People Go Into Details About Their Worst Roomie Experience
19. Two Terrible Sublets In A Row
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a perfect roommate (which is fair, since I am not a perfect roommate either), but I really lost the lottery this summer with two sublets who were the worst human beings in a row, and I’m not sure which was worse.
A friend from high school who went to college in Boston hit me up looking for a place to stay in Philly over the summer, due to the fact that she’d be home but absolutely hates her mother. I tell her that I’m looking for a sublet to fill in for my one roommate who’s moving out. We eventually decide that she’ll move in when she finishes finals and come home for the summer, and she’ll take over my old roommate’s room until she returned to Boston for the fall semester, which was right around the time my new roommate was planning on moving in.
I also decided that we wouldn’t have her sign anything because my landlords have had a habit of saying we could have a sublet only to revoke that right later and getting mad at us for it. That, and she was a friend, and friends don’t mess over other friends.
Stuff started to get complicated after my other roommate decided he was going to move out on the last possible day he could have given our landlord notice without being fined. While I was looking for yet another roommate to fill that gap, I warned my impending sublet that depending on who we got to fill the gap that rooms might have moved around a lot since the downstairs bedroom that she was hoping to get was the most private, and my one new roommate and I would be totally okay with sharing the connecting bigger but much less private, rooms upstairs – less comfortable than a stranger would be.
She didn’t say that this was a dealbreaker, but she didn’t seem super happy about it either.
This was made even worse by the fact that it turned out she was done with finals a week earlier than I thought, and my roommate who was planning on moving out decided he was going to stay the entire month instead of moving out early like he had originally said he would. Because I felt like I messed up, I ended up clearing space for her bed in my room (the smallest of the three) and basically lived in a corner for the month, splitting my portion of rent in half with her.
Things were alright for the first two days, but it started to go downhill pretty quickly after that. She ended up spending her rent money on tickets to Puerto Rico to see a college friend and was broke for the rest of the month. The next five days were a storm: She broke down crying one day because the room wasn’t up to her standards of clean, and she didn’t like how we organized our cabinets and stayed up all night cleaning because “she couldn’t sleep until the apartment was clean.” She started throwing out frozen food that was near the expiration date that wasn’t hers.
There was also this really inappropriate exchange between her and my roommate she was supposed to replace kind of early on where they kissed while intoxicated, she decided she wasn’t into it, and every time he would drink after, he’d get incredibly inappropriate with her with a lot of unwelcome physical advances. She responded by going out of her way for the rest of his time here by picking unnecessary fights with him, one of which involved her smashing on his door and screaming at the top of her lungs for him to open up so she could use his shower, since the room was “her room since BluRover promised it to me,” and she hated using the smaller shower upstairs, at 8 am on a Sunday morning.
Between all this, we finally found people to take over my other roommate’s spot on the lease: a couple who, given that they were a couple, wanted the more private bedroom. Everyone was okay with this except the sublet, who insisted they take another room until she went back to Boston. They didn’t seem to like the idea, but they were willing to do so if it meant that much to her.
She eventually started seeing some guy (who is actually a pretty awesome dude) that she met at one of her in-between jobs, and they had a going-away party for her the night before her flight to Puerto Rico. It was pretty small, mostly made up of her and his friends, and I knew a few of the people, but stuff got out of control pretty quickly.
Some guy fell down my stairs and kicked a hole in my wall, someone else threw up all over my roommate’s bathroom (everywhere BUT the toilet), a bunch of guys urban ninja’d it by jumping between my apartment’s roof and the nearby ones, someone peed in my clean laundry, and some of her partner’s friends got kind of inappropriate toward her friends. Nobody got hurt (minus the kid who fell down the stairs), but the apartment was left in ruins after everything was said and done.
Instead of cleaning before her flight the next day, she had really awkward love-making with her man while my one roommate is basically in the room moving out and “forgot” to leave her check for what she owed me for rent and utilities for the past and upcoming month. Took me a few days to clean everything up.
She leaves for PR, my roommates start to move out, and my new ones move in. They couldn’t fit their bed and dresser upstairs to where the sublet wanted them to be, and all of the sublet’s stuff was still up there too, so they just put everything into the more private room.
I wasn’t going to ask them to get a different bed as a temporary thing, so I shoot the sublet a message about it and say we can work something out when she gets back. She ends up flipping out and says how it’s completely unacceptable for her to not get the room that she paid for. I remind her she hadn’t paid for anything yet, and she tells me she’s moving out to move in with her partner of two weeks instead.
After she gets back, she, her man, and one of their friends move all of her stuff out. Her man and friend and I have some nice conversation, and she ignores my existence for the majority of the time. The very last thing she does is write me a check for her rent from the previous month and what she owed in utilities.
I’m still on alright terms with her man, but she deleted me on all social media, and I will hopefully never hear/have to see her again, which is fine with me.
Right after stuff with sublet one went down, my younger sisters approached me to let me know that one of our friends was looking for a place to sublet for the summer, as her abusive parents had thrown her out of their house and she was hoping to move into a place of her own, as to not be a burden on the friend she was staying with. She moved in pretty quickly and got multiple jobs rather quickly to support herself, and the transition was pretty painless.
I was planning on having her sign some sort of in-house sublet contract, but I got sidetracked with some important life stuff and decided I would get around to it after I got back from a summer study away session I was doing in South Africa.
She was running a bit behind on rent and utilities for the first month, but she paid her second month on time and was very upfront and timely with letting me know about money issues, so I didn’t worry too much about it.
Right before I left for SA, I put out a bunch of checks in envelopes for utilities, rent, and the like for her to send in at specific dates, so they wouldn’t bounce. Everything was labeled, and it was super straightforward. All she had to do was send them in. She also promised to take care of my pet cat while I was gone.
About halfway through my trip to SA, she starts messaging me about how she no longer feels safe in the apartment due to the couple downstairs.
She starts talking about how she found out that one of them had a criminal record and was arrested back in April for being caught with a ton of illegal substances and how he was a junkie who was stealing her money and substances. She also was terrified that she was pregnant after a series of unprotected adventures with a coworker, and those fears were later confirmed by a trip to the doctors. While she nipped that problem in the bud, the situation with the couple was quickly deteriorating.
I then got a message from my one future roommate, who hadn’t moved in yet. Our landlords had called him to let him know that they had not gotten rent from anyone for August and that they were going to move to evict us if they didn’t get a reply. He managed to convince them to wait until I got home from South Africa to move on it, which gave us time to figure out what happened. It was basically a huge finger-pointing fest, with the couple saying the exact opposite of what the sublet was saying.
I got home a day earlier than I told them I would be and decided to check the situation for myself. The entire upstairs rooms were a mess. The litterbox had not been cleaned nor had her rats’ cage. Moldy plates of food were everywhere, with flies infesting the entire room. It was so bad that my cat and the pet rats had developed a bond, since the couple kept to the downstairs and the sublet neglected them while she was home.
She moved out sometime later. Around that time, it was revealed she made up everything about the couple, threw out the rent and utility checks, and was basically a psychopathic liar the entire time. She promised to pay it back soon, but she ends up blocking all forms of contact with me. I call her out on it to our mutual friends on social media, and she decides that because “I messed up” with that, I won’t ever get the $350+ from her.
Meanwhile, she gets a new car as a gift from her boss, but since she never changed her address on her license (to avoid a load of tickets and other bills), the title and registration arrive here and never get to her. It’s not perfect revenge, but it’s better than nothing.”
