Single mom living with son DEMANDS that roommate's GF pay rent. AITA?
When this woman feels like she's being taken advantage of, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for demanding my roommates girlfriend to pay rent?'
My roommates Aria(24f) and Emily (24f) and I (25f) decided we were going to move in together in a 4 bed room apartment.
My son(4m) also lives with us. Rent is $2700 and when we first signed the lease I offered to pay an extra $200 on top of my $900 a month since we have an extra room for my son. They said “no you don’t have to do that, your son is like family”.
A month after we moved in Aria met her girlfriend Alex (28f). After about 3 months of them dating, Aria stopped coming home, she would be at Alex’s house. She would literally only come to get clothe or her other items.
At first Aria was still paying rent but after 2 months of “living” with Alex she completely stopped without notice. My other roommate and I had to split it rent in half. The second month of non payment I told her either get all your shit out the room so we can find another roommate or come back and pay rent.
She eventually comes back but the issue is Alex was there ALL THE TIME and eventually she moved in completely without asking us. I already didn’t like Alex because she was the one encouraging her to do all this bs like not paying rent and stuff in the first place.
I hated coming home and I always felt uncomfortable. I eventually told Aria, Alex has to start putting some money towards the rent and they didn’t agree.
They said if your son can be here and have a whole room, she can live there for free. I told her I offered to pay, they’re the one that declined and if she wants, she can take my sons room and we all split.
My son is with his father 50% of the time so I don’t mind him sharing a room with me. My other roommate is completely not backing me because she’s so non confrontational and that is HER best friend. I told all of them either Alex pays or I’m moving out.
Let's see what readers thought.
victoriamona writes:
NTA. A mother and child situation isn't analogous to an adult partner who just lives in the place without signing a rental agreement. You offered to be flexible with solutions and the fact that Alex of all people is the one encouraging not to pay rent is immature and entitled.
murphy1210 writes:
ESH. You guys need to communicate better. They shouldn’t move someone in without discussing with the other housemates.
On the other hand, you occupy 50% of the rooms while only paying 33% of the rent. Regardless of if you told them you would pay, you don’t pay. It doesn’t really leave you any room to demand anyone to pay rent.
Realistically (prior to this Alex situation), you should be paying $1350, Emily should be paying $675, and Ari should be paying $675. I think the most fair solution would be to divide the rent 4 ways. $675 a person. You/Your son and Ari/Alex both pay for 1.5 people and Emily pays for 1 person.
You/Your son- $1,012.5 a month; Ari/Alex- $1,012.5 a month; Emily- $675 a month. Honestly though, this is an overall worse situation for you. You pay more, your son doesn’t have his own room, and you have to fight this battle with Alex/Ari. But yeah ESH. Poor Emily.
superkick writes:
NTA. First off, you offered to pay extra for your son. Second, your child is exactly that: a CHILD. They should not have to pay rent. You additionally offered to give up his room since he is 'rent free.'
But an adult should not be expecting to live somewhere for free with people who are not family. I would expect any friend who lives in my house for an extended period of time to pay their share of rent and utilities.
I would give them a hard out date. If you let them stay there too long, they can potentially claim squatters' rights. Check the laws in your area for more about that in addition to what you can legally do with the stuff they are leaving in your place that they do not have concent to store there.