Financial "Mess" with roommate/landlord...need advice

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Ok…so from my other posts most of you may know that I am moving June 1st. When we moved into our current place, our roommate was already living here. He “neglected” to tell us that we owed him money for last months rent until yesterday. Now, he wants us to move out July 1st or pay him last months rent now, including may’s. Either way, we’re losing a lot of money. Now, the sticky part. We never signed a lease, we paid month to month and the landlord never said anything about last months rent. The landlord is now claiming that we never gave him 2 months notice (I informed him April 1st) because we never submitted it in writing and now he is saying that we can’t move out until July 1st. Again, we gave him 2 months, he waited until today to tell us that he wanted it in writing and we never signed a lease agreeing to this.
He also claims that it may be longer than july 1st because he has to come down from Sudbury (where he lives, 6 hours away) and check for damages and we can’t move until he does that. My problem is that he never checked for damages before we moved in and may pin them on us even though last time he came down, we pointed them all out to him. The only damage that occured since we moved in is the blinds that the cat detroyed, which we are replacing anyway. He made no record of the damages we pointed out after we moved in and so, we may have to pay.
We’ve been in this house for a year and during this time we’ve all been sick (nauseous sick). The woman in the main floor apartment has been as well and her children both suffered at least 4 seizures in the bathroom alone. This was attributed, last week, to a gas leak from the furnace which landlord neglected to fix. We called him twice a month to clean the furnace, have it serviced and the ducts cleaned and he finally did, hence this was discovered.
Also, the refridgerator was included with the place. It broke 3 times in the last month and they finally replaced it today but not before we lost almost $300 worth of food combined.
 
Cont’d

Can we move out June 1st because we never signed anything agreeing to this?

Would it be wrong to leave the roommate without paying last months rent because he “neglected to mention it” ? (we cant afford rent in 2 places and it doesn’t matter when we move, this is what will happen)

Can we be held liable for damages that occured prior to us moving in if there was no check before us?

Can the landlord be held liable for health problems caused by his neglect (more for the woman upstairs…)?

Can we bill the landlord for the lost food?

These are kinda legal/moral questions because either way I dont know what to do. Any suggestion or advice would be appreciated!!

Thanks
Sarc
 
First of all, if you don’t have a lease agreement then you don’t have a landlord, and nor are you a tenant. You are simply living in someone’s house and choosing to pay them money while they allow you to stay there.

You can move whenever you want to. You are not bound by any legal agreement because there was never any lease in the first place. Just because he chooses to make up rules as you go along, does not mean you have to abide by them. It’s his property and if there is damage to it, then he is responsible for making it right.

Again, if there is no lease agreement, there is no reason to worry about his demands of last month’s rent or anything else like that. I wouldn’t cause a big confrontation about it, but I would choose not to even discuss further with him when you will be gone. You’ve told him once, he can cry all he wants, but he is the unprofessional “landlord” who doesn’t bother to have any legal documents supporting his “business.”

You can’t bill him for your lost food. Nor can you say much about your health problems, because you chose to stay there when in reality you were free to leave or move out when there wasn’t actually a lease agreement.
 
Thanks Abby!!!

As for the health question though, the woman upstairs is on a lease and so is she entitled to legal action against him for the sake of her children? (Her daughter was in the shower when she had a seizure and fell which could’ve easily killed her had she hit her head on the tap or drowned in the running water)

Thanks
Sarc
 
You are in Canada, right? Here in the US, the laws vary from state to state - I’d not even venture a guess about Canadian renters laws…
 
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sarcophagus:
Thanks Abby!!!

As for the health question though, the woman upstairs is on a lease and so is she entitled to legal action against him for the sake of her children? (Her daughter was in the shower when she had a seizure and fell which could’ve easily killed her had she hit her head on the tap or drowned in the running water)

Thanks
Sarc
She needs to contact a lawyer. She’d have to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that her daughter’s seizures were the direct result of her landlord’s negligence. Because seizures have so many other reasons behind them, that might be hard to do. I hope her medical visits are well-documented.
 
No written lease = no problem

Move out on schedule. Don’t spill the beans beforehand or they might change the locks or other offensive things.
 
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Princess_Abby:
She needs to contact a lawyer. She’d have to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that her daughter’s seizures were the direct result of her landlord’s negligence. Because seizures have so many other reasons behind them, that might be hard to do. I hope her medical visits are well-documented.
That is the standard of proof used in criminal caes in the US. Civil actions require proof only by a preponderance of the evidence, which means more likely than not. In any event–proving causation would be quite a trick and I would leave that issue for your neighbor to tackle if she is so inclined. As for your situation, get out and away from this nightmare of a landlord. Without a lease agreement signed by both parties I fail to see on what basis he is justifying this extortion of funds from you.
 
Island Oak:
That is the standard of proof used in criminal caes in the US. Civil actions require proof only by a preponderance of the evidence, which means more likely than not. In any event–proving causation would be quite a trick and I would leave that issue for your neighbor to tackle if she is so inclined. As for your situation, get out and away from this nightmare of a landlord. Without a lease agreement signed by both parties I fail to see on what basis he is justifying this extortion of funds from you.
You’re the lawyer, not me 😉
 
Here in Vermont the state has a handbook available (on line and in hard copy) about tenant and landlord rights–perhaps your Canadian province has something similar?
 
Thanks Island Oak, I’ll tell my neighbour. She doesn’t have the internet and so she asked me to look it up for her!!

Well the consensus is no lease=no problem, which is what I had thought. Just making sure.

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions!!!

Sarc
 
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