18. They Want To Keep Their Cat But Refuse To Take Care Of It
“My roommate has a cat. One roommate left for about 2 months and the other was doing the absolute bare minimum to take care of the cat. My man and I have been feeding the cat, playing with him, bought him some things we thought he needed, and the biggest thing is, we brought lilies in the house (had no idea they were toxic to cats), and he threw up a lot, so we had to rush him to the vet and we paid for that (he is fine now; wasn’t poisoned, or was and they got it all out).
So here is the update.
The other owner came back and the talk could not have gone worse. Not only did he not want to give up the cat, but he progressively got more defensive as we tried to calmly and nicely advocate for the cat’s well-being. Instead of acknowledging our concerns, he mostly denied them or found excuses for them. To make matters worse, the other owner chimed in and they both blamed us for the expensive vet visit and fought for us to pay an equal share of it.
The owner that wasn’t here was angry that we didn’t inform him, but we informed the other owner, who in the past has adamantly claimed the cat was also his (it was an emergency that we thought required quick action so we informed the owner that was closest and that was also held responsible for the cat when the other owner up and left). The owner that was here denied completely that the cat was his.
He also did not inform the owner who was gone about the emergency vet visit, which we got blamed for. Another important note, the owner that was here during the fight blurted out that “he is just a cat,” implying that he wasn’t worth the price of the emergency vet visit. He tried to rescind it, but I know he meant it.
We were not asked to care for this cat and we were given no instruction on how to care for him; we just did our best.
Now that the owner that was gone is back, the cat still follows us around and I have not seen them hang out at all, even though he said he “missed the cat a lot and is excited to get back to him.”
What I am most bothered with is our failure to advocate for this cat. We tried so hard to explain what was concerning us and said twice that “it’s not personal; we are just trying to advocate for (cat’s name),” but the owner just got angry saying we are calling him a bad owner.
He did say that the cat would get even better care now that we have talked. It has only been 2 days, but so far, I see no changes. We are taking a step back to see how it goes because it might be too early to judge. However, I cannot stop thinking about our failure and I have been crying a lot and worrying about him. I know he will be fine, but it’s disgusting and unbelievable how our roommates acted.
Luckily we stood our ground and they agreed to pay the whole thing (but they are very angry and still believe it’s only fair that we pay a portion which I will never understand that logic), but it bothers me much more that this cat is probably not going to get the love and care he deserves.
I would have easily taken full financial responsibility if it meant we could give him a better home.
We still have to live with these people and these people are in the same field as me and it is a small field and they have more experience and connections than I do. I am concerned that they can make it difficult for me in my career (especially seeing how they are during this, I do not trust them).
Trust me, I want what is best for this cat probably more than anyone else, but I do not know what I can legally, reasonably, or safely do at this point.”
Another User Comments:
“Make this easy: If he owns the cat it is his responsibility to pay the bill, no matter the incident. Or he can relinquish ownership of the cat to you if he does not want to pay for the bill. It’s a communal space you all share and the owner has to take responsibility for anything that happens to the pet in the shared household. Keep your proof of payment and use that to argue your case.
Take him to small claims court and document everything you’ve done for the cat. If they see you going through the rigor of court they’ll give up. You may want to find another place to live at this point.
Or if he demands that he keep the cat, report him to animal control the next time you catch neglect.” cariio
Reply:
“This is fantastic advice, thank you! They actually have agreed to pay (very angry about it though), but a friend said the same thing about small claims court.
If they didn’t pay, that’s what we would do.” geeps2121
17. If It Wasn't His, He'd Pretty Much Just Throw It Away Without Asking
“He’d just throw things away that didn’t belong to him. Sometimes it’d be little things like a potato peeler or a baking tray, which isn’t a huge loss, but it’s a pain in the butt when you’re in the middle of cooking something and realize you don’t have it anymore.
Other times, it’d be a tumble dryer or the cushions from the back of the sofa.
We had a Henry vacuum cleaner. When it needed emptying, he just got rid of the old bag without bothering to replace it, so the next time I opened it, several months’ worth of dust flew everywhere. Another time he tried to rewire its plug, connecting neutral to live and earth to neutral, because it had stopped working, and he naturally assumed this must be because someone else goes around screwing with the electrical wiring.
We get a brand new washing machine, and he puts so much powder in it that foam starts spurting through the seal.
He didn’t care at all.
Numerous smoke alarm activations due to putting things directly on the bottom of the oven on maximum heat or letting pots overflow while he’s nowhere around. Once melted half a plastic spatula by leaving it on top of the cooker. My room was directly above the kitchen, so it’d stink of smoke after each of these incidents.
He’d leave the toilet seat covered with pee or the toilet stuffed full of toilet paper or kitchen towel. Once, left his daughter’s dirty diaper right in front of the toilet in such a way that you couldn’t just step around it.
Again, not a care was given.
No idea what he’s up to now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’s either died in a house fire or electrocuted himself due to his own incompetence.”
16. Everyone Who Ever Moved In Moved Out Within Weeks
“Many, many years ago, I lived with a few people who well… Let me get into my story that is going to be rather long.
Back in 2003, the place I was living at asked me to move out. Long story short, my friend who owned the place needed a place for his brother and gave me my 30 days.
I was upset, but I understood why. So with the help of my dad who was getting remarried, I started looking for a new place. Now my pop found a place that was looking for someone to move in and take a room. And picked me up to take a look at the place.
Now the owner of the place, I’ll call him “The Captain,” was an older guy in his late 50’s. I called him the Captain as the whole place had one of those nautical themes to it.
He had a bar that had all kinds of nautical stuff on it, pictures of old sailing ships, and whatnot. The odd thing was, he let us in via the sliding door on the side. Part of this was the front door, and the hallway had another door to the rest of the house, so he felt it was another “room” and was renting that out.
So the guy had his bedroom, 4 other bedrooms, and lastly, that hallway, so he wanted to get six people in the place.
I was replacing a couple who moved out overnight, and I’d find out why later on. My pop wasn’t too hot on me moving into this place; however, I felt I really had no other place to go. So we cut this guy a check, and I’d move in on my birthday. I’ll admit I wasn’t hot about moving in myself; however, I felt it was that or being homeless.
Only fun note, the day I hand this guy the check for a deposit and first month’s rent?
A buddy of mine calls me up. He and his lady are breaking up, and he needs a roommate more – so a friend to move in with him. I’d have to spend a month at this place before moving in with him. Still, I tell him to give me a day or two at this place to get a feel, and I’d let him know.
So, I end up moving in, my best friend helps me out with the move, and he already hates the place and is telling me to take the offer.
I tell him I’m thinking about it. After my first day and a half there and dealing with my other roommates? I took it.
So, let me get into my other roommates as some of them were okay. But the rest? Good Lord…
I’ll start with the Captain. See, his plan was to fill all of those rooms, so he’d be able to live rent-free for the most part. I have no idea what this guy did for a job but I’ll leave that for later.
He always wore shorts that had one of his nuts hanging out when he sat down. He had this ugly little dog that he carried around with him all the time. It was healthy; it’s just he tried grooming and cutting its hair, so you had this dog with bald patches on him/her/it. Add in, he loved telling me he’d do things that he never did. Before I moved in, he told me he’d put a lock on my door, so I could lock it when I go out.
