Imagine living in a house with a roommate, the landlord and the landlord’s cats. If your lease was up and you wanted to move, would you?

The answer seems obvious, but in this story, it’s a little bit more tricky since this takes place during Covid, and the landlord is currently in another country and unable to return to this country for awhile.

Now, the tenant isn’t sure if it’s a good idea to move out.

Let’s read all about it.

WIBTA for leaving a share house knowing it would be hard for the landlord to find another tenant?

2 years ago I moved to another state and into a sharehouse.

Initially I lived with a live-in landlord and another roommate, with each roommate having a separate agreement with the landlord.

We currently have a month-by-month agreement with no specification of when the tenancy ends.

From the beginning I did make it clear to her that if I stayed in the area long-term I’d want to move into a place by myself.

Circumstances have changed.

The landlord took a trip back to her home country (not originally from and not a citizen of this one) just before COVID. The country we are in has enacted hard border closures and she has since been unable to return, leaving my roommate, the landlord’s cats and I to the house by ourselves.

Since she left, I’ve become disgruntled with the state of the house.

My roommate is an older man, and he’s nice; however, I don’t find him to be very considerate. He often makes a lot of mess and clutter in the kitchen, which he leaves for me to clean.

This sounds so gross!

He has also taken to making some unsightly messes in the shared toilet. I have walked in there on multiple times to find a mess on the inside and outside rim of the toilet bowl, all over the seat and, at times, smeared along the floor as well.

I don’t really want to have to clean up after he has done this to the bathroom.

I spoke to him the first time I saw it like this and he partially cleaned it, but has continued to frequently leave it like this since. I’m not sure if he’s oblivious to the mess he’s making or doesn’t understand that I may not like it.

There are other reasons OP wants to leave.

But I have other issues.

The house is in an outer suburb and I work closer to the city, so it would be easier for me living in an apartment closer.

I also feel limited on space and just don’t enjoy living with another person who I don’t know or get along with very well.

The landlord’s cats are also still here. The other roommate is being paid to look after them but they create a lot of mess throughout the house as well and he doesn’t clean up after them well.

OP finally talked to the landlord.

After considering for a while, I contacted my landlord 3 months ago to tell her I wanted to move out.

As she is not in the country, she told me how difficult it would be for her to find someone to fill the room but understood my reasons and said she’d support my leaving in July.

As July has approached and I’ve started talking to her about it again, however, she’s become increasingly insistent that I do not leave until she is able to return to the country (though neither of us has any idea when that will be). She’s mentioned the financial hardship my leaving will cause her, and how I’ll be placing a burden on her and the other roommate to find another tenant.

What to do, what to do!

Legally I can leave whenever and I informed them of my intentions 3 months ago.

I want to leave but do feel really guilty about leaving the landlord in a position where they’ll be scrambling to find someone new without being able meet in person and taking a hit from lack of incoming rent.

Am I being inconsiderate of other people and selfish here?

Move out. OP should move out. It’s unfortunate for the landlord, but the roommate is disgusting. I’d want to get out of there right away.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Here’s a vote for leaving.

Another person reassures her that it’s okay to move out.

She did give the landlord a lot of notice!

I don’t think she has any reason to apologize.

She needs to think about what’s best for her not what’s best for the landlord.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.