Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with roommate and rent

No lease, moving howto?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:48:23 -0800

I live in an apartment with no lease and pay rent to my (dishonest) roommate. How do I minimize my financial losses when I move out? I moved in June 15 and paid a full month's rent ($600). The next month and each subsequent month my roommate told me to pay $550 after I questioned how high the rent was. I paid that rent on the first of each month (or thereabouts).

In months that passed, I've found out that roommate has lied about how much the whole apartment rents for, and that he pays $50 less rent than he told me he paid. I've also observed that he generally lies and cheats people out of things whenever he has the opportunity to do so. We do not have good roommate relations due to related and unrelated conflicts, and he does not like me & vice versa.

I don't have a security deposit or a lease, the utilities are in my name (and I take the amount that he owes me out of the rent check each month), and what we'd (verbally) agreed upon was that I would give 30 days notice before moving out.

I am planning on moving out December 14. I am also planning on taking the utilities out of my name starting on that day. I am 95% positive that he will not give me what he owes me for utilities for the period of December 1-15 (the bill that I will get after I move out). This will be a non-trivial sum since we live in a cold area with high gas bills.

What I (and others I've consulted) see my options as being are to give him written and verbal notification on November 13 that I will be moving out on December 14 and:

A: Pay all of December rent.
B: Pay half of December rent.
C: Say that I've been paying rent from the 15th-15th of each month (since I moved in on June 15) and pay no December rent.
D: Pay half of December rent and subtract the utilities that he owes from that AND the utilities that I project he will owe for the final bill.

So, MetaFilter, what do I do? What is right? What is fair? What will screw me over the least?

Help me prepare an informal lease while temporarly living with a friend.

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:42:14 -0800

Need help writing an informal lease while renting a room out of a friends house. I am going through a divorce, and am currently staying with a friend who owns a house. I don't intend to stay in the state forever, just until I get things in order in my life. I am paying her rent and helping with the utilities. Our friendship is strong, and we're both fair reasonable adults. There is no concern about getting "burned" or becoming a slack roommate. I'm just looking to write some sort of informal lease so we both have something in black & white to go by. Can anyone recommend any resources, or provide any advice? A generic template would be great. This is very casual, and friendly. We both want something pretty simple. Thanks in advance!

Lowering the rent for a roommate, but then deciding it wasn't a good idea.

wuMeFi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:45:24 -0800

My roommate asked for me to lower his rent. I said OK. But now I'm not so sure I should have. What should I do? My friend and I are sharing a 1-br apartment in San Diego. He is living in the bedroom, I am living in the living room. The rent division has been 60 / 40, bedroom / living room (it used to be like 65/35, but he felt that was unreasonable, so after the first year I changed it to 60/40. I occupied the apartment first and I do the bills. Our current lease ends in November).

Recently his whole department at work got a pay cut of 8%. He asked me whether I could reduce his rent by 8%. I felt bad for him, and my first thoughts were that in difficult times, friends help each other. So I said yes, and that he'd see the adjustment in next month's bill. I asked him whether his work would undo the pay cut in the future, and he said that it wouldn't, as a cut happened before in the past and was not undone.

So that was a few days ago. But now that I've thought about it, I'm not sure I should've been so quick to say yes. I'm living in the living room, and I'd be paying almost as much as he is, since the rent division would be 52/48. I suppose in an absolute sense, the additional amount I'd be paying per month is not A LOT, but it's not insignificant in the long run. I basically just gave myself ~8% rent increase. It's kind of a lot for me to take on suddenly.

I do want to help him out since we are friends. What is the best way I can do that, while getting myself out of this situation I got myself into? I was thinking of talking to him and maybe saying that "8% is a lot for me to take on, on second thought.. how about 4%?" or something (would it be too late to do that?).

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Should I confront my roommate about overcharging me for rent?

lxs — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:28:48 -0800

I found out my roommate is overcharging me for rent - do I do anything? I recently moved into an apartment share with a roommate who has already been living in the apartment for about six months. I found an invoice today that contained the full rent amount, and it looks like I'm paying $100 more than what half of it would be each month. FWIW, I did not know my roommate before I moved in (we found eachother on craigslist), we're living in NYC, our apartment is rent-controlled, and the place is in her name.

