Roommate is moving out and I have no idea what’s going on
Throwaway acct- One of my roommates (24F) is moving out this week, and the situation around it has been extremely unclear and stressful.
Two weeks ago, she told me (at work in front of clients) that she was moving out and there was “nothing I could do about it” and already found someone to sublease her room. We had to repeatedly ask her for basic information about the person, and only then found out key details (including that the person is significantly older than us, around double our age).
After finally meeting/approving of the new person (even though uncomfortable) and saying it’s okay as long as management approves, she then shared that subleasing isn’t allowed. If we want a new person in, it would be a formal process of changing names on the lease and paying a fee. She explained she didn’t want to do that and this process would be done under the table to hide it from management, which we were not comfortable with since all of our names are still on the lease and that would be considered a lease violation.
Since then, communication has been inconsistent and indirect. At first, she said her brother who is a lawyer spoke to management and they came to an agreement and to feel free to check with the office. I contacted the office and they explained they haven’t spoken to anyone except me. Then, she sent us on a wild goose chase to talk to a specific employee in leasing (who we waited for over an hour for), who proceeded to tell us we could try and hide it from management but to use our own judgment because it’s a “risk” and just her talking to us was a “risk”. After telling her again how we weren’t comfortable and would rather to do it the official way through management, she sent a string of texts arguing. Then she said to just talk with her brother.
She eventually stopped responding and is now actively moving out. We’re still not getting a clear explanation of what the actual plan is regarding rent responsibility, the lease, or whether anyone is moving into the unit, even though she is actively moving out.
We’ve asked multiple times for direct communication and clarity and updates, but she is ignoring and ghosting us, so I’m not sure what our next step should be or how to handle this appropriately at this point. Any advice? I don’t want this escalating to a legal situation or her not paying rent after leaving but at this point she won’t even respond so who knows. For context, there is quite literally only 2 months left in our lease and I’ll be moving out in a month.
//edit: we were close friends and had a falling out a few months ago after I explained how I was feeling frustrated that she wouldn’t communicate and she took it poorly (ex: would go out of town and give somebody her keys to come watch her pet and I had no idea someone was coming into my apartment). It’s been awkward ever since so this is the driver for her moving out (even though I asked if we could talk and fix things so it wasn’t weird around the apt and she said she didn’t want to).