters work.

When not to bother, and what to do instead.

If the amount is a single month's utilities, a letter is disproportionate; send one clear written request yourself and then decide whether to let it go. If the roommate has left the country or has no income, a judgment may be uncollectible. And if you cannot find a current address, even a letter has nowhere to go, though a workplace or a parent's address sometimes works.

If you do proceed past a letter, small claims is the right venue, and you do not need a lawyer. Start with our New York small claims court guide, and read demand letter vs. small claims for when to skip the letter entirely. If the roommate also left with your property or kept something of yours, getting belongings back from an ex or roommate covers that separate claim. For the broader landscape of money owed between people who know each other, the hub is lent money and not paid back in New York.