I'm curious about the politics of roomshares, and whether I'm entitled to say something or not. Honestly, I most likely will not since the apartment IS rent-controlled and thus still a good deal, plus I do like my roommate and don't want to risk causing a situation awkward enough that I might want to move again. Regardless of what I'm inclined to do, I'm curious what the objective standard (if one could be said to exist) on these situations is - do I have a right to say anything? Is this common? Is it considered an unscrupulous thing to do, or just the way of the world when it comes to NYC apartments?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

What is a fair rent for 700 sq. feet in suburban Virginia?

Sara Anne — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:57:08 -0800

Help my sister determine how much rent to charge! My sister is looking to rent out a room in her house, which is located in a comfortable subdivision in Chesterfield Virginia, just outside of Richmond.

The space she wants to rent is an Attic space of around 700 square feet.

Amenities include:

Free wifi and cable television.
access to neighborhood swimming pool
garage space for car
plenty of common space, including a screened porch

Downside:
On the weekends when my sister has custody of her daughters (approximately two weekends per month), room mate will need to share her bathroom.

My sister is thinking about charging $700/month, which is comparable to apartment shares she's seen listed that include a lot less space, but completely private bathrooms.

Are there any online tools out there for determining what would be fair or reasonable for sister to charge?

How do you split stuff up when one person's not around?

bluefly — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:47:26 -0800

Should I ask my roommate to pay her share of the utilities when she was gone all month? My roommate is in China for the entire month. We usually split the bills 50/50 (electricity, internet, cable). She paid her rent for January, so that's not a problem. On the one hand, I can see that she shouldn't have to pay utilities because she's not around. On the other hand, neither of us is around very much some months, and I feel like in the end, it's all a wash. The internet and cable bills are a flat rate every month anyway no matter how much we use. What do other people do? Thanks.

My roommate is giving me a concern

ictow — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:07:45 -0800

What should I do to protect myself from my roommate's mess? Three of us moved to Chicago two months ago. We all had different strategies of attack. I saved money beforehand so I could be unemployed and not worried. It's worked out. One roommate pounded the pavement to get two or three jobs. It's worked out. The third decided to rely on her charm and good luck. It hasn't worked out.

For October rent she had to get a loan from her mother. Beyond that she's in debt for another $500. She just got a job a week and a half ago, but won't be getting a paycheck till the end of this month. As such, she can't pay November rent. She has offered no solution to this, and doesn't seem to understand or care why it really worries me. She says she'll be able to pay both November and December rent on December 1st, but that's by no means a sure thing. I've insisted that she call our landlord and try to work something out, but so far all she's done is left a voicemail.

We're all three on the lease, and I just don't want to get screwed by her laissez-faire attitude to her own finances. So my question is: what do I do? Consider eviction a non-option, at least until December. Should I pay her rent and get stuck trying to get paid back? Should I leave it between her and the landlord? He's a nice guy, so I'm not worried about immediate repercussions, but this is all new to me. I'm not used to living with someone who can be so irresponsible.

Any/all advice welcome. Do what you can to calm these frazzled nerves.

Roommate he-said she-said results in us being short a quarter of the rent. Help!

malapropist — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:30:28 -0800

My roommate wants me to find someone to take her part of the rent, arguing that the people who took over my part of the rent really took over her part. She is threatening to simply not pay. We have one month (Nov) left on the lease. Her name, as well as mine and two other roommates' are on the lease. If she went ahead and didn't pay, how badly would this affect my credit? It's a long, boring, story but here it is:

Up until yesterday I was sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with three other people: I shared one room with Nader, while Obama and Biden shared the other. All four of us are on the lease, which will be up at the end of this month, November.

About two weeks ago, our neighbors were evicted, a couple named McCain and Palin. Nader invited them to stay in our dining room until they found somewhere to live. Right around this time I decided to move out. At first I talked to McCain and Palin about taking over my portion of the rent, but they were tight with money and couldn't commit to anything. So I posted a craigslist ad, but didn't get any luck with someone moving in.

