What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona
Hello all,
Sorry if this is a repeat, but I searched and couldn't find anything that met my specific situation, so here it is.
I had been living with my roomate on a verbal agreement, meaning no lease was signed. I was never late or default on any rent. I lived there from about feb. of 2005 to this August. About a year and a half ago my girlfriend moved in with me and we moved into the bedroom upstairs as the downstairs one was too small for the two of us. We never planned on moving into this place together, but the roomate developed a heart condition and had me as the executor of his will. mind you he is 58 and I am 27. He has noone and I didn't want him to die at all, let alone, die alone. At that time we also purchased 2 small dogs (the roomate also had two dogs of his own). Upon moving in to the upstairs bedroom he replaced the carpet in the entire house except for our room. I assumed (wrongly) that he would be replacing the carpet after we left. Because my Girlfriend didn't want to sleep with the door open, the dogs would have occasional accidents because they couldn't get outside. I tried my best to clean it but after a while it got pretty bad, however I assumed that he would be replacing the carpet so instead of freaking out and cleaning the carpet every three days I settled with a monthly cleaning to keep the smell down. Again, I assumed he planned to replace the carpet when I left. He never said that I needed to keep the dogs out of the room, nor did he say that if the carpet became stained, I would be responsible. It was only when I told him I was moving out in three months that I thought the carpet was pretty bad and may need to be replaced that he acted as though he always planned to have an entire house with red carpet, and one room with white carpet and that I should pay to replace the carpet. I told him that I would help defray the cost, but not the whole thing as he should have told us that he wanted to keep the original carpet. Had he done that I would have never had the dogs upstairs with us.
My fiance and I moved out so I could go to grad school in another region of the state about 5 weeks ago. When she returned to finish cleaning and moving out he told her that the cost to replace the carpet in the room would be $1700.00. The room is 14' x17.5 feet and equals about 27.2 cubic yards. I got an estimate from home depot that came to $700.00 and informed him that that is what I am willing to pay. He is starting to become belligerent and I think he may try to sue me. My question is this: Do I even have to pay him anything? He never had us sign a lease and between the two of us over the last 4 years we paid him over fourteen grand in rent. I feel like he is trying to take advantage of us.
I don't want this to seem like a one sided story, I feel responsible for the damage, but I don't feel as though I should incur the entire cost. Any help is appreciated, even if it doesn't help me out. I just want the right thing to be done.
Hello all,
Sorry if this is a repeat, but I searched and couldn't find anything that met my specific situation, so here it is.
I had been living with my roomate on a verbal agreement, meaning no lease was signed. I was never late or default on any rent. I lived there from about feb. of 2005 to this August. About a year and a half ago my girlfriend moved in with me and we moved into the bedroom upstairs as the downstairs one was too small for the two of us. We never planned on moving into this place together, but the roomate developed a heart condition and had me as the executor of his will. mind you he is 58 and I am 27. He has noone and I didn't want him to die at all, let alone, die alone. At that time we also purchased 2 small dogs (the roomate also had two dogs of his own). Upon moving in to the upstairs bedroom he replaced the carpet in the entire house except for our room. I assumed (wrongly) that he would be replacing the carpet after we left. Because my Girlfriend didn't want to sleep with the door open, the dogs would have occasional accidents because they couldn't get outside. I tried my best to clean it but after a while it got pretty bad, however I assumed that he would be replacing the carpet so instead of freaking out and cleaning the carpet every three days I settled with a monthly cleaning to keep the smell down. Again, I assumed he planned to replace the carpet when I left. He never said that I needed to keep the dogs out of the room, nor did he say that if the carpet became stained, I would be responsible. It was only when I told him I was moving out in three months that I thought the carpet was pretty bad and may need to be replaced that he acted as though he always planned to have an entire house with red carpet, and one room with white carpet and that I should pay to replace the carpet. I told him that I would help defray the cost, but not the whole thing as he should have told us that he wanted to keep the original carpet. Had he done that I would have never had the dogs upstairs with us.
My fiance and I moved out so I could go to grad school in another region of the state about 5 weeks ago. When she returned to finish cleaning and moving out he told her that the cost to replace the carpet in the room would be $1700.00. The room is 14' x17.5 feet and equals about 27.2 cubic yards. I got an estimate from home depot that came to $700.00 and informed him that that is what I am willing to pay. He is starting to become belligerent and I think he may try to sue me. My question is this: Do I even have to pay him anything? He never had us sign a lease and between the two of us over the last 4 years we paid him over fourteen grand in rent. I feel like he is trying to take advantage of us.
I don't want this to seem like a one sided story, I feel responsible for the damage, but I don't feel as though I should incur the entire cost. Any help is appreciated, even if it doesn't help me out. I just want the right thing to be done.