Horrible Roomate

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Oklahoma.

I hardly knew one of my roommates before moving in with him. I am in college and I needed a place to stay for school, badly.
My roommate over the course of one month so far has proven to be a huge mistake living with and I wish that I knew what he was like before getting into a house together.
He lets his dog urinate, throw up and shit all over the house, primarily the carpets. He does not attempt to clean it, forcing me if I want to live in a home not infested with mold and germs to clean it.
He hardly feeds or waters his dog.
He does not spend any time working with the dog. Only beating it when it does something wrong.
He steals food out and beverages out of my cabinet / personal fridge.
He comes home drunk about 4 nights of the weekday and every night on the weekend and blares music from 2-4am.
One night I was not home and the old lady in the home next to ours had called the police for a noise complaint.
He has repeatedly shorted me money for rent by 5$. ( AND HE LIVES IN THE MASTER BEDROOM AND IM PAYING MORE MONEY THAN HIM )
He has shorted me money for bills by 18$ today. He said "F*** You" when I asked him to compensate me.
We have co-signed the rent agreement and he moved in before I was able to and he took the master bedroom with its own walk-in closet, bathroom and shower.
He does not pay one penny extra for his room.
He forces me to pay the extra pet fee split with him so he can keep his dog in our house.
He does not do ANY of his dishes whatsoever. I tried not doing them to show that I will not do his dishes for him and he just left them there for a week and a half and the entire kitchen smelled like mold.

Whenever you try to communicate with him, he ignores what you are saying and becomes hostile. He always escalates violently so I have no idea how to confront him about these things he has been doing without him trying to attack me. I want to move out so badly. Living here has been so horrible and is affecting my grades in school. I want to move out so badly and I am crying out for help.

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He has repeatedly shorted me money for rent by 5$

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How does he short YOU money? Why is he even giving you any money?

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He has shorted me money for bills by 18$ today.

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same thing?

Is this a month to month rental or a fixed term lease?


as to the dog; call the Humane Society or the ASPCA or whatever entity takes care of dog abuse problems.

He is giving me the money so I can pay our bills. Since I am the only one who is financially responsible.
He gives me money, I take it to our realty company to pay rent.
He gives me money, I pay the bills.
If I ever called the people for the dog problem, that would NOT go well. There is no predicting as to what he would do.

and the question about the month to month or fixed term lease?

We cosigned a 12 month fixed term lease.

then it sounds like you are on the hook until it expires. Sorry but you made a decision without having enough info to make an informed decision and signed a contract based on that. Sometimes you have to live with your decisions and, unless you are willing to continue to pay the rent where you are at as well as rent at another place, this appears to be one of those times.

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If I ever called the people for the dog problem, that would NOT go well. There is no predicting as to what he would do.

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Fine. Give me your address so I can look up the nearest animal abuse officers, and I will make the call. My god, man, show some compassion for that poor creature. YOU can fight back, that poor dog can't.

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Sometimes you have to live with your decisions and, unless you are willing to continue to pay the rent where you are at as well as rent at another place, this appears to be one of those times.

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Concur. I would not expect the landlord to get involved, so the options are very limited indeed.

The easiest, though the most expensive, would be to move and pay rent in both places. Or, you could move and stop paying rent at the current place, but that does leave you open to being taken to small claims court by the roommate. (Though if he's that irresponsible, I would expect him to be evicted in short order, and he might not have the mental wherewithal to initiate suit.)

I have arranged for someone to come and pick the dog up.
Time to deal with the roommate.

In future, check out roommates (check references even) and have a roommate agreement that's separate from any lease with the landlord.

If it's just a personality clash and you can find someone to take your room (or this person wants to choose their next roommate), you can do that. But unless this person agrees for the landlord to take you off and the landlord accepts a new co-tenant (it can't unreasonably withhold consent if this person passes their application process), then you shouldn't have to worry about fallout from moving elsewhere. You do need to give your co-tenant proper notice, however -- at least 30 days/one rental period.

Ultimately, a court may not hold you liable to your co-tenant if they refuse to find a replacement/mitigate their damages, but it's not at all clear this co-tenant would pay 100% of the rent if/when you leave. So when the landlord wants compensation, it will come after the likeliest target: that will be you. You'd need to sue your co-tenant for those damages and argue that the co-tenant engaged in such outrageous behavior that you were constructively evicted/had no choice to leave. (That is, if the co-tenant doesn't agree to move out. YOu haven't mentioned any discussion on that topic.)

You're free to sue him for what he owes, but so long as you want not to mess up rental record, you need to pay 100% to the landlord. I wouldn't be escalating matters in terms of arguments over $18, however.

I can't believe folks will move in with strangers and not do any due diligence, let alone discuss who gets the master and what not.

"He does not pay one penny extra for his room."

IT sounds like you didn't bother to discuss who would pay what if they took/got the master though.

"He forces me to pay the extra pet fee split with him so he can keep his dog in our house."

He can't "force" you to do anything. What was the deal at the start? Again, you're free to sue him for what he's not paying.

You're free to leave at any time, of course. Question is what kind of liability you're willing to live with.

Woke up this morning to vomit (his own) on the living room carpet he has not even tried to clean it up.
So if I find someone to take my place I can have my name removed off of the lease?
Also, i documented in writing and with (some) photos each time his dog would lay feces around the house. Will this help me?

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So if I find someone to take my place I can have my name removed off of the lease?

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not unless all parties agree to it (you, the new roommate, the existing roommate, the landlord)

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Also, i documented in writing and with (some) photos each time his dog would lay feces around the house. Will this help me?

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It will help you in a suit against the roommate if the landlord sues you for damages.