A few months back, four of us in total signed a lease in San Diego, Califronia. All individual signers of the same lease, curated through Zillow. This lease was to make all parties equally responsible ensuring the total rent is paid.

Two of the roommates were dating and decided to end their relationship. They continued to live together for a little over a month and then one of the roommates decided they couldn't handle the stress, and without finding a replacement, moved to another apartment in the area. They stated that they would continue to pay their share until a replacement had been found. We've all be posting on search engines, to no avail.

A few weeks back, we received a group text saying that the estranged roommate would no longer be paying their rent. We fought against this. Their ex partner said that they'd pay the difference if he in fact didn't pay, but we continued to insist that this was not fair as they had signed a lease with us. The remaining partner covering the difference continued to state to his ex that he would continue to pay, but that he would pursue the unpaid rent in small claims court.

Today, we received a message that the estranged roommate had made an agreement with the landlord and that as of Dec 1st, he'd no longer be responsible for any rent. He further stated that this agreement was reached and is entirely confidential, so he encouraged us not to pester the landlord. He just told us that the deposit would also be released back to him.

A bit of context. Said person who walked out is an international student here as a graduate student.

I have many questions. I've yet to speak to the landlord, but can any of this be true? How can someone be released from a contract, without the approval of the other members? Further, how/why and under what circumstances could/would a landlord agree to hand back a deposit when someone is walking out on their lease? If this is all true, is there anything to be done from here? Is it legal and acceptable to remove a member of the lease without consent of the other parties, and to still expect the full sum of the rent? What would make any of this confidential? Next steps?