'AITA? My housemate went to Bali and left me with a biohazard...'

"AITA? My housemate went to Bali and left me with a biohazard..."

I am a student renting with My landlord/ housemate. I pay $500 a fortnight in rental fees and pay for all of my groceries and other living expenses. I don't have a lot of money after rent and insurance is paid but it’s enough to get by on cheap groceries and living mindfully.

My housemate went to Bali for 10 days and asked me to look after his 3 cats. I agreed to do so as well as take him to the airport and collect him upon return. I asked for nothing in exchange apart from enough cat food, litter and bug spray to get through the 10 days.

No more then 24 hours after my housemate had left, I went to clean the cats' litter and was terrified to discover that it was infested with flies, larva, maggots and baby flies.

It was caked with cat urine and feces and had been left in a disgusting state. I ran to the store to purchase bug spray which cost me $10. I had no money in my account and therefore went further into debt to cover the expense.

After cleaning the situation, I sent my housemate a text informing him of the situation and asking for him to reimburse me for the $10 and another $10 for emotional damages. I was mainly joking about the emotional damages and made that clear but I was serious about the money for the bug spray.

He then went off at me at how it comes with looking after cats and how if I couldn’t handle it then I shouldn’t have agreed. The situation the litter box was in was far beyond what a reasonable litter box would be like, having had cats all my life I am no amateur. I did not think it unreasonable for him to pay me back for the bug spray seeing as I needed it to kill and disinfect the biohazard he left me to deal with. AITA?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

CandylandCanada said:

NTA. Tell him that you can't pick him up from the airport because you don't have the funds and don't know the details because he blocked you. If you pick him up after all this then you are fostering his bad behavior and you are part of the problem.

OnlyRequirement3914 said:

NTA, honestly I would've called animal control. I had a roommate once who would disappear for 5+ days at a time and left her cats locked in her bedroom. I told her if she didn't take care of them I was going to call animal control. She had no food, no litter, and was using my spare litter box (I have a litter robot). One singular bowl of water that they would drink in a day. It was horrific.

Musician_Recent said:

NTA, but I don't know why you cleaned it instead of just getting a cheap litterbox. Obviously I don't know your house mate but it sounds kinda calculated to me, like he left it knowing you'd clean it. If it was me he'd come back to the old litter box gone, or in the most inconvenient place possible.

Warbird979 said:

NTA. He agreed to make sure you had all the supplies, which he didn't. It's not unreasonable to ask for the $10 to cover the expenses.

SaturdayPlatterday said:

NTA. Three cats should have at least 4 litter trays, and there is no way it got to that level of disgusting in 24 hours. He’s not your friend, look after the cats because it’s not their fault, but make that the last thing you do for this ahole. It’s a shame you’ll no longer be able to pick him up because he blocked you.

Expensive_Excuse_597 said:

NTA. You need to get out of that apartment ASAP! It is hazardous to your health!

Logical-Shame5884 said:

NTA. He's lucky you didn't ask for more then 10 bucks he should have thrown you a $100 for your troubles, instead your house mate is acting entitled, as if you should know how to care for cats. He's a bad irresponsible cat owner for even leaving them with someone inexperienced.