Is my landlord being reasonable or unfair?

Do you have a lease? Did you agree to rent the room for a certain amount of time? If you do have a lease, then I think you might be obliged to pay. If both answers are no, then I don’t think it would be fair to charge you for this. However, if you refuse to pay, he might refuse to let you rent the room in the future.

And this question may belong in the general section.

If you had a lease, did it say you could get out of it with a one month notice? If you didn’t have a lease, you are under no obligation.

When you gave a month’s notice that you were leaving, and moved out your belongings, you signaled a clear intention that you are making other living arrangements, and leaving, most likely “for good”, or unless a new opportunity to re-take the room opens up at a convenient time for you. But then you sent a mixed signal: that you would “like to return if the room was available”. You found an (apparent) sub-leaser. That undoubtedly confused the landlord. A better statement would have been “I’d like to talk to you about renting again [not ‘a return to’ or possible ‘continuation of’ the agreement, but a ‘new agreement’] if my plans permit in the future, and if the room is vacant.” When you took the responsibility of finding what you intended to be the landlord’s “next tenant”, he assumed that you intended this person to sub-lease the room from you.

You’re both at fault for not being clear and specific.

I’d make that clear to the landlord, that your mixed signals confused him, and his failure to clarify your intent cemented this mess in place. If you like the room and the landlord, then I’d try to reach an acceptable settlement to preserve your good standing with him – and be clear in the future: “I’m leaving at the end of the month – good luck with your next tenant,” etc.

Were you as unclear about your intent with the landlord as you were in describing it here? You may or may not move back in. You found someone else to take your place?

You are the one who muddied the waters.

The landlord probably did not know what you were going to do.

However, I doubt that he can charge you back rent. Do you have a lease in writing?

If you have/had a lease there is no way you will get out of paying back rent for months that the lease covers.

You could argue that they didn’t try to notify you in a timely matter of the situation, but past making a few phone calls or leaving notes on the door, the land lord is not really that obligated to find you.

Its kinda sh*tty of the land lord, but if there’s a lease they have most of the power.

How long was it vacant? What state are you in? Did you ever return the keys?
There are still a lot of unanswered questions here.

Well, I was actually subletting from someone who is renting from the owner. I don’t think this makes a difference though?

The person I sublet from claims I am on the lease, but I never signed anything. It was a month to month arrangement.

I returned the keys.

Then the real deal is between the landlord and the original lessee. If you were month to month, gave 30 days notice and surrendered possession,( in my experience as a landlord in California) you should be off the hook.
Who is giving you a hard time? The owner or the person you sublet from? Did the owner know you were subletting? Many leases forbid subletting without the owners express written consent.

The person I’m subletting from. The owner did know that I was there. I filled out a rental application. Thanks for the replies everyone, by the way. I didn’t particularly like living there, but there really isn’t anything better around for my situation. I’d like to do the right thing and be fair. I don’t think I should be responsible at all – if I were the person subletting I wouldn’t have even expected my tenants to find replacement renters at all as I would consider this my job – but the person subletting definitely thinks I owe back rent, and as much as possible. I am not sure if this was an honest miscommunication (they really thought I wanted to hold the place) or if they are just hurting for money and see me as an easy target.

If you sublet, and hence weren’t the initial lessee, you’re in the clear.

If however they signed the lease over to you, you are probably screwed (but I would suspect the original lessee would be as well).

What it sounds like to me – I am making a phone call this AM to clarify – is that they added my name to the lease somehow without me signing anything. So they are on the lease as well as I am, but I don’t think they can hold me to a lease I never signed. I feel bad that they think they are owed money, but at this point I just don’t feel right about giving them anything.

@prioritymail They cannot hold you to a lease you never signed, you are correct. The only way they can hold you accountable is if you set up a new lease with the owner of the property (landlord), and signed your name to it. If you signed your name to an agreement with the original lessee, then that lessee may have some grounds to pursue action against you, but the responsibility towards paying the land lord would still fall entirely on them.

@prioritymail ; if that’s the case, then the original lessee might have a case against the landlord, as he led him to believe that you had signed the lease when you had not. Also, in California, even when a lease is broken, the landlord has a duty to make every effort to re rent the place. If possession was surrendered and he just let it sit because he had a lease on it, the original lessee might also have the ability to get out of it. I don’t know about where you are though. If you’re in Texas you’re probably both screwed.