(mi) Escalating Harassment From Abusive Roommates In A Duplex With An Unresponsive Landlord Who Never Formed A Lease With Us Has Culminated In One Of Them Trying To Serve Me An Eviction Notice.

Last year, former neighbors and I jumped ship on a building with a growing bedbug problem by getting keys to a unit in a duplex on the same block. It was initially unlivable, a verbal agreement being made for us to restore it in exchange for rent credit of sorts; being compensated for any labor or costs put into it. It was agreed that we would move in and contact him once it was liveable to negotiate rent and other conditions. This is the last they've heard from him, despite us having officially been moved in since last November.

For a majority of the last year, I've been actively refused access to the landlord's contact information on the claim that he didn't know about my presence and they believed me getting in contact would somehow ruin the situation for them. Since I've started talking to the upstairs neighbors more, I've found that the landlord has known about me since day one, in addition to a number of other things that've pulled the curtain back a lot; examples including things like them being told I'm in a bedroom I'm not after noise complaints, or my getting texts about yelling they've been told was me while I've been asleep or out of the house.

I've since gotten the landlord's number from them, and have spoken with him briefly, but he's since stopped responding to texts while I was trying to set up a meeting. The neighbors (who are close with him) have had their own problems with my roommates, and have generally been in favor of helping me get the other two out, trying to add a little extra motivation for him to do something and keeping in touch while I pass the things I document over to them. Overall, though, they say he's a flaky individual, and he seems to be dragging his feet to deal with the mess despite that they say he's already decided to evict.

I have been searching for other housing, but with my financial situation as it is there haven't really been realistic options in my area, and while I'm on the applicable wait lists for assistance or low-income spaces, there's not really a definitive end in sight through that. I also have a cat with a bit of separation anxiety who's been increasingly stressed out (I've caught one of my roommates harassing her at least twice, and suspect there's likely more when I'm not around), and staying with someone she's not familiar with seems a huge risk with how anxious they've made her lately, which unfortunately rules out a lot of couch-surfing options.

Finally before I get to the point, to clarify a little more on the alleged abuse in my title and the pressure that's been applied over the last year, I've already dipped into how roommate 1 has apparently been looking to poison people's opinion against me; there's also been a repeated pattern of him trying to control the flow of information or rewriting narratives for his benefit, both in the house and out of it. Roommate 2 has been a lot more hot and cold, swinging back and forth between acting happy and friendly and offering me food one moment and looming in my doorway, irrationally angry because he heard something he didn't like the next. The escalating aggression has panned out into him forcing my door and ripping the hook-and-eye latch I use for privacy out of the wall "because he felt trapped" in the rest of the house with my door closed, an allusion to something I'd said when asked why I didn't just get out if I wasn't comfortable. He's also told me to kill myself, has since defended saying as much in text, has claimed that I deserve to be treated as less than human, and has on multiple occasions stated that he's furious and wants to destroy everything in reach when I've forced conversations he's wanted to happen in person to be through text. There are other odd examples, but I've already been to long-winded, so for the sake of brevity I'll leave it here and explain more in the comments if needed.

Now, to get to the thing that has actually prompted this post; roommate 1 has delivered a piece of mail to me claiming to be a notice to vacate without any involvement from the landlord. Fully typed, no signature, although I'm not sure if that bit's relevant. I'm aware I'll still probably need to formally respond to this even if he doesn't have the authority to carry it out. I've also already updated the neighbors and the landlord on everything, and have been doing a bit of research on what my rights are and how to move forward in this situation. I am, admittedly, still a little overwhelmed here, though, and still feel unsure over exactly how to proceed without promoting a more immediate and hostile response in retaliation. I also, in my researching, have not been entirely sure whether to view this as a landlord/tenant matter or a domestic abuse one. Even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the authority to evict in the first place, would I even have a case to defend myself if he did somehow manage to get the court's backing on a claim?

I was wondering prior to this if there might realistically be a case for me to file a PPO (I'm sure there would be against 2, but I'm not so sure regarding 1 considering it's primarily been verbal harassment,) but that's had a whole slew of its own questions. What would that filing look like now, if it's even possible? What would the enforcement of that and transition out look like, in terms of how long it would take them to pack if they were surprised with an ex parte order, if I'm worried that either of them (though mostly 2) might suddenly snap and get violent in the process?

P.S. Thank anyone who takes the time to read this and offer some feedback. I've been stewing in anxiety, so I'm sorry if it's a wordy and scattered, but I'll probably try to comb back through to refine and update it a little after I eat something and maybe shower.