Never happened. He said in the room I’d have a phone line, so I could get online, no high-speed internet in this place, so I was using a Juno account. That never happened, so I was using a super long cord to the living room. Oh, and he drank.
We then had a guy my age who was moving out in a week. Nice guy and who told me upfront the day I moved in.
“Dude, get out of here ASAP.” Also told me the couple I replaced had been dealing substances out of the place, and the cops may have caught on as they started seeing cars parked outside. And note I’d end up talking to two of those cops! There was also a hippie guy who was wanting to get out of there too. And another guy who moved in the week I moved out who was just in a bad place; his lady kicked him out, and he needed a place to move into ASAP.
Then we get to the people who are the worst…
The first was a couple: the guy looked like an older, more weathered David Lee Roth, and he had his girl living with him. Both had been odd, came in and out at weird hours. A few days before I was going to move out of there, he just was gone.
Then we have Dawn…
Now let me start with this: Dawn is a case of how substances can ruin someone’s life.
The day I met him, he invited me into his room, he was kinda intoxicated, and he had framed blueprints and the like on his wall. Dawn, before he got into smoking illegal stuff, had been working at JPL. Long story short, he got fired, lost his woman, lost everything really, and his parents didn’t want him in their place, so they put him in here. Oh boy, this man is why I ended up lying my butt off and moving out early.
First off, we both shared a birthday and my mother, to make me feel a bit better about life, baked a really nice cake and sent some food home with me. Note that she decided to label everything with my name, that way my roommates would know it was my food. The next day, I go to have some of it for lunch, and Dawn had ignored the labels and decided to eat everything. I’m livid; however, I’m new to the place and don’t want to make any issues.
That day also, Dawn decided he was hot and turned the AC on and turned it so it was just super low in the house. The Captain is screaming at him about it, with Dawn yelling back that he’s hot. At this point? I decide my buddy’s offer to move in with him is good and let him know.
Oh, but it gets worse with Dawn. I start noticing things are missing from my room.
I was a smoker at the time and packs of smokes start to get stolen. I had some money, and that gets stolen. Dawn would decide at 3 am when people are trying to sleep to start blasting music in his room. And note this is in the first week…
Also, remember I said I ended up talking to the cops? One day, I head out to get some smokes and soda, and a car pulls up, and I get badges flashed at me.
They ask if I just moved in, I tell them yep, and I’m planning on moving out. Talked to them again after old David Lee Roth ran out of town and told them the truth that he had asked me about Hawaii. Even got a card and gave them my cell number.
Ended up moving out of there two weeks before the end of the month. My soon-to-be roommate came over one night to pick me up for a LAN party we both went to.
He notices I’m taking just about everything with me and ends up talking to The Captain and after that tells me if I want to move in sooner, it’s cool.
Only one little thing… See, the Captain starts to bring up some nonsense when I tell him I’m thinking about moving out. Thus, I decided to do some nonsense off my own back. I was out of work at the time, and one day, tell the Captain I got an email about a job offer and had a phone interview.
Later on that day, I do a wonderful job of talking in case the Captain or Dawn overheard me, making it sound like I’m doing said interview. Two days later after a buddy of mine calls me up, I go to the Captain and tell him that I’ve got a job! But… I’m going to have to move out as it’s up in Colorado. And fed him some lies that I have a friend who I emailed and emailed me back saying he’s got a place I can move into.
I just have to move out right away.
So, to start to end this… My best friend comes over, and we start loading everything onto his truck. We get all of my boxes in the first load, come back to get my bed, and right as we go into my now former room? There’s Dawn looking into my desk. At this point, I tell him to just get out of here as I’m getting the rest of my stuff and getting out.
The Captain stops me to tell me he doesn’t have the money for my deposit. I’m angry, but I tell him I’ll call him up about it. He also gives me the line of, “Oh, hey, if things don’t work out for you, I’ll let ya move back in!” Note: I did get some of my deposit back; I told him over the phone to send the check to my mother. After a month, I told him I was coming down for a few days, and I’d swing by and get it, and he gave me the same line about how he didn’t have the money; I told him to just give me half, and I’ll call it even.
Now to really end this story on a fun note? So a couple of months go by, and I’m at a coffee shop I enjoy going to with a friend. And I end up running into the hippie guy who lived there. And note “lived,” he ends up telling me about two weeks after I showed up to get that money, he had already made plans to move out. He comes home from work one day to find squad cars and both Dawn and The Captain in handcuffs.
Ends up that Dawn had started breaking into places and cars a few blocks away, and someone got a picture of him. The cops told him they got a warrant and found some of the stolen items in Dawn’s room and a lot of them in The Captain’s room. Ends up, Dawn was stealing stuff, then giving it to the Captain to sell off, so he could make rent. And that the Captain did know; he just didn’t give a smack.
Really the worst roommates I ever had. Sure, it was only for two weeks, but that was something I’m glad I didn’t have to put up with ever again.”
15. Just Pure Disgusting
“I’m still in college, and I had to live in the dorms. I transferred to a new school, so I didn’t have time to find an apartment.
I got assigned a random roommate, and she seemed normal enough when I social media-creeped on her. Speaking for myself, I’m a very clean and organized person, and I’d like to think that I have my stuff in order. But this girl- this girl… turns out she was the most disgusting and dirty person I’ve ever met.
Now onto the many things that made her the worst:
She rarely showered, and when she did, she never looked clean; her hair was always a greasy mess.
And I don’t mean waiting two days to shower; I mean having four or five days between showers. Whenever she went to the gym, she never showered after, and whenever she was on her monthly, you could… smell it. Absolutely disgusting.
She messed around with a random frat guy, and apparently, something happened during it, and she needed Plan B. Alright, I can sympathize, accidents happen. Well, it’s 4 days after the incident, and she’s too lazy to go to the pharmacy by herself.
On day 5, I offer for her to come with me to the store, and she goes, “Yeah, I probably should. I need to get that Plan B.” Then we get to the store and she’s angry about how expensive it is, and she doesn’t want to pay that much. She reluctantly buys it, and as soon as we get back to our room, she calls her dad and tells him about the “big grocery shopping trip we just had, and she needs more money put into her account.” So, of course, Daddy puts money into her account.
She didn’t like to clean things, important things that you should clean like dishes that you eat off of. Instead of cleaning them after she used them, she liked to use every single dish, stack them up on her desk, and just freaking leave them there. She dirtied all of her dishes by about October, and they sat on her desk until January.
Her food would constantly go bad and get moldy, and I would be the one to throw it away.
Have you ever seen clementines mold? I didn’t know it was possible, but she did it. The mold was turquoise. She also ate deli slices of turkey over the course of three weeks even though the packaging said it would go bad within 6 days of opening. Then she tried to keep the remaining slices in our fridge over spring break, which was two weeks, because she didn’t think they would go bad.
The final straw for me was when she kicked me out of our room on her birthday weekend, so she could get with someone.
Now, let me explain. I’ve needed our room for time with my partner before, but usually, we go at it when she’s not there, and I shoot her a text, so she doesn’t barge in. But she has zero class and handled this situation so poorly. So, she asked to have the room on a Friday night because her most recent guy was coming to stay. It was already 10 pm, and I was going to go to bed within the hour, but I said fine and stayed with my partner that night.
The next day, I’m in my room studying for an exam, and she waltzes in with three of her friends that are staying with us this weekend, a minor detail she forgot to mention until they were already here. So, I decided to let it pass and try to roll with it. They get ready here, pre-game a little, and head off to a mutual friend’s house who’s hosting the birthday party for my roommate.
