'AITA for causing my friend to be excluded from our friend group?'
"AITA for causing my friend to be excluded from our friend group?"
LunchAlarming9965
I lived in an apartment for rent whose owner was the father of a friend of mine who died and this friend became the owner. He and I are close (almost 10 years) and we basically have the same circle of friends. We never had problems with payment, readjustments and in those 6 years that I lived there I think I was a good tenant.
Well, recently my wife who was pregnant had an emergency c-section and we had our baby girl at just 7 months pregnant. The surgery was extremely complicated and had several complications. My wife was hospitalized for 15 days and our girl is still in the ICU Neo.
5 days before the c-section happened, my friend called me and we talked. He said he wanted to renovate the house and sell it, so he asked us to vacate and gave us 30 days notice (yeah, super short but totally legal). It even sent an extra-judicial notice of eviction.
All these unforeseen events happened and I really forgot about it, I only remembered almost 10 days later and I wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk.
I said that I was almost always at the hospital with my daughter or my wife and I just wouldn't make it in time or have the peace to look for houses, move and at the same time deal with my personal life. Anyway, I asked if he could extend that time to another month so we could do it calmly.
To my surprise and out of the blue, he said "I'm sorry, but I won't increase the time. You're my friend, but business is business and you have 15 days to move".
Me: "Oh, I really just didn't expect this insensitivity and cruelty from you".
I had to ask my group of friends for help (my parents and in-laws live in another country) and we managed to find a house and move in with 3 days before the time.
I didn't need to say much about the reasons why because most of them knew that he had asked me to move but everyone was in shock to hear that I had asked but he still wanted to go ahead. Almost everyone cut contact with him.
He recently called me saying that I basically made him the monster of the situation, when he's just minding his business and that I washed the dirty sh*t with our friends. It basically told me to grow up and wake up to the reality that business is business. Reddit, AITA?
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
dogladieeeee
Business would’ve still been business 30 days later. You didn’t make him anything; he did that himself. I’m shocked about how late he told you about the eviction. I’ve worked for property management for a couple years and with the crisis of homelessness here and residual covid policies.
It’s timely to file the paperwork needed for an eviction notice and have it approved. Even if it’s different where you are, he would have had to know about the eviction quite a bit before he served you. He could have told you earlier. NTA.
Heavy_Sand5228
This is what happens when you put money ahead of friends. OP’s “friend” pulled an AH move (while technically legal) during a hard time in his and his wife’s lives. You can’t be surprised when people don’t want to associate with someone who does something like that.
Pentanubis
NTA. He made his choice to put his finances ahead of your comfort. His right to do, but it’s also his consequence that some people value community more than money. You did nothing to him, he’s reaping what he has sown. Business is business after all.
Aruu
NTA. Business is business indeed, but as your friend, he could have been a lot more lenient on you during a difficult situation. Especially if you really have been nothing but a good tenant during that time. I'm really not sure what he expected the outcome to be, giving a couple with a premature child just a month to find somewhere else to live.
The fact that the rest of your friends are siding with you says a lot. I'd wager that your landlord friend is only lashing out because he genuinely didn't expect this kind of backlash, and was only thinking of himself and the profits that he can make.
He's the one who has to grow up and face the harsh reality; if you don't treat a friend with kindness and respect in a tough situation, then don't expect to have friends for much longer.
Anovadea
NTA - he prioritised business over friendship, and is now surprised he doesn't have friends. That's the end of it.