A few days after I started talking about replacing myself and moving out, Nader starts talking about moving into a vacancy in a neighbor's apartment, which would be cheaper than the share she paid with us. She talked to McCain and Palin about taking over her portion of the rent, and for about the last week things have been very vague. They weren't sure if McCain and Palin would take over the whole room that I and Nader share, or if McCain/Palin were going to take over Nader's portion, or if McCain and Palin were going to move upstairs with Nader.

Finally, on maybe Saturday or Sunday, Nader told me that she was going to have McCain and Palin take over her part of the rent, but it was already the 1st or 2nd of the month, and rent is late on the 4th. I wasn't having any luck getting out of the place, and Nader, McCain and Palin hadn't gotten their share of the rent in, so I approached McCain on the 2nd about moving into my half of the room.

He told me he could get me the rent money if I was willing to pay for it and let him pay me back. I was pretty desperate and the rent was only 325, so I went ahead and made a money order (the only way our complex accepts rent) and gave it to Obama, who handles the rent. He gave me 50 on the spot, promising another 100 yesterday and the rest on Friday. I went ahead and wrote up this arrangement in plain English, with both of our names on it, and had him sign it. At the time, I thought I should do this in case he didn't make with the rent money, I wanted to have a paper record.

The next day, the 3rd, yesterday, he shows up with all of the rest of the rent money. He hands it to me, and I start packing. But Nader also starts packing. In fact, she moves all her stuff upstairs to the neighbor's house. By the time I'm ready to leave, she realizes that McCain and Palin are not taking over her portion of the rent, but mine. She gets really pissed off at me and won't talk to me.

Later on in the night, after I had left, she calls me and our conversation soon turns into yelling. She claims that this is my responsibility and that I had better find someone to replace her and in the meantime I need to pay the rent so there is no late fee (because remember the rent is late as of the 4th, today), and that if the fourth portion of the rent (which I argue is her portion) is not ready to be paid, then I should pay the late fee ($50) as well. I told her that I had everything in writing, it was my name on my portion of the rent, and there was a written agreement between me and McCain/Palin.

Nader is threatening to leave the rent hanging, and talking to the management company they make no distinction between my, Nader's, Obama's or Biden's rent, they just want it all in, including the $50 now.

Like I said, all four of our names are on the lease, including Nader's, because even if McCain and Palin had taken over her rent, it was unofficial, they're just subletting and Nader's name is still on the lease. Of course, that is still true of me. And I don't want to get fucked.

Now, I can't tell if Nader would be willing to just filch on the rent if her name is on the lease, but if she did, what would be the repercussions? Would this screw up my credit? I can't really tell from google searches.

I do have a few more people on craigslist inquiring about the half-room that is available, but in case they continue passing on the place I'm really worried.

Short summary: one month left on the lease, I and someone who is unwilling to pay but still staying in the apartment complex (right up the stairs in fact) are both on the lease, what legal obligations and repercussions are there if I simply say, "I got someone to pay my part of the rent, and this is not my problem any longer"?

This is in southern California, by the way. Thanks.

PS: As I was writing this Obama called me and told me that non-payment of rent will result in a dark stain on our credit forever and a bill of $500 due on each of us on top of the rent we owe. Must be in the lease. Sound legit? I really don't know with these people.

Am I responsible for my roommate's bills if I move?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:39:17 -0800

I am moving out before our lease expires. Am I liable for the rest of our future bills? I cannot stand my roommate. I am moving out of our shared two-bedroom apartment a couple of months before our lease expires. I have not told him yet.

Both of our names are on the rental agreement, but only mine is on the bills, and he pays me back his equal share of them.

Our rental agreement states that the tenants are responsible for all utility bills except water.

The agreement also says that if tenants move out before their one-year-long lease expires, they are responsible for giving the landlord the rest of the rent that they owe. It does not state what should occur with the utility bills in such a situation.

I do not think I should be responsible for helping to pay for my soon-to-be ex-roommate's electricity and gas and whether he is able to foot the bills on his own is of less than zero concern to me.

What do you make of this? Does this mean that if I move out before our lease expires, I can hand the landlord the rest of the rent that I would owe until then, and stick my roommate with the bills? If so, how can I transfer them to his name if he refuses to take responsibility for them, especially since I do not know his social security number?