An hour after she leaves, she texts me. The summation of her text was, “Hey, Random Guy is going to stay again tonight, and we are both going to get really wasted. We’re going to have fun, and I’m going to be too wasted to look and see if you’re in your bed. But also we’re going to do stuff whether you’re there or not, so you might want to get out.” I texted back “So, I don’t get a choice?
I have to leave again tonight,” and she responded with, “Well, you don’t have to, but it might be awkward if you stay, haha.”
There are numerous other things she did. After spending a year with her, I realized that she’s really messed up. She moved out yesterday, and I hope I never see her again.”
14. It Started Off With A Bad Gut Feeling
“I decided to take on a roommate a few years ago in this duplex my man and I were renting. We had a spare room, and an acquaintance had found out he needed a place to stay. We had him over for dinner to discuss details and get to know him.
I felt kind of weird about him after the meetup and my partner said, “Oh, it’ll be fine. It’s going to be a huge help anyway.”
Months went by, and we didn’t hear from him, so I felt pretty relieved.
Then about 2.5 months later, I get a call from him. He’s ready to move in. Once again, I’m pretty hesitant, but my partner kept saying the same old, “It’s going to help us out a lot with the rent.” So, he moves in.
Huge boxes stayed in the living room for the majority of the time he lived there. He had his own bedroom and separate bathroom but still had stuff in the living room and in the storage space in the carport.
Every time he wanted to tell us about something, he’d drag it out into the living room and then just leave it. Eventually, I would just preemptively say, “That’s not staying out here.”
I’d have company over, and he would engage with them, which was ok at first, but then he’d get super combative or start bringing up politics which no one asked for. I wish this was the worst of it.
There were times when my man was sick or I was asleep, and he’d come to our room.
I don’t feel comfortable sleeping with the door closed, and our dog wouldn’t have it any other way, but our room was also on the complete opposite side of the duplex.
He would start drinking from 4 am until 7:30, going out to the fridge every half hour. One night, he decided to start practicing music at 3 am, blasting the music. There were nights he was so intoxicated, he’d stumble through the living room to the kitchen mumbling to himself and didn’t even see me.
One time, he came out of his room (which led right into the living room), and his pants fell down. That was fun.
He washed his clothes in his bathroom. I lost tons of silverware because he decided to combine all of our stuff when he moved in. He would eat in his room and then all would be lost to the abyss of whatever was in there. He smoked so much that the whole house smelled of it.
I don’t mind smoke. Just don’t saturate my house with it. My man suspected he was selling hard substances out of our house.
I’m sure I’m missing stuff. But combined with all this and … you can just feel dark energy around a person even if you don’t full-on subscribe to that, and something instinctual kicks in and you start feeling uneasy. I kept telling my partner that I didn’t feel safe with him in the house.
One day, I asked my roommate to receive a really important and expensive package, insisting that if he couldn’t or wasn’t going to be there, I’ll just reroute it.
He reassured me he would. A notification came that the package was missed. The whole ordeal, but basically, he was too intoxicated in the middle of the day to make this happen. He tried to call FedEx, but …yeah he was incoherent. I was furious, but I didn’t want to talk to him anymore about it. He followed me outside. I told him, “I don’t want to talk about it” and went inside to another bedroom that was designated as mine and shut the door.
He opens the door and keeps trying to talk to me! That totally freaked me out. Yet still… not creepy enough for my partner.
What was? The day roommate thought we weren’t home, went into our bedroom, and helped himself to our water dispenser. That. That was it.
I promptly wrote a formal letter of eviction, citing his invasion of our privacy, although he told everyone it was because I and my partner were getting separated. He was out in 30 days.
Roommate? Never again. Partner? Ex (though still friends).”
13. Cleanliness Is Not Their Forte
“During my 3rd year in college, I was renting a 3 bedroom townhouse, and the lease was under my name.
Some roomies left in the summer, so we had some space, and after a few interviews, I and the upstairs roommate decided on this couple for the basement room. Keep in mind, pretty much 90% of the contents in this house were owned by me: the furniture, electronics, kitchen stuff, etc.
After the first few weeks, we noticed this couple was not the cleanest, but it was college, and we had some raging parties where we would mostly trash the place, so we didn’t think much of it.
They would basically eat a ton of junk food and always toss the garbage under the living room coffee table, always. Ice cream tubs, bags of chips, tangerine peels, everything. I once confronted the guy about an empty pizza box that had been there for a few days, and his response, “Discarded pizza boxes are an excellent source of cheese” as he proceeds to open it and pick old, dried cheese off the cardboard to eat.
Next comes the toilet paper. I noticed I was running out much faster than usual, and my upstairs roomie said downstairs guy/girl were coming up and taking ours/using our bathroom. I solved this by locking all the TP in our rooms; I would take a roll with me each time. A few weeks go by, and they finally bought some of their own… Question is, what were they using to wipe for over a week?
It boggles my mind to this day.
The dishes, oh the dishes. Along with not walking the 5 steps from the living room to the kitchen to throw out their trash, they NEVER washed dishes. Ever. It got to the point where I would go to get a glass, and the cupboards are empty, nothing in sight. I own a lot of cups, so how is this possible? Head downstairs to their bedroom to see the walls, windowsills, furniture, and closet STACKED with dirty dishes, plates with chicken wing bones growing mold, my beautiful pint glasses with 3-week-old crusted yogurt on the inside (the smell was not pleasant).
Most of these dishes were not salvageable at this point. You would break the glass trying to get that stuff off with a hammer and chisel. It was like a trophy collection how it was all arranged. I took pictures, it was so intense.
After confronting them, we were promised they would deal with it all. 3 days go by, and they leave on vacation, still no clean cups for me to take in the kitchen.
Our revenge was by going in their room when they were both gone and completely covering their bed with the dirty dishes they stocked in their room and making the bed all neat and nice over the top of said dishes. They were not impressed after returning from a weekend away, and this started a war.
After that, every tiny thing upstairs roommate and I did was met with hate. We would have friends over on the weekend, and they would complain to the point of calling the cops, but on the weekdays, they would rage with all their old bar friends and keep us up.
If you left a few crumbs on the kitchen counter after making a sandwich, there would be evil notes and warnings left everywhere, like post-it notes with arrows pointing at the crumbs… This coming from the two dirtiest people I have ever met who I literally never saw wipe anything off.
Haven’t had roommates since I got the heck out of there, and I never plan on it again. There is more I’m sure, but I’m grinding my teeth trying to remember it.
I transferred the lease to them after leaving, and they got a few replacements, and 5 months later, the landlady comes by randomly and evicted them for smoking inside and also probably as the place was destroyed due to lack of cleaning.”
12. She Had Weird Ways Of Getting Revenge On Me
“I had already committed to living with a roommate in college for a second year before she started acting up.
It started simply enough – she began acting strangely with a new friend of mine I’d invited to sit with us and a couple of my roommate’s friends. We were in the hallway’s lounge one night when she came in and asked everyone in the lounge if they agreed with her – that criminals didn’t deserve humane treatment because what they did wasn’t humane. When no one agreed with her, she got angry, slammed the door behind her, and shunned everyone in that room for days.
She finally started talking again when someone else that was in the room begged her to because it was contributing to their anxiety, so my roommate relented.
