I have one of those deals where I rent one room in a person's house, with limited bathroom/kitchen privileges. Unlike most of these situations, he asked for a year long lease as well as the last month's rent.
Lately, it's been very hard to live there. Last week, I said that we'd need to either work out the issues or I'd have to move out. Since then, every time I've seen him, he's slung verbal abuse at me and now he's threatening to sue!!
My questions are 1) since this is residential property, is the lease even valid? It was some simple form he printed off of the internet, no lawyers involved.
2) Even if it is valid, don't I have the right to leave when he's contstantly verbally harassing me whenever I see him? (you fucking bitch, punching the door near my head so hard it shook, etc.)((I AM leaving as quickly as possible, of course, just want to know if I'll be liable if I do)
3) He wants to sue me for the rest of the rent as WELL as other things, such as he claims that I owe him thousands of dollars of plumbing fees because my long hair in the drains damaged all the pipes. Would anyone take these claims seriously?
And finally : Should I see a lawyer about this? There's nothing in our lease about whether I could get lawyer fees back if it went to court (it's VERY simple), so I really don't want to pay any money if he doesn't have any grounds for complaint!
I should have been more careful when I moved in . . . it quickly became apparent that he's been unemployed for several years (though he's certainly not LOOKING for a job) and desperate for money!
Thanks,
Harassed renter