Chapter 24 - § 24.25 • JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 24.25 • JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY

Most leases will contain a provision that states something like "if the tenant is comprised of more than one person, the obligations of such persons shall be joint and several." "Joint" means the liability is shared; "several" means that any one party is liable for the entire amount of the debt if the other jointly liable parties refuse to pay their proportionate share.⁷⁰ The purpose of the joint and several liability clause is to make sure that each person who is a tenant is liable for everything under the lease; each person is not liable if, for example, there are two tenants and a "50-50" deal in which each person is obligated for only half the rent, half the expenses, etc. All parties are fully liable to, and can be sued by, the landlord for everything, and the landlord is free to sue one tenant without suing the other.⁷¹ If one tenant pays everything, the way the two parties to the lease work it out is totally outside the lease and of no concern to the landlord.⁷²

--------

Notes:

^[70] See, e.g., Bennett v. Morse, 6 Colo. App. 122, 39 P. 582 (1894).

^[71] See Colantuno v. A. Tenenbaum & Co., 23 P.3d 708, 712 (Colo. 2001) ("under the common law rule of joint and several liability, any one responsible party may be liable for...