Most infractions between then and a year later were in that vein, typical shunning then yielding, when she couldn’t go without validation any longer. There reached a point when I grew tired of placating her: I wouldn’t allow her to drag me to events, so she wouldn’t have to go alone anymore, I took out our recycling a little less frequently.
Once she asked, “What do you do for me?” when all she ever did was do her laundry (and leave it all over our floor after) and occasionally take out her trash, while I dutifully turned off our light every night (she’s afraid of the dark) and tried to keep things passably clean (see: she never cleaned – aside from one time she vacuumed her half of the room because her partner was coming over; she also threw up in our sink, then acted like she didn’t know why there was moldy food trapped in it).
I’m not sure what the final straw was for her, but it all went to trash a few months before the school year ended. She stopped talking to me and turned her attention to finding little ways to spite me. I lived in the library – coming back around 1 AM to sleep and typically leaving for my early morning classes before she got up. I found leaves torn off my plants and left in my trash can.
One night, she called her partner and talked to him until well after 2 AM – he tried to end the call several times, but she kept him talking until his phone actually died (at one point, she actually insisted he tell her she’s “prettier than Beyonce”). A couple of days later, she invited him over, and he was in our room until after 2 AM (previously, he’d always left by 10 PM) because she sat on his lap to prevent him from leaving.
She’d leave the lights on and the curtain open when she left in the morning the one time a week I had class after her.
When finals arrived, she really had it out for me. My school email started getting bombarded with emails – she signed me up for car insurance quotes, tire quotes, house quotes, two prepaid debit cards were sent to me in the mail (usernames for the accounts? Witch0 and Witch07 – classic right?).
I got a total of 50 of these emails, most during finals, but they went on into the summer, even one last Friday – almost a year later. One time, she came back early on a weekend (the only time I’d spend some time in the room I was paying for), got into my space, and cussed me out. She called me some choice words and said that “it’s no wonder no one’s living with you next year” because I’m such a terrible person (I opted to live alone this year – wonder why).
She blamed everything on me, tried to gaslight me saying all along she’d tried to be my friend, she’d never said anything behind my back (a lie – a friend she still ate with would catch me up on the goings-on where I was concerned), how she’d once defended me when a friend accused me of being cold or something. My only words to her were a calm “sure” and “I actually think we’re both in the wrong here.” No tears.
Nothing. It was a mess. I went back to my room even later despite it being finals. One time, she purposely set her alarm to wake me up after she’d left for a final – but she was always so loud, it wasn’t like I was sleeping anyway.
Here’s the kicker: when I was moving out, I found hummus on one of my towels, and I found hummus on my comforter (on the inside – who does that?).
I found dried salsa on another towel and my suitcase in my closet. While taking apart my bed, I found crushed tortilla chips between my sheets and comforter. Who thinks of these things?”
11. Don't Live With Friends
They learned their lesson really quickly.
“Through this short string of awful roommates, my (now) fiancee and I learned it’s usually not best to live with friends.
But here goes. The first two I will call them David and Annie. We had known Annie from meeting her at a convention and became close friends with her for about 2 years before living with her. The week she came out to look at apartments (she was 3 hours away in another state), she asked if David could come to hang out because he was depressed and needed to get away from home for a while.
Fiancee (I’ll call her K) and I didn’t see a problem with it. The first night of the visit, his apartment burned down in an electrical fire. His cat died, and he lost everything.
We felt awful and said we’d do anything we could to help him. On the third day of the visit, David and Annie sat us down to discuss David moving out to the state to live with us. We didn’t see a problem with it and said yes.
Annie didn’t have a job but promised she would get back into home health care when she came to our state. David was on SSI. Annie ended up doing webcamming (didn’t make much), being a lady-of-the-night, and doing under-the-table home health care. David just never switched over from his state’s assistance system to ours.
Annie usually never had money to help pay for anything. David paid his share of the bills then whined about not having money and begged his friends/family for more money.
K and I always had to make up for Annie’s lack of money. We moved into this apartment in the winter, but they always turned the air on. We asked them to open windows, but they insisted on turning the AC on. I got to eat maybe once a week because Annie and David would eat most of the food. K would go to her grandmother’s house to eat most days. David constantly had two power strips plugged in and completely filled at all times, leaving on his lights, space heater, tv, and computer.
Annie spent most of her day on the internet and eating.
David left first when he went back to his home state for a meeting to renew his SSI. I had a dog, and he had gotten a dog while with us. I had a small Jack Russell mix, and he had a boxer mix. I could barely afford one dog, but he insisted he should get to have a dog. His dog was sick when he left and got worse the week he was gone.
We told him we had to get rid of the dog after we took him to the vet (could barely afford that) and couldn’t pay to get him the treatment he needed. David threw a fit and decided he wasn’t coming back. We ended up having to surrender both dogs because I could no longer afford to even take care of mine.
A friend, who I will call Lee, moved in shortly after David’s leaving.
We needed help to afford our bills. Lee lived with his paternal grandfather. Lee was a trans man (yes, this is relevant). He always complained that his grandmother never respected him. Called him by her/she. Used his dead name. Had sent him to an all-girls catholic school. Corrected family members when calling him by him/he or his preferred name. Said he should be grateful she took care of him after his mom died and his dad couldn’t take care of him, held it over his head basically.
He begged to live with us because living with her gave him anxiety.
Lee did not have a job at the time but had about $5,000 in the bank and said he’d get a job when he got settled in. After about a month of him living with us, Annie moved out. She tried to leave when no one was home. Her car had been repossessed, so she had her mother come all the way from her home state to take her back (last I heard, Annie lives with her still).
Tried to steal from us when leaving but got caught. Still got away with a few things. We started looking for another roommate, but Lee offered to pay more to cover bills since he could afford it and even said he expected nothing back.
Lee had a job for about two months. When we got two more roommates he quit because “it was too hard and gave him anxiety.” K, I, and the two new roommates told him he couldn’t stay if he didn’t have income.
He got angry. A month after that, he said he’d be moving out in a month. Made no attempt to get a job but was online all the time roleplaying and chatting to friends. He met a guy that lived in Virginia. This guy wanted Lee to come live with him. He promised to take care of him until he had a job and let him pay almost no money to cover bills. Lee had jumped on that and immediately said yes.
K and I didn’t know about it at first. The other two roommates had been told about it and told him it sounded fishy, definitely not safe. They were able to convince him all five of us needed to talk about it.
He basically sat down with us and said he was going in a month, wouldn’t be paying bills (had not and couldn’t anyway), and said he wasn’t sorry. The other four of us agreed we wanted him out at the end of the week.
He had a fit and went crying to his dad and stepmom.
Lee never spoke well of his dad and stepmom either. Basically, he said everything about them that he said about his grandmother. He also complained their house always had fleas, lice, and bed bugs because his young stepsisters were filthy, and he didn’t want to live there. He ended up living with them for half a year. After leaving he told every mutual friend of ours we stole his testosterone syringes, his Kamina shades, several hundred dollars, and his cat.
He got the cat from the SPCA and wanted to take him back two weeks later because he wanted a kitten instead. He threw a fit when I said no, you’re not getting rid of this animal to get another one. I begged him to let me keep Jake (the cat) because he told all of us his stepmom had three mean cats that would more than likely hurt Jake. We also got a lot of personal belongings.
We tore apart the apartment looking for the stuff and even took pictures to show we didn’t have it.
