Location: Florida
I, 22F, moved into a house with my friends (22-28). The house is owned by one friend and her mother, who doesn’t live in the house. Nobody signed a lease when moving in. We all pay rent to the friends mother. Friend and her mom have 3 dogs, who now the homeowner friend is supposed to take care of.
When I moved into this house with them I figured that I would be here awhile and did not want to sell my couch, I love(d) it too much to let go plus the cost was more than I’d get back from reselling it. I put my couch in our front living space. Over the last 7-8 months of me living here, the dogs have peed on my couch and slept on it despite me being the only one to continue to try to keep them off the couch.
When I first noticed the dog pee on the couch cushion, I pointed it out to homeowner friend and she said that she knew how to fix the issue. All she did was spray cleaner and wiped it down with a paper towel, the smell still being in the couch.
Now, homeowner friend’s mom is telling everyone that we need to move out by September 1st. I was under the impression I would have been here a lot longer, thus negating me needing to buy another couch anytime soon seeing as how this one is now ruined. However, now that she is unexpectedly kicking everyone out, I’m left to clean up after her dogs because nobody respected my things.
On top of all of this, nobody has been able to shower in the main bathroom because of a pipe leak that hasn’t been fixed for the last month. We’ve had to resort to showering in the master bedroom, which is owned by the homeowners daughter, just to shower. The garage also has not worked since I moved in which created a parking issue, that inevitably ended up causing an HOA complaint.
These living conditions would NOT be okay for any “stranger” to live in.
Would this be something I can withhold my last months of rent for? Since we didn’t legally sign a lease and have been sending our rent via Zelle, would that mean that I’m out of luck? I don’t have the money to buy new furniture due to the dogs being neglected while paying rent to someone that has, overall, let the house deteriorate around us.