How about talking to your landlord. most landlords understand when thing like this happen and eith go after the roommate that ditched out of his responsibilities or helps the person left holding the bag make up the difference in payments. for example the last time I had a roomate she ditched out of her payment and left the state into a domestic violence shelter so that she could not be located beyond DV's door. So the landlord and I talked I didn't wnt another roommate and the landlord needed his money. we came to an agreement since I was the one that advertized for the roommate it was like I was that roommates landlord. Since she could not be located I had the same responsibilities that a land lord would when their renter ditch the bills for the rental unit still had to be paid. But he took into consideration that it was a renter leaving in the night kind of thing and allowed me to make $10.00 payments on top of my usual rent until it was pait off and at that time I was on welfare with bimonthy grant payments from the local DHS so I paid my rent in two payments half on the first and half on the 15th. That way I was able to remain in the rental unit and pay back the rental "arrears" from my ex roommates ditching out on me. After that anytime I recieved a new roommate I made sure the persons name was on the rental agreement and that rental agreement spelled out very clearly that each of the renters was responsible for paying their part of the rent directly to the landlord of the building and that I would not be held responsible for the other persons portion of the rent. Basically meaning that the landlord was renting the place to two tennents not one tennet and that tennent renting out space to a roommate.

If the person vacated the property for example in the middle of the month the landlord already has that persons payment and I didn't have to take over full payment for the rental until the first of that next month. If the land lord didn't have the persons payment and it was after the first he had to go after the other person not me because my responsibility for paying my part of the rent didn't start until the 1st of the next month.

Now I don't get roommates and don't put myself into rentals that I would not be able to afford without having a roommate. Saves me ALOT of stress and problems.