Thankfully, parting ways with the last two was easy. The lease ended. They wanted to live in Kentucky. We ended up moving back in with K’s grandmother, and we still live with her.”
10. My Personal Space Feels Invaded
“My roommate moved his girl of 1 month in after her mother apparently kicked her out, and it’s been a month so far and it’s been horrible. I protested in the beginning, so he said that she would only be here a few days a week and at her friend’s for the rest of the week. This was a lie. She brought about 10 pounds of laundry and some bedroom items into his room and she’s been here ever since every night.
They also have loud interactions at random hours of the day, which feels really invasive.
A few weeks in, she apparently needs to house sit a cat for her aunt. I also protested this, because cats make my allergies act up, but I got the text that they were pet sitting when the cat was here. Even though they said they were only pet sitting for a few days, the cat was here for 2 weeks.
There was hair everywhere, and I was super itchy and stressed.
They also put a litter box in the kitchen (ew?).
The cat eventually did return to its owner, which is the only good thing that has really happened. She has complained that she is anemic, so she puts the heat on at 85 degrees and complains if I ever turn it down. It’s stiflingly hot inside, so now I just keep my bedroom window open 24/7.
She constantly leaves the oven and sometimes the stove on after using it, like I’ll go to the kitchen and find something on while both of them aren’t even in the apartment.
She also has no problem leaving appliances unplugged for her to use the outlet as a charger. She also unplugged the wifi for some reason one night because according to my roommate she was “feeling depressed”?
Just recently she confronted me about leaving lights on when I’m in my bedroom.
This one really confused me, because she doesn’t pay a single cent to live here. My roommate is always there to back her up or come up with excuses for her toxic behavior.
Before she moved in, I and my roommate would go to the grocery store to get groceries on a regular basis, but she would wait in the car and complain that we took too long, like in a weirdly clingy way.
She also rearranges my furniture in the living room all the time, which feels like a huge invasion of personal space.
She also smokes literally every day in their room, which eventually makes the whole apartment smell like it which I have no input on.
She also plays super loud music in the morning which wakes me up every time.
You’re probably thinking why don’t I stand up for myself for literally any of these instances, but this girl is genuinely unhinged, as in she will not hesitate to yell at the drive-thru girl because she thought they were flirting with her man.
Just imagine the trashiest and most toxic person you can think of, and that’s her.
Something smaller, but she also used up all of my shampoo.
I’m not really looking for any advice or disagreeing views, I just wanted to put this somewhere and get it off my chest.”
9. He's Not Independent Like They Said He Was
“I roomed with an old guy with mental impairment. They lied saying that he’s independent. He’s not. He shows up with no rent and deposit and says it’s not his problem if I can’t move in that day since he’s not moving in that day. Luckily, I fixed the problem, but I knew I hated him.
Rent… He overpaid on our prorated month. He continued to pay the same amount for the remainder of our time here.
The amount he paid was 35 dollars short of what he should have been paying. When I told him the credit from his overpayment will eventually run out, he said it wasn’t his problem cause his payee took care of that, and I’d have to pay for any late fees. He was laughing when he told me this. He could never get in contact with his payee.
Utilities… We agreed on 50/50 until he saw the bills.
He used more gas, which came out to $100. When he saw that the electric was only $40, he insisted that our electric company was actually our gas company, and since he used more gas, it was only fair that he paid for his, and I pay for mine, mine being the $100 bill. I put an end to that real quick, but he made things difficult. He will pay the $40, and I’ll give him $20. I’ll pay the $100, and he’ll give me $50.
He also insisted on paying with a money order. The thing is, he didn’t know how to write or send one. I had to do it for him. I eventually just paid everything online and deposited his money order into my own account. The amount left over that he had to pay me was always under $20. He always had this smug look cause he only owed me $10-20 bucks. If he only knew…
Internet… His mentor buys him a firestick.
We set it up, and I talk to them about splitting the Comcast bill. He freaks out cause in his words, firestick ain’t no internet. He ain’t paying. He cusses me out, and when his mentor tries explaining, he cusses his mentor out. We let him cool off. He doesn’t… That night, I hear him pacing around talking to himself about how he ain’t use no internet and firestick ain’t no internet and that that “jerk” in there trying to make him pay.
This goes on for 3 days. I changed the password that night.
There’s so much more that goes into petty territory (on my part), so I’ll leave them out. I’ll just say that those little things became big things after his freak out. I ignore all the little things up to that point. The disrespect that he showed in those 3 days and onward was unacceptable. His mind never recovered from that incident and he was just unpleasant and mean afterward.
It got to the point where I didn’t feel safe leaving my food in the refrigerator because I knew he sampled my food. If he’s angry with me he could do something to it. I spoke to his mentor and told them I was moving as soon as I found a place. Finding a place was harder than I expected, and his mentor decided that it would be best to move him out instead.
Later on, I would find out that this was a recurring problem and that’s why he needed a roommate. We were both in a bad spot, and that’s why we agreed to move in together. Do I regret it? Yes and no. I hated the anxiety that he was going to mess with my food. But no because I felt like I grew as a person.”
8. She Was Selfish And Unstable
“When my woman and I were still just seeing each other in college, we decided to move in together off-campus. In order to save money (and to convince her conservative parents to agree to the whole thing), we decided to get a three-bedroom to split with a roommate.
Long story short, we asked one of her friends to move in with us.
Unfortunately, it turned out that this girl was an extremely unstable and helpless person. She didn’t understand concepts like splitting rent and bills (she was always convinced we were stealing her money, even when we put her in charge of splitting up the costs). She was unable or unwilling to help clean anything – instead of hoarding dirty dishes in her bedroom or cooking large amounts of food (which she would also lock away in her room) before leaving for the day.
When she’d get back from class, she’d scream and cry because we left her mess for her instead of cleaning it up.
Things deteriorated quickly after the first month or so. My partner bought a dog (without asking either of us about it first, but that’s a completely separate issue), so this girl buys a cat as ‘revenge.’ She expected us to feed it, clean up after it, and pay for its pet fee because she “wouldn’t have bought it if you didn’t buy that dog.”
She began sneaking into the house when no one else was home to cook food and sprint into the bedroom so no one could see her coming or going. She’d go to bed at 5:30 pm or 6:00 pm and insist that all lights and TVs were shut off at that time – if we didn’t comply, she’d call the cops on us… in the same house.
It all boiled over late one night, after a grand total of three months of this nonsense.
She stormed into the house at around 8 o’clock, furious that we weren’t home when she got back from class that afternoon. She insisted that we had changed the locks without telling her and that she had to sit outside “in the mud” for hours. She had told the landlord that she was moving out and had told him that we agreed to pay her part of the overdue rent, which hadn’t been paid since the first month, apparently.
She left that night, taking the cat (poor thing was half-starving after being locked in her room without food for god-knows how long) and nothing else. We found exactly what you’d expect: pots of food completely molded over. Jugs and bottles of urine under the bed. Snacks and pizza stamped into the carpet. Used feminine products piled up in corners of the room – it was our own personal episode of Hoarders.
Hours of phone calls later, the whole story comes out.
She was set to inherit a few hundred thousand dollars from her grandfather, only to find out that the money went into a trust she couldn’t withdraw from until she graduated. Her parents refused to help pay for her rent because she had told them she was working to earn money, which was a lie. In a bid to get sympathy, she told her parents the landlord had been locking her in her room and physically torturing her for weeks until she was able to escape from us.
