<prompt> Human: Back in August I signed a lease with my roommate with the verbal understanding that we would divide rent evenly 800mo, 400 each. Citing unforseen financial problems, my roommate failed to pay any rent for the first 4 12 months 1600 owed to me at present. He was a friend and he told me that he would be able to repay me with his financial aid refund from college, so I let it slide. That was back in January and it is now March. At this point in the lease, its not really in my best interest to break it unless he stops paying he finally began paying the half he was obligated to pay in January; no attempt has been made to reduce his outstanding debt, however me entirely. What Id like to know is this: do I have any options at my disposal for recovering the rent that he has failed to pay me? I assume no, since I have nothing in writing nor do I have any evidence that I am owed this money other than me being the one cutting checks to the apt complex where we live, but as I see it all that proves is that rent was being paid.  <response>: What was your relationship with this person before you became roommates? If theres a lot to lose in terms of a relationship, I imagine your roommate would be willing to set up some sort of payment plan with you.I had a similar situation with a roommate and we very amicably agreed on a payment to me of 100per month for a year to cover a security deposit and some rent owed. If theres no kind of relationship, you can try to bring it to a small claims court, but its more difficult with a verbal agreement. As long as both of your names are on the lease you should be able to prove to a judge that you are owed this money, especially since you can prove that you are both responsible for rent since your roommate is currently paying half the rent right now. 