Nice Cookies

I seem to have bad luck with roommates.

I own my own home, and I am a single person. 20 months ago, I decided I wanted to share my house with a roommate who will pay me rent and split bills so I could have more financial flexibility. I would charge him $400 per month and split the bills 2 ways. But, at the same time, my coworker / friend broke up with his girlfriend and needed a place to stay - quick. Its a 3 bedroom house, so I had room for him and told him he could stay rent-free for a couple of weeks before he moves on. So the agreement was that the first roommate gets a $25 discount off of his $400 rent for putting up with another roommate and he only pays 1/3 of the bills instead of 1/2. My coworker is to pay his 1/3.

First that 2 weeks turned into a month at which point my coworker was fired, so I decided to let him stay longer until he got a job, and that he just pay me back for his 1/3 of the bills once he is able.

4 to 5 months pass, the first roommate is paying as agreed, though usually a few weeks late each time. The former coworker roommate still doesn’t have a job or other income, and at this point he has moved in his new girlfriend without asking me. She doesn’t have a job either. I, being a nice guy, just go along with it and just ask the bills be split 4 ways now that there are 4 of us living there. Her parents own at least a couple of houses that they rent out, one of which was where the 2 of them were going to move. That didn’t work out because her brother moved in instead of her, so now the 2 of them are stuck with me. That’s when he was able to give me the first payment of $100 which is less than a third of what he owed me so far for his third of the bills.

They both get jobs briefly for a few weeks each. They basically have enough money between them to buy themselves groceries. At this point the first roommate doesn’t have a job. But, he is able to scam his rich mother out of a chunk of money so he is still able to pay his rent and 1/4 of the bills. It’s just that he’s still too lazy to pay it on time.

It was around this time that it was revealed to me that my former coworker got his live-in girlfriend pregnant. At the time I figure that wouldn’t be my problem because they would be long gone before the baby is born.

Now the former coworker roommate of mine, has the courtesy to ask me if I would allow his girlfriend’s 2 youngest kids to move in for 2 weeks. After that the kids and their mother were to move in with the kids’ aunt. I agreed, and they slept on the couch and loveseat at nights. The problem was that never happened. The kids are also now staying with me, and not on a temporary basis.

A few months later, the first roommate is still up to his perpetual unemployedness, getting money from his mom to pay me rent late every time. The other 2 adults (I will refer to them as the couple) have just got jobs both working at the same place. Her dad sells them a GMC Suburban, for them to pay off a few months later when they get their income tax refund. Their job goes for a downward turn, with each of them only allowed to work about 3 hours a week. Enough income to buy groceries for themselves and her kids. I still haven’t gotten any money from them since the $100 months ago, until now. I get $47 of of the almost $2000 that the couple owes me for each of their 1/4 of the bills. I accept it knowing they are still going through hard times. But now, I find an almost new Lincoln Navigator parked in my driveway. Yes, they did just go to a dealership and purchase a new vehicle for $27,000. That pissed me off! They were able to convince the dealer they had income from their jobs, bought it, and gave the suburban back to her dad, after having it for about 2 weeks. They tell me her dad was getting impatient for them to pay him for the suburban, asking for $400 per month for 4 months. So they buy a Lincoln Navigator for over $500 a month for 60 months. Now that they have been approved for that car loan, they quit their jobs so they can seek other jobs.

They remain unemployed for a while, at which point she has her baby. Now they are going to be raising a baby in my already crowded house.

A few months later, it is almost time for school to let out for summer. The kids are still here after 7-8 months. I had a handshake agreement with my former roommate that they (the couple and the kids) will move out in a month and a half, which is exactly 2 weeks after the last day of school. About this time, both of them find jobs. She drops off the baby at a family member’s house to babysit while she’s at her job.

The day we agreed upon them moving out came and went, and they are all still residing in my house. The kids are now at my house watching my TV all day long every day. Plus, she has 2 more older kids that are also staying here during the summer break. They have been staying with their dad up until now. She stopped taking the baby to the babysitter because her oldest kid (13) has been babysitting from my house instead. We have learned to not depend on the unemployed first roommate because he is so irresponsible and lazy, so he is much less suitable for taking care of the baby than the 13 year old is. I am not suitable for taking care of the baby myself because I have a full time job.

A month later, the former coworker roommate moves his brother in without asking me. He says he isn’t living here, just visiting while on the way to somewhere else. That was a month ago and he still is living here. That makes it 11 people living in my 3 bedroom 1100 square feet house. Now the couple owes me more than $3000 for each of their 1/4 of the bills. If I had asked for $400 a month rent from them it would be over $10,000. But I haven’t got any money from them since the $47 7 months earlier. Now the former coworker has a good job which he is working overtime, making 3-4 times as much as what I make when I work overtime, plus his girlfriend also has a steady job. I would think they would be able to pay me something.