We went through close to 5 years of court cases, collections agencies, and lawsuits before all was said and done. She and her parents (who were completely sold on her lie) consistently harassed and threatened our families and generally made our lives a nightmare until we finally moved out of the state.
And that was the worst roommate I ever had.”
Another User Comments:
“So, did you win in the end or what?” Amp3r
Reply:
“Umm, kind of. The collection agencies dropped their case on us in exchange for helping them find her. The suit against the landlord (long, semi-related story) didn’t go anywhere. We settled in the suit against her but never saw any money. The payout wasn’t worth dealing with it anymore, so we stopped chasing it.” Reddit user
7. She Throws Tantrums When Things Aren't Tidy But Never Cleans Herself
Or, you can, like, you know… Clean it yourself if it bothers you that badly?
“I had a clean freak roommate who was foolish. She’d literally FREAK OUT and scream and clean up after you while you were cooking. I’d cut vegetables and be putting the first part into a pan, and she’d walk over furious that I’d left the cutting board out and messy for her to clean up – I’m literally still using it! I’ll clean up when I’m done using the cutting board!
She however only ate two things, chicken nuggets, and popcorn.
WHICH SHE NEVER CLEANED UP AFTER.
She cooked the chicken nuggets on the same baking sheet every day. And when it was so caked in nugget residue it would burn in the oven, she’d put a layer of tin foil over it and cook on that. And then when that layer was gross, instead of removing the tin foil layer, she’d add more tin foil over the top!
When she moved out, she left the pan in the drawer under the stove covered in six layers of greasy burnt crumbled chicken nuggets.
She couldn’t stand me not cleaning a cutting board of vegetables halfway through cooking them, but apparently, a baking sheet covered in three months of chicken grease and crumbs can go back in the drawer?
She also made herself popcorn every night and then left the uncleaned pot on the stove all the time.
That pot was never cleaned.
She did this before she’d go to bed at 7 pm. She’s had the same bedtime since she was a child.
She never went to bed after 8 pm. If you made it past 9 without waking her up though, she was a sound sleeper and the noise level wouldn’t wake her.
She would invite her nieces over with no warning. So I was working retail at the time and had just worked an inventory until 4 am.
I got home and at 6 am, she and her nieces aged 6 and 9 started playing games that involved shrieking.
We’d never have any idea children were even in the apartment until the morning activities and she would get furious at us for implying we’d like them to keep it down until 8 or 9 because ‘this is just as much her place as ours and she can do whatever she wants!’ However, if we had anyone stay for more than two hours, she’d ask us to pay a higher share of the rent because they now counted as an additional resident of the apartment and we needed to be responsible for the burden.
She’d watch TV in her room with the door open, and get mad if you made too much noise in the living room on the other end of the house while she was watching.
But she would never change the volume, or close the door. If she couldn’t hear, she’d lecture you about roommate respect and watching the volume instead of shutting the door and turning the volume up a small smidgen.
Remember when I said she was a total neat freak and would walk around the kitchen cleaning up after you while you were still using items to cook? She made a big deal about how the cleanliness of the kitchen was of the utmost importance. I got off work two hours early one day and walked in and what did I find her doing? Cutting someone’s hair IN THE KITCHEN! There was hair all over the stove, counter, and floor.
Vegetables are a kitchen abomination, but she cuts people’s hair in there twice a week and doesn’t think it’s a big deal at all.
I still hate her guts.”
6. I Just Asked Her To Take Out The Trash, And She Blocked Me On Everything
Yeah, she’s not ready to be an adult.
“For background, I have two roommates named Amy and Karen (fake names, obviously). Amy was my freshman year roommate, super clean, and nice, and we stayed really good friends. I lived with Karen my sophomore year, and it was a nightmare. She was extremely messy – leaving giant piles of dirty dishes in the sink, piles of clothes on the table/floor in the living room, etc. We (or I guess, I) had issues with it then, and I constantly had to ask her to clean up her stuff (or I had to do it for her).
Fast forward to junior year – Amy, Karen, and I all move in together to a 3 bed, 2 bath (one master with a bathroom attached). Amy and I mutually decided to let Karen have the master since neither of us wanted to share a bathroom with her as she is extremely messy, probably even more so in her own spaces. So, whatever, the issue continues, and it angers us even more. Amy goes home for the summer, so it’s just me and Karen again.
I started seeing my now-partner about 6-7 months ago, so I was hanging out at our apartment significantly less as I had all online classes. A few weeks ago, Karen called her mom to fly all the way from our home state (MD to FL) to come to clean our apartment/her room as the mess was completely out of control, and I guess she decided she wasn’t going to clean it up herself.
Just an FYI, her mom did over 50 loads of Karen’s laundry.
So, to the main point – about two weeks ago, I got to our apartment after being at my man’s for a few days to see the trash not only full but stuffed to the brim and overflowing with trash. I’m not exaggerating when I say the trash chute is 20 feet down the hall from our apartment. It’s one thing to show up and see the trash is the full cause, whatever; I’ll take it out, but when she’s continually stuffed more trash in instead of taking it out when she saw it getting full is what angers me.
So, I’m home for 2 days, and she’s away for work but is coming back. I don’t take her trash out, and I go back to my man’s.
Yesterday, I get home and see there’s now a separate bag of trash on the floor next to the overflowing trash can that was there a week prior. So, now I’m really irritated and text her asking her to take the trash out, to which she responds she hasn’t been home all week, then says she cleaned the kitchen the night before (?).
I said someone’s been here cause there’s more trash, and she said it was from when she cleaned the kitchen. I asked why she didn’t take out the already full bag, and she said she was going to, but she was tired, so I said alright, can you do it when you’re home? And she says she doesn’t think she’ll be home till late (she got home at 6 pm; my partner was at my apartment and told me while I was at work).
I got even more irritated at this point, so I go on to ask if she can do it whenever she’s back. I get she doesn’t want to do it, but no one does, and I’m barely home, so I’m not letting it get to this point and told her what to do (take it out and put a new bag instead of shoving more trash in). I said it was not fair to me to come home to that, and she responded by saying, “Aight” and then that she doesn’t want to share her side of the argument cause I always have to be right.
Then said she had to clean the kitchen that was gross from me and my partner, and it was disrespectful to her mom. I got super angry now and said it’s disrespectful for her to treat us like her maids, telling her we’ve had to clean up after her countless times, and we shouldn’t have to constantly ask her to keep her stuff clean in the shared spaces since she’s an adult.
She just hits me with an “alright bro” and “you’re not worth my time, bro,” so I’m like alright, just clean your stuff.
I left it but then she texted again an hour later saying her mom did us a favor, and all I can do is complain and be ungrateful. So, I went off on her again about how much it speaks volumes that she had to ask her mom to come to clean her stuff for her and that this all could’ve been avoided if she just agreed to take out the trash when I asked nicely the first time.
Whatever, she says she’ll “take out the trash” but to not ask her for anything or take her personal stuff or food, and I told her that I and Amy would get out. I saw today that she blocked me on all our social media, ha.
She’s incapable of taking criticism – although, I wouldn’t even call that criticism; she just takes everything super, super personal. She does struggle with ADHD and anxiety, so I feel for her (I have bad anxiety), but it gets to a point where you have to be an adult and take some responsibility for yourself.
