I thought everything checked out with my rental history, what could it be?

If the roommate that passed was on the same lease as your bf then the unpaid rent goes on his rental history too. All tenants on the same lease are seen as 1 entity under the law. There is no his share or their share. One fails to pay then all get sued for total owed.

A dead roommate does not relieve your bf from his obligations to pay the rent. If he left some rent owing/unpaid, then that is clearly the problem - unpaid rent. Certainly, he did not expect a dead man to contribute toward the rent, did he? A rather ridiculous expectation. Your bf is lying to you. He failed to pay the rent due under his lease. Either he pays the whole rent or he gets a new roommate to share in paying. It sounds like he preferred to rip of the landlord. Now, he is paying the consequences. If it was within about the last couple of years, he should also expect to be sued at some point.

When sharing a tenancy each tenant is 100% responsible and 100% liable to pay the full rental amount, so if one person, leaves, dies, doesn't pay their "share" of the rent the other tenants are liable legally to pay......... so if that is the issue it is because your bf has rental debt and he knows full well about it, he just hasn't told you as if it is on record then he was taken to court for rent debt

"The only think I can think of is one of the roommates passed away, and obviously couldn't pay his rent, but what does that have to do with my boyfriend?" Everything. Presuming they were on the same rental contract, your boyfriend was obligated to pay the rent when his roommate couldn't/didn't. It's not the landlord's problem how roommates split the rent. The rent has to be 100% paid no matter who pays it. If any portion of the rent isn't paid, it reflects on ALL the roommates.

Generally, rentals are for the full space, not by the room.

If you live with people, each person is responsible for the full rent in the event that one of the tenants does not pay. Since your boyfriend's former roommate did not pay his portion, your boyfriend would generally be responsible for paying the full rent.

Your boyfriend should check with the courts, to make sure he does not have a judgement against him for the amount that was not paid.

If your BF and his deceased former roommate were on the same lease, your BF was obligated to pay the full rent. If any portion of the rent was unpaid, the landlord is certainly not going to give your BF a good reference.

did you ask?