His excuse was once that we was trying to catch up on payments on the navigator. Later, I got a voicemail from him saying that he got the cash out of the ATM machine to pay me a first of many payments, it was in his wallet, and he just needed to give it to me. But, when I asked him for it later, he didn’t have it anymore. He used it for a large deposit to rent a house. They were supposed to begin moving into that house half a month after the day we previously agreed that they would be out of my house. It is now more than a month after when they supposedly left the deposit. They are still here. He has made 2 more paychecks since then and is still giving me excuses for not having any money for me and for not having moved out yet. The excuse was that the paycheck he got 2 weeks ago hasn’t been deposited yet because he hasn’t had a chance to go to the bank. Now he says he lost that paycheck. I find that hard to believe that he would lose a paycheck for 2 weeks of work for 3-4 times as much money as what I make in a 2 week period. It sounds to me like he just doesn’t want to pay me anything. The latest I’ve heard from them was today when he told me they were supposed to move next week because next weekend is too late. They have been showing signs that they will be moving soon. They have bought some beds for their new house. They tricked me. They got me up early one morning so I was tired and not thinking yet, when they had me move my car out of the garage. I thought they were telling me it was so that they could move their stuff out of my garage, but it was instead to move more beds into my parking spot in the garage. Now when I go to work in the afternoons when it is 98 degrees in the shade, my black car in the sun takes about 10 minutes of running the air conditioner while driving to get it down to about 100 degrees. I always get to work sweating.

Back to the first roommate. About a month ago, he got a job (working with the other roommate). So, finally he is making his own money again. But I haven’t gotten any money from him in almost 3 months. It is over $1500 that he owes me for his $375 per month and 1/4 of utilities. I have been sending him daily email reminders, and posting notes on his door weekly, but nothing. Just when he was 2 months late I asked him to pay and he said, "Okay, I’ll pay." Once I get the rest of them moved out, I intend to evict this guy too. Having all these people there is really costing me a lot of money since nobody is paying me for the bills, I’m paying all of it; the electric and water bills are especially high with so many people running the air conditioners, showers, and washing machine/electric dryer all the time.

So the though of reducing my costs by having roommates has backfired and cost me so much more financially, not to mention the fact that the past few months I have been really stressed out over the situation and a little bit depressed about it. It is constantly affecting my mood. It makes me feel like it is their house and not mine, so I can’t do simple things like clean my kitchen or buy myself groceries because they will instantly mess up my kitchen and eat my food. So all the resulting eating out is costing me a lot in itself. The poor mood I’ve been in makes me not want to do nice things for myself like washing my car, cleaning my room, playing video games, or dating women.

So should I keep listening to those people tell me I need to give them another week for them to move out, and a few more days to get me some money, over and over again? Or do I need to take action and not allow them any more leeway? If I have to get a sheriff to help me force them out, I should expect to never get any of the money they owe me for their portions of the utility bills. And I should expect the first guy to never give me any of the money he owes me if I force him out as well.

With all these people, I have no idea how many people have the key to my house, so they may have extra copies when they return the keys I gave to them. I can’t trust these people, so I ordered new high security deadbolt locks for my house. I won’t be giving the new keys to these people, and they kinda ruined the idea of having roommates for me. so once they are finally all moved out, I will be such a happier person, able to clean up my own house, allow it to stay clean, and stock my refrigerator for my own benefit.
i stopped ready about halfway full, you sound like quite a pushover
3 day pay or quit, if they havent paid you in that long give them a 3 day notice or else their out, i have had to do this with tenants at the propertys i have managed
30 days to evict if they have a lease. If they have no lease I would be tempted to put stuff in the driveway and change locks.

Of course I have 3 roommates in my house and would never have let it get this far.

Rule is 1 month security deposit on move in, if they are late even one day on rent they get the eviction notice, if they pay before the 30 days is up I rip it up, but do it again if they are late the next month. If they are more than 5 days late I charge a late fee.

Mail or key = residency= 30 days to evict

How does that work? If I get my mail sent to your address, then get in the house through break in or being invited over you can’t kick me out?

If you give your neighbors a copy of your key just in case, they can just squat on your house if they so choose?

If you are staying there and receive mail there, you have established residency and have to be evicted.

Most likely the person would just leave without too much hassle, as they don;t want to end up going to court. Check your state’s local laws, as residency varies state to state and in most cases a lease is not required to prove it.
Give them 30 days notice, in writing, and if they don’t leave this time call the court/police to force them out. They are completely taking advantage of you and have no respect for you or your home.

Then sue them in court for the money owed.

It sounds mean but again, they don’t respect you so why are you being nice to them?

.

It’d be cool to have Judge Judy yell at them.
You are a bitch!!!! seriously! you have 11 people living in a house you own….. with only one legitimate room mate. Go the home today and tell them to GET THE FUCK OUT! If you let someone stay with you for the "time being" and they move 6 more people into your place??? they are not a resident. you dont need to give them a notice if they didnt sign a lease. tell em enough is a enough you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you get out of my house, you have 3 hours to get your stuff out. Call the sheriff for a supervised eviction…
I didn’t read your whole diatribe but you need to go down to your counties courthouse and file a notice of eviction unless of course the tenants will leave if you just ask.

