When you live with roommates, you have to deal with their sometimes annoying habits, but in some cases it is worth it for the cheaper rent.
What would you do if your roommates were lying about you even being on the lease and were messy all the time.
That is what happened to the tenant in this story, so he went behind their backs to the actual property owner and got the lease in his name.
Check it out.
OK, so back in the mid 90’s I was a single guy in my late 20’s.
I was a man child, I admit.
I was working but just enough to pay rent and go drinking every night.
I have since gotten married and kids and a house, yadda, yadda.
Anyway, there were these two ladies my age at the bar where I was a regular that just had their roommate move out abruptly.
I was looking to move to something cheaper and this place was a unicorn.
$350 a month for a 3 bedroom place, close to everything.
It wasn’t the greatest place, but far from horrible.
That is an incredible deal!
That’s $350 divided 3 ways!
Plus, the heat and electric were paid for by the doctor’s office below us.
I was paying that alone plus utilities so heck yeah! I moved in.
So day 1 and the ladies have me sign the lease.
I knew it was kinda shady right away as they had a copy of the lease with the old roommate’s name whited out and had me sign.
I was NEVER to contact the landlord myself.
Sus? Sure, whatever.
Here’s $200 for deposit and first month rent.
The ladies were a bit quirky.
They were LAZY!
Sure they were fun and all but they seemed to think that they owned me.
They’d ask me where I have been, who I was dating, why I didn’t get in until 6AM (I worked swing shift).
AOL in the 90’s was amazing.
Lots of little things like being on AOL instant messenger (no cells at this point) all night and day, tying up the phone lines, leaving garbage and other crap in the common areas, dirty dishes, etc.
I actually didn’t really care except they would have the nerve to scold me for leaving out my shoes or coat or whatever in the midst of their mess.
I made a point of never leaving my stuff out, but occasionally I would and they would mention it.
Plus a cousin of the one roommate stayed there 2-5 times a week, which again was annoying but whatever.
Rent was cheap and I barely saw them.
The best part they would be in passive aggressive notes, like “Hey, please don’t leave your shoes out by the couch I almost tripped on them this morning!”
There was clutter everywhere and they’d be complaining about my shoes!
They’d have weeks worth of dishes everywhere and my shoes were the problem!
OK, whatever. I could write a book about the crazy but let’s move on.
It got really bad when I met the person that became my wife.
They were a bit jealous and tried regularly to break us up.
She called one morning (the ring woke me up).
The ladies answered the phone, saying that I never came home last night after meeting some girl at the bar.
Why would they do this?
I called her later and she told me this, laughing the whole time.
She knew it was not true since she dropped me off for the night shift the night before.
There were a lot of similar stories like this, but on to the main story.
The lease was up in a month and they decided to get another apartment and I would have to move out.
I asked if I could take over the rent and they said that the landlord already leased it to someone else.
OK, sure.
So, I finally call the landlord myself.
She tells me that she only knew I was living there because she got my check every month (I made them out to cash and the roommates were too lazy to cash the check beforehand).
I’m surprised the landlord put up with them.
She said that no, she has not leased out the apartment and hadn’t gotten any notice from the ladies that they were moving out yet, but the one cousin that stayed over often was wanting to sign.
It was obvious to me that the landlord did not like these women and I asked if I could have first.
Furthermore they were trying to “steal” the lease from under me and give it to the cousin.
I asked and received a letter from her giving me first dibs on the apartment.
A couple days later I come home from my shift and there is an opened mail on the table to me from the landlord with the “first dibs” letter sitting there (They opened my mail).
Also with a bitter 3 page note about how could I do this to them, why did I contact the landlord, I am a horrible person, etc.
I laughed and read it to my now gf and future wife.
She laughed along with me.
I can imagine they were were not pleasant.
The next few weeks were, cold?
One word answers to questions, no mention of the note or moving out.
They did give notice and I promptly signed a real lease with only my name on it and paid 3 months up front just because I could.
A few weeks later I came home to find 3 bags of garbage and 2 empty bedrooms.
THEY WERE GONE!
Even in the 90’s, that is a great deal!
I had a 3 bedroom apartment to myself for $350 a month!
Oh the after hours parties we had!
I lived there 2 more years, one as a married man with a kid on the way.
We sadly had to get a better place and I had to give up my unicorn apartment, but I’ll never forget screwing over them before they could do it to me.
These ladies sound like terrible tenants, you did the landlord a favor.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say.
This person was surprised they didn’t trash the place.
He was very polite.
Yea, I would never live like that today.
Yes, he should have pressed charges.
Those were good times to be young.
These girls sound insufferable.
But maybe worth it for that rent.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.