How do I best navigate through a bad landlord/tenant situation?

SeizeTheDay — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:07:32 -0800

Complicated, messy NYC roommate/landlord question: 4 roommates share a 3 bedroom converted into 4 (with permission). One roommate signed a lease for a new building without getting permission from current building to transfer name on lease to new roommate. Said old roommate now refuses to pay six months of rent (remainder of lease). Much, much more inside. So three out of 4 roommates want to get out of current lease by assigning the lease to new people. This was never a problem in the building before, but now building has new ownership, and they’re making this difficult/impossible.

Two roommates are unemployed and need to get out. One of two refuses to pay remaining 6 months of lease (even though he lied about his income and signed a new one year lease in NJ). Third roommate that wants to leave has signed a one year lease (in another building) starting in May.

Leasing agent for landlord will not give us a straight answer about assigning lease to other candidates. We gave management 3 very viable replacement candidates, including all application material. This morning one of the candidates was explicitly rejected by management because it was for the converted room (despite giving us (the current tenants) no notice of this). They refuse to comment on the other two applications.

I am one of the three that wants to move out. I am willing to pay my 6 months remainder of the lease to avoid credit problems, court appearances, etc. but (as I said earlier) one roommate refuses to pay the next 6 months and other two roommates refuse to cover the deadbeat’s share (and eventually sue deadbeat). Important note: landlord refuses to accept partial payments of rent, so if deadbeat doesn’t pay and we don’t cover his share, leasing agent won’t cash our checks.

Leasing agency refuses to break the lease. Deadbeat refuses to pay. And the third roommate that wants to leave (who signed elsewhere) is starting to think that he should refuse to pay as well and let them sue us all.

I don’t want to be sued. I want to pay my 6 months and get the hell out of this situation. Ideally, I want management to take the applicants we gave them to replace us, but if that’s not going to happen, I need to know what my best option is. Should I: 1) Refuse to pay and let them sue, knowing full well they’d sue anyway because deadbeat won’t pay. 2) Pay my rent and pray that they cash my check and understand the situation (I’m going to camp out in the office on Monday until they at least hear my case). 3) Promise the landlord a check for the full amount of my share if they leave me alone. 4) Something else?

What happens if they sue me? Will I be on the hook for the entire unpaid amount (which may be up to $30000, assuming no one pays ever from now until lease end)? Can I use old checks to prove I only paid x dollars/month and the judge will only require me to owe x? I really have no clue here.

I’m in NYC. I have contacted legal aid and lawyers. I will be speaking with a lawyer that specializes in this on Monday. But I don’t want to pay $300/hour given how ignorant I am of this situation, because that consultation would end up costing me hundreds alone. So before I go to the lawyer, I’d like some anecdotal and street advice about my options. Sorry for the length. ANY help at all is unbelievably appreciated right now. Thanks.

Help me collect rent!

PFL — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:43:21 -0800

So it's the 12th. One of my roommates still hasn't paid rent and is avoiding all contact with us. What's the best way to handle this? (more inside) Backstory: My roommate of 2.5 years and I moved into a new house with 2 other guys in December. The new roommates have been great. However, for some reason, my once-steady roommate has become unreliable. He bounced his January rent check, then paid me in cash a week later and paid his Feb rent on time. Didn't pay March rent and said he didn't have the money when I asked him. Asked him for it again on Sunday and he said he still didn't have it and would have to work something out. He's ignored all other attempts to contact him since then and I haven't seen him (I usually try to contact him once per day).

I covered his March rent; I write a check to the PM and the roommates give me their share. We are concerned that I'm not going to get my money back and he won't pay future rent. Ideally we'd like to keep him as a (paying) roommate, especially since we have no prospects that we could potentially replace him with anyway. I don't think he'd mind leaving though.

Additional info: He is kind of a baby, we need to coddle him a little bit so any kind of harsh contact with him would probably shut him down. He is also going away on a trip in 10 days, so are we out of line asking for next month's rent before he goes (assuming he pays us for march)?

Also: I understand that he's only 12 days late and has been, overall, reliable over the last couple years, but stuff with this kid seems to spiral out of his control pretty quickly (schooling, personal life, etc). We are worried for him but we also want his money.