Also about establishing residency… yes, if a person lives in a house or even squats in a house for a certain period of time, you as a landlord need to file an eviction notice. Throwing their shit out on the curb and changing the locks is illegal in many states as fucked up as that is.
It’s ridiculous that you let it get that far, but I’m sort of a pushover, so I almost understand. I don’t understand why you let more people move in though. Seriously, when I lived at a house with people I didn’t know super well, I had my rent under their door before it was due. The one time I was late (1 day) I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t look them in the eyes for days.

Tell them that they owe you money, that you’ll drive them to the bank (in your hot car) right then to deposit their check and pay you back, then when that’s cleared up, tell them to gtfo. I’d probably only mess with one of the two groups of bums at once though. Too stressful to deal with coworker and roommate at the same time.
Did you make them sign a contract when they moved in? If you did, give them a 30 day notice to vacate. If not, you do not need to give them a notice to vacate, just kick them out and threaten to call the police for trespassing.
Ok, last night, I tried giving them a contract that basically put the verbal agreement we’ve had all along into writing but also said that the contract is up in 32 days and can not be renewed and for them to get out.

Obviously I waited too long to ask them to sign a contract, so it blew up in my face. I left them in envelopes on their doors, and when I got home, found them torn up under my door.
The former coworker and girlfriend told me they have the keys to their new place and are moving out tomorrow. I should probably not expect any money from any of them after this, but of course I will keep asking. And if they aren’t moved out soon, they will be forced out. I hope I’m doing a good enough job of standing up for myself now.

Why do people keep saying this? A contract does not establish residency in most states. If they are living there (the orig. people) with your verbal permission to begin with, a contract does not mean shit except for payment/renewal terms and rules. If they have established residency you MUST give them 30 days notice. This usually does not apply to squatting.
If they are not on the lease and not paying rent, they are trespassing. That’s why people are saying that.
Good job on following through on it as a fellow landlord who had some friends take advantage of me in the same way. I learned my lesson and you have, too. Nobody can walk all over you like a friend.

You aren’t going to get any money out of them. Which from the sounds of it is about where you have been since the beginning. Just think about all the money you will be saving in utility bills without all those idiots living with you.

Next time, get a lease agreement. You can find them at office depot or online.

Not true, the squatting friends are, but not the orig. people that were allowed to move in. Once they have established residency with permission (once again the people orig. allowed to stay there), lease or no lease, they MUST be evicted properly or YOU, the landlord/property owner, will be fucked in court.

I wasn’t a property manager of a 200 unit apartment complex for 4 years or anything.

See? No respect.

Sue them once they are out. You will have a problem with it since it was verbal but when they try to bullshit the judge that you let them live there so long rent free maybe the judge will call bullshit and rule in your favor.

troof

Interesting. I’ll keep that in mind just in case I ever run into these situations.
The threat of small claims court is usually enough to scare people into giving you the money that they owe you. If not, you have to be willing to follow through. For the amount that they owe you, I’d say it’d be worth it to sue them. They’re obviously not people that you want to continue to have a relationship with.
don’t even try to collect from them get them out as fast as you can. no amount of money is worth the aggravation. you sound likw a pushover. the word you are looking for is no

Good news. It was Wednesday night that they shredded the contract. It was Thursday that they all moved out. Thursday night, I came home from work and they were all gone. My stuff was pretty much all still there. I haven’t heard from them since. They haven’t told me where they moved to.

I am so happy to not have to be dealing with these people anymore. I have been spending the weekend cleaning up all the things they neglected to clean up, and they need to come back sometime and get the rest of their shtuff.

I guess the first guy that actually paid me rent for a while was so offended by that contract that he convinced the others to let him move in with them as they moved. He left his mattress.

I should be changing the locks Monday night. They’ll just have to come get the rest of their stuff sometime when I’m home.

I’m not counting on getting any of the money they owe me, but I’ll still bug them about it.

Leave their stuff for about 1 week, then notify them somehow that their stuff will be set out if they do not pick it up in 48 hours. At the end of 48 hours, put all of their remaining stuff out to the curb (make sure you have about 2 days before trash pickup)
And forget a small claims case. It’s a hassle, will cost you additional time and money to file, plus… even if you win, they’re still not forced to pay unless you … yes, you got it, file more paperwork and pay more fees. It’s a pain in the ass. Also, as someone else has already stated, learn to say "No."

Good luck.
Also, I forgot to add my favorite tip. If you have a roomie or tenant that will not leave and is a problem, offer to pay them $100-$250 to move. In the long run it will cost you less.
wow, you let the situation escalate alot farther than you should have

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