Terminate surety? Discover your rights!

Questioner

In 2013 I signed a surety so that my son (now 40 years old) who was unemployed at the time could get a rental apartment. The surety was never claimed because my son got a job shortly afterwards. Until recently. Due to depression and a mental disorder he was fired. An important aspect of that mental disorder is that we can no longer communicate normally with each other and he accuses me of narcissism and he takes revenge by blackmailing me by deliberately not paying his rent. I have now received dozens if not hundreds of emails and messages from him in which he threatens, blackmails and accuses me. It is an untenable situation because on the one hand I am being financially stripped and on the other hand I can do nothing to force him into treatment. All parties: GGZ, SPD etc. tell me that nothing can be achieved unless I no longer support him financially. So the question is, can I, given the situation, have the suretyship dissolved so that he is forced to seek mental health help? Or am I at the mercy of his whims for as long as he lives?

Lawyer

What an annoying situation you have found yourself in. The surety is an agreement between you and the landlord. You can terminate the agreement. By doing so, you freeze your liability to a maximum of the amount that the landlord can claim from your son at the end of the notice period. It is wise to also consult the text of the surety agreement and to act in accordance with this text regarding the manner, time and term of termination. Incidentally, you can reclaim from your son what you paid to the landlord as a result of the surety.