Ideally, when your roommate moves out of your apartment it’s for mutually agreed-upon reasons and the two of you are still on good terms. Whether your roommate moves out for health reasons, a job opportunity or another reason, you’ll no doubt have to quickly adjust to living on your own — especially if he or she moves out without much notice. While the new privacy and extra space can be great, there’s still lots to square away like increased living costs from bills, food and rent. Here are a few things to remember when your roommate moves out of your apartment.
Decide if you’ll continue living alone or if you need to find a new roommate. This decision may be best made by taking a hard look at your income and your monthly expenses. Will you be able to pay for all of rent and all of your bills by yourself? If you need a roommate to help pay for these expenses, start looking as soon as you can.
Speaking of bills… are they in your name, or were they in your roommate’s name? Same with renter’s insurance: Be sure you have it.
Inform your apartment manager. Stop by your apartment office or call to give them a heads up that the living situation has changed. Many apartment landlords require this so that they know who is living in which units. And if you wind up getting a new roommate, let them know that too. If your roommate was the person who signed the apartment lease, you should ask what needs to be done.
Take inventory. If your roommate moved out and took most of the furniture, you may want to look at replacing some of that stuff so you have your own. Similarly, you can take this opportunity to organize and clean your apartment — it’ll help you be prepared if potential roommates come by to check out your apartment.
Keep your roommate’s mail in one place and communicate with them a time — maybe once per week — where they can come by and pick it up. If they moved far away, you might need to send them a package every so often with all their mail. Talk to your roommate about this to figure out the best way to handle it.
These are all just suggestions for what to do when your roommate moves out to help make the situation go a little more smoothly. If you’re moving out soon, be sure and use our free apartment search tools to find your next home.
