Obligations for payment

[nancyhasglasses]

I stayed with a girl in Wisconsin from August until April. The girl I was living with told me she had a lease but the landlord clarified saying her lease had expired and she was staying month to month. There was originally another roommate (whose place I took) that had to move out last August. I moved out before the end of April, I gave no notice because the girl I was living with never told me that I needed to (the only thing that was discussed before I moved in was the amount of rent that I needed to pay and on what date). I moved out because the apartment was disgusting, I wasn't allowed to keep anything outside of my room (no space in kitchen, bathroom or living areas) and my room was covered in mold that the girl refused to tell the landlord about. I was not given a key to the apartment until I had lived there for 7 months, after I had been locked out by the girl, (she let the old roommate keep his key).

The girl is now threatening to take me to small claims court for rent for May because I didn't give her 30 days notice. She also wants me to pay half of the bills even though I wasn't living in the apartment. I tired to contact the landlord multiple times but the girl would not give me his contact info.

What am I responsible for given the casual nature of my tenancy? Any help would be appreciated.

[OHlandlord]

Casual or not, you were a tenant at this unit. You need to give the correct amount of notice for a month to month tenant for your state. You are responsible for the rent during the notice period. Not having space outside your room was not sufficient reason to move out without notice. (You didn't rent space outside of your room.) Please list your state and I can tell you how much notice you were to have given.

You also should check to see if you live in a term state or a day for day state. A term state's laws say that you must give notice to coincide with the rent period. So if your rent was due on the 1st, you need to give notice on the first. So if you left without notice on, say, the 20th, you owed rent for the whole next month since your notice wouldn't have taken effect again until the first.

In a day for day state, if you left on the 20th you would only owe 30 days (or whatever notice is required for your state) from that day, so you may only owe a partial month of rent.

Some states also make you responsibsle for the utilities during this notice period if you were responsible for them during your tenure.