Her whole life growing up, she had people cleaning up after her, so she doesn’t ever do it for herself now that she lives with roommates, and it’s inconsiderate. My man and I may have left a couple of dishes, but it’s nothing compared to what Amy and I have dealt with from her. I should’ve said, “Yeah, it sucks having to clean up after other people, doesn’t it?”
Whatever, I just needed to put that out there because I can’t even comprehend the lunacy of it all.”
5. She Was Aggressive And Careless
She can’t be tamed.
“Moved in with 2 close friends and an acquaintance in college. The acquaintance (hereby known as “Jill” for simplicity’s sake) was a real piece of work.
She was an incredibly overweight, narcissistic computer science student. We should have known something was up when her first order of business upon moving in was boarding up her windows with cardboard to prevent any sort of natural light from getting in.
She had a nasty temper and once flipped out and slammed her door hard enough to knock things off the wall because I told her I wasn’t going to give her any more love advice if she wasn’t going to bother to take it.
I told her it wasn’t fair to waste my time asking me for help if she wasn’t even going to listen. I got a hearty “screw you” from that as well.
We had a deal with her upon move-in that she would cook, and we would do the dishes. This only lasted a few weeks. That didn’t really bother me, since I was a fair cook, and ended up taking over (the remaining 3 of us would pitch in for groceries; she was a vegetarian, so she had her own stash).
Our food starts to go missing. We come to find out she had been taking our food to cook to serve to her friends, not only without asking but without replacing it.
She would blast punk music into all hours of the morning.
She and I shared a bathroom. She frequently spilled makeup and wouldn’t clean it up. I had to clean it up because I didn’t want to track it into my bedroom.
She’d flop herself into one of our other roommate’s Papasan chairs, which ended up breaking it.
She denied that she was responsible. This also ended up leaving a nasty gouge in the wall.
She ended up striking my more passive roommate in the head, on purpose, while we were out for dinner.
We always knew when she was home from class, as she would slam her things down, and yell about how much she hated her classes.
The final straw was when she started bringing home her friends. Our Wii, my limited edition DS lite, and a few of my friend’s DVDs all went missing after a visit from one of these friends.
We had a meeting after filing a police report and ended up taking everything valuable back to our rooms, only taking them out if one of the other non-Jill roommates wanted to borrow them. We also filed a full report to the head of the housing department in hopes of getting things straightened out.
Our previous discussions with her about her behavior ended up turning into confrontations, so we ended up just denying her existence.
Jill did not like this at all and became worse than ever. Thankfully, housing came through for us and moved her to another room, but not before she left some more gouges in the walls and made our lives miserable.
Last I heard, she somehow managed to get hitched and pregnant. I weep for her child and partner, given all that I went through with her.”
4. He Took Over Our New Rental And Demolished It
“In 2002, I went to uni in Edinburgh. Initially, I was quite anxious as it was quite a way from where I’m from (NW England), and I was the only one I knew going there, but it is a beautiful city, and student life is great.
Turns out anyway that Edinburgh uni doesn’t really present much of a cross-section of Scottish society, being largely made up as it is of rich English people from Surrey eager to try out the snowy wastelands on Daddy’s tab.
Cue the end of the 2nd year. My group of friends and I are choosing who lives with who as we move from halls to apartments. My course is pretty intensive, so 9 times out of 10, I would have to turn down any invitation for a night out/party.
Hence, my name was not too high up on people’s wishlist when it came to populating their soon-to-be uber-party-pad. So I got lumbered with 3 other guys. Now, two of these guys are fine. One (Joe – a rather wealthy Surrey boy) was unknown to me and, as you’ll see, turned out to be a bit of a jerk.
We got lucky with our flat. Super-close to the new Parliament and with 3 floors for 4 people, the rent was undervalued hugely because it was brand new, and we were the first tenants.
Everything was gleaming – it was worth $700,000 apparently. Not bad for $325 a month each in Edinburgh. So we got everything signed and went to our prospective homes for summer to work etc. Except for J, who decided to hang around for summer and enjoy the festival. The last I see of him is when I leave for home having just put all my coursework, architecture models, computer stuff, etc. in my room and locking the bedroom door behind me.
About a month later, I’m heading up to Edinburgh with 2 friends. We decided to celebrate my birthday by having a week at the festival. Why not? I’ve already paid for the rent. On the train up, I get a phone call from one of the other flatmates telling me he’s moving out.
‘What?!’ says I, a tad surprised and concerned.
‘It’s the flat, man. It’s messed up. Joe’s messed it all up,’ says he.
It doesn’t sound good. So I tell him I’ll check it out for myself and not to tell Joe that I’m coming.
We arrive in Waverly, walk the short distance to the flat and get ready for what awaits us. The plan was set: go quietly straight up to my room on the top floor, leave our stuff then have a look around. Up we go. As I reach the top of the stairs, I notice something different about my bedroom door.
There seems to be only half of it left on the hinges, the rest splintered across the floor. Oh no.
We go into my room. There are three tussled but empty sleeping bags. I survey the room. My flatmate’s description was accurate: it’s messed up. The blinds have been torn and snapped off the wall. The en-suite (nice flat as I say) – brand new until now – was a tip. Urine everywhere. Smears of what I can only assume to be feces along the shower walls.
The showerhead is smashed and hanging like a New York payphone. I open my wardrobe. Coursework: crumpled into a ball. Architecture models: completely destroyed. Computer: side has come off and one of my jumpers has been shoved inside it. On inspection, the insides have been smashed. Time to see Joe.
We go down to the kitchen via the living room. The living room is off the kitchen with double doors, so it’s pretty much one huge space.
Walking in, we see about 10 sleeping bags and a mattress (we had no furniture at this stage). In the corner is a comatose Joe half on the mattress, half on the floor. His head is on the floor. We step over him and enter the kitchen.
What followed was the most breathtaking sight I’ve ever seen. Scattered amongst spilled beans and cans were: 1 large pile of illegal substances.
I walk over to Joe to wake him up.
His eyes are deep pink. His expression on seeing me standing over him was priceless. Imagine your expression if your dad walked in on you. That’s the kind of shock/shame/fear in his eyes right now. He stares at me. I stare at him. Finally, he pipes up with, ‘What are you doing in my flat?’
Come again?
‘Get out, man. This is my flat now. You can get out. Go find yourself another place to stay.’
This went on for a while. Me pointing out the obvious, him still oblivious, telling me to get out of his newly-conquered territory. I’ll cut this bit down as this is getting long… Basically, I looked for another flat. Eventually, I realize I’ve got a good one as it is and shouldn’t have to be spending my birthday flat hunting because he decided to mess up our current flat. I decided I’d better get the landlords involved.
We met the next day outside the flat (we were staying at my mate’s in the meantime). On the way, we walked down Princes St. We saw something rather bizarre: some guy leaning forward off a traffic light post in the middle of the road (think Titanic, king of the world scene) staring at oncoming traffic as if wanting a fight. He then lets go and runs straight at the oncoming cars. Cue much beeping, running over bonnets, and narrowly avoiding a bus.
All while half-clothed and screaming, ‘Wahoooooo!’ Wierd. But it is festival time.
Anyway, I explain everything to them. They were shocked but, to their credit understanding. They appreciated the honesty and the chance to save their expensive new property. We say thanks and stand back as they enter the flat…
Now, you know that scene from Ratatouille where the woman’s ceiling falls down and about 10,000 rats come flooding out of the house. Yeah, like that but with Spanish and French people.
Some half-clothed, some fully. All messed up and running as if Robocop himself had just walked in. After