We are in TN and everybody is on the lease.

How would you deal with this?

Am I obligated to help my now-distant roommate find a sublessee?

John Singer Sandwich — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:30:47 -0800

My roommate moved hundreds of miles away. Am I obligated to help find someone to sublease from him? About a day or two before my roommate moved out of the apartment, he did some work trying to find someone to take over his half of the rent. He found a couple of people on Craigslist, and made a good-faith effort to meet them before he left town, but he had to go without securing a deal with anyone since his flight was already booked.

Now he's indicated that he wants me to facilitate a sublease for him, and has passed it all onto me. He gave my phone number to the prospective Craigslist people and instructed them to call me to set up times that they can come by and look at the apartment.

But hey, I'd like to live alone. And my roommate has said that he would be able to pay the rent for the place he moved into and continue to pay the rent for the apartment here, if need be.

One of the prospective people called me today. Am I obligated to call him back? To arrange a showing? To invite this stranger to live with me, on my far-off roommate's behalf?

I want my old rental rate back

missmle — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:39:01 -0800

Can I get my old rental rate back if my roommate moves? I signed a 1 year lease on an apartment in January. I got a roommate in March, and as part of the agreement my rent went up 10% and we had to sign a new lease with both of our names on it as well as the new rate. This new lease began the 1 year leasing period over from the date it was signed. Well, my roommate can no longer pay rent and has to move out. I plan to stay but was wondering if I can ask the leasing company to allow me to sign a new lease and get my old rental rate back. Do landlords usually do this? Also, am I going to suffer since my roommate has to leave and is therefore breaking his part of the lease? I can't find anything related directly to this in the leasing agreement.

Splitting the rent

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:54:16 -0800

Splitting the rent evenly even though the situation isn't even? I moved into an apartment as a roommate to someone who was living there for a month already. We are splitting the rent evenly, but she has the master bedroom with a bath and large closet connected. I have a much smaller room and bathroom in the hall. I only found out recently that it is common for the person in the master bedroom to pay a little more than the other person. I don’t know how much more money is determined though.

I would like to bring it up to her but I don’t know if have a right since I never brought it up before signing the lease with her. The lease is 6 months so maybe I could ask after 3 months if I can have the master bedroom for the last half of the lease? Or is it too late since we didn’t work it out in the beginning?

roommate gone need to show (locked) room

debu — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:43:50 -0800

I have a roommate moving out and I need to show the room to possible tenants. The problem is he left for a couple weeks and locked his door. Is there a law stating the room has be available for showing, or am I out of luck for two weeks? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Help me not pay twice as much rent!

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:17:21 -0800

Moved out: roommate won't give me my last month's rent back. What do I do? The sequence of events -

1) I moved into a room into a two-bedroom apartment (this is in NYC), and signed a sublease agreement with the lease owner (my roommate). The sublease agreement was month-to-month. I paid him the first month's and last month's rent

2) After little more than a week after living there, I told my roommate that I wasn't staying, and that I was moving out. I posted notices up on Craigslist, and found him multiple people willing to take the room (he wanted to make the final decision).

3) I kept on living in the apartment for the next three weeks.

4) Fast forward to now: I moved out after a month, gave him the keys. I asked for the last month's rent back (since I paid two month's rent, but only stayed a month), and he told me that his financial situation was bad, and that he would only be able to give me $20 a month, unless things change or he gets a paying job (which I assume means that he doesn't currently).

On top of that, he told me that I was on the lease as well! I had never heard anything about this, nor had he told me anything about a lease, especially since the agreement was most certainly a sublease/sublet agreement. He said that he just went ahead and put me on the lease, since he thought I would be staying for a while -- but not to worry, since I didn't sign the lease, and so it's not valid. What??

I told him I'd have to think things over - $20 a month comes to a bit more than three years! I was also counting on getting this last month's rent, since my own financial situation isn't that great (credit card debts, etc).

What should I do? What are my options? Small claims? Quite honestly, I'm angry and annoyed, and $20 a month is pretty unreasonable. I know I should have talked to him earlier about this, but I feel like it's pretty obvious that if that I told him that I was moving out after a week or so, he would have set aside the second month's rent to return to me. Also, the thing about me being on the list is strange and kind of creeps me out...

I have an email account at: AskMeRoomateProblem@gmail.com (Yes, 'roomate' is spelled 'roomate'). Thanks, AskMe!

Two Against One. Can We Drop Someone From Our Lease?

SansPoint — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:02:29 -0800

How do I/how hard is it to take someone off a lease? Okay, About two months ago, I moved into a 3 bedroom house with two friends I go to college with. All three of us signed the lease, and it was cosigned by my father, who put up the third required month's rent towards the security deposit.

One housemate, J, has been nothing but a pain with regards to financial issues. We had to cover his first month's rent, a pro-rated payment coming to slightly over half a regular month's rent, as he had no money left. Admittedly, he had been having trouble finding a job, though was employed at the time. He did not receive his first check until after the rent was due, but he did not offer anything he had. We threatened to take him to small claims court unless he paid us back^1..

When J paid me, and the housemate back for this payment, he did it exceedingly grudgingly, and said he would take out a loan to cover his remaining share. We agreed under the condition that he not throw fits over paying bills.

When I informed him of cable and gas bills that arrived two weeks ago, he said he did not get paid until that coming Sunday. I informed him the bills were not due for two weeks. He still complained about being TOLD of the bills existence. Similarly, when the second month's rent was due, he threw a fit when I asked him for a check, as the loan had not come in yet.

Ultimately, I had to embarrass him in front of a friend he had brought over on Saturday to get his $15 share of that cable bill, and get the $45 he owed me for the first cable bill, and a SEPTA Transpass I bought him to get to his summer class^2.. This, he had owed me, for nearly six weeks, even before the first month's rent was due.

He is leaving for California today, coming back August 1st, the day rent is due. I asked him to leave a post-dated check, and he exploded, calling his mother to get her to help him convince me to let him slide until his return, so he could pay all his remaining rent in one lump sum, as the loan he took out was delayed. He, essentially, accused me of extortion, even though this would be a post-dated check made out to the property managment company, not to me. Also, he left a threatening note to the other housemate, R, and I, causing R to fear for his life. Rather than live in a Demilitarized Zone, I told him that we're taking him off the lease ASAP.

So, first, do I have a case here? Secondly, I have contacted the property management people we are dealing with, and left a message explaining my situation: what can I expect to happen when I talk to them? Third, will I be able to take his person off the lease?

^1. We only did this because of his cavalier attitude. It felt like he wouldn't pay us back.

^2. A class he routinely showed up an hour late to—and failed, and then blamed me for it, saying he should never had taken the class by my suggestion.

Can my female roommate sublet to a guy without my approval?

almostmanda — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:41:44 -0800

My roommate wants to move out, and has found some random guy to sublease. I'm not comfortable living with Random Guy. What can I do to keep this from happening? My roommate and I live in an apartment complex where we each sign our own leases. There's over a hundred apartments in the building. They'll typically match you with same-sex roommates if you don't have someone in mind already, but I'm pretty sure they will rent to opposite sex pairs and small families.

My lease was due to end in May, but I extended it to mid-August so I could hang around over the summer and get my bearings after I graduate. Her lease runs through August, but she wants to move somewhere else after graduating. Yesterday, she approached me and said "I found a subleaser! Do you want to meet him?!"

I like to think that I'm a fairly liberal, open-minded person (yeah, yeah, that's a red flag, I know), but the idea of living with a guy I don't know beforehand squicks me out more than a little. I'm just not comfortable with it. This thought apparently has not entered her head, but I was obviously not pleased when she was telling me.

I'm pretty confident that the apartment managers will be happy to let him take over her lease, but live in a different apartment (since they're college apartments, they tend to be pretty empty over the summer). Just in case, though, is there any legal backing to my stance? I can't imagine, with the religious right being what it is in mid-America, that one could be forced to live with someone of the opposite sex in order to run out their lease. Aside from that, is there anything else I could do to keep Random Dude out of my apartment? I'm not particularly religious, but I'm not above claiming to be to keep it from happening.

I knew I should have made a rental agreement...

Sufi — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:13:40 -0800

Roommate won't pay! What are my options? At the beginning of July my husband and I invited a woman to live with us as a roommate. She had been hired by a company in Texas and was moving from another state, so we offered to provide her with housing while she got settled in. There was no rental agreement signed and no deposit. We had not known this person previously.

Well, things have not been going as well as we planned and it's time for her to leave. The only problem is she thinks she was told the first month's rent was "on the house", which was not the case.. she was told she could pay when she got her first paycheck at the end of the month.

I assume she's going to refuse to pay rent at the end of this month. My husband thinks he can just lock her out without her possessions until she pays, but I'm not so sure that would go over well with the authorities. What are my options?

Roommate predicament, should I pay or not?

thefinned1 — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:40:08 -0800

Roommate predicament, should I pay or not? Short summary: The former roommate in the house I was planning to move in to tried her best to be discreet about telling me that I might not be getting into a good rental situation when I asked her. I pulled out but left the live-in landlord with half my deposit as not to screw her over. Now the landlord has contacted the old roommate telling her she is liable for rent because things with me fell through. The old roommate was only trying to protect me – and now she is about to get hurt because of it. HELP! I need advice.

(Very) Long version: I arrived at my new apartment, ready to move in with my car half full of stuff ready to unload. My new landlady who I would be living with was at work, and the roommate who was moving out was home finishing up the bathroom cleaning. After checking out the empty room, I was headed downstairs to start with the first load of stuff, and I asked the roommate who was leaving if there was anything I should know about the landlady or the living situation before I took the plunge.

Her response left me baffled – she refused to go into any details until she got her full deposit back, but the look in her eyes and the fact that she felt worried that she wouldn’t get her deposit back from this lady didn’t fare well for what kind of situation I was about to get myself into. I tried to get more information out of her so I could make the right decision, but she wouldn’t budge one bit. She seemed very very nice, and sympathetic, and the more I tried to get info out of her, the more I understood that this was NOT a living situation I should be entering into. She even mentioned wishing that she had the phone number of the other roommate who recently moved out, insinuating that that person had a bad story to tell as well.

So...the former roommate and I exchanged phone numbers and agreed to talk later, so I could tell her what I was planning to do, and so that she could eventually tell me, once she got her deposit back, what was so wrong with the landlady/living situation, regardless of my decision. The landlady never knew that she and I came into contact, and we agreed to keep it that way.

After giving it much thought that afternoon, I decided that the best way for us all to get out of it – for me to not have to move in with a crazy lady, and for the former roommate to not be affected by my decision – was to make up a story that got me out of it. So, I did – I made up a life altering event, the end result of which meaning that I couldn’t move in. The landlady was sympathetic to my situation, I told her to keep the deposit money I gave her to cover the half month of rent that it could, and the former roommate wasn’t involved and should therefore get her money back – everybody wins, right?

So I thought until I received a call from the former roommate – the landlady called and told her that because things with the new roommate (me) fell through, she was still responsible for paying rent until she found someone who could take the room. Obviously this is unfair and ridiculous – the deposit money that I left should be what covers the rent until a new person comes in – but as far as the landlady knows, the former tenant and I never touched base, so she doesn’t know that we each know what she’s trying to do. The problem now being, this former tenant can’t get her deposit back from the landlady, and it’s at least partially, if not fully, my fault.

So – what should I do? Should I offer to pay the former tenant a portion or all of the deposit that she won’t be able to get back? That would be money I’m paying, literally, for NOTHING! Should I tell the tenant that I’m sorry she is in this situation, but I can’t help, and risk having her tell the landlady about our interaction, and therefore I would be held responsible for my end of the rental agreement?

I really want to do what is right for everyone, including myself…but what is right? What would you do in my situation?

I'm in California, if that helps/matters.

Paying Rent

Gabe014 — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 13:23:42 -0800

I live with my roommate, at first we came to an agreement that I pay two hundred dollars more a month for 2/1. Is this fair? I pay 800 he pays 600. I was wondering since we share bathrooms if this is fair to me. I think 200 is way too much. I don't have financial problems. But I know I can find someone to live their for 650 and I pay 750. I am only asking for 50 less to pay and the separation would only be 100. I do not know how to approach him in regards to it, I don't want to hurt his feelings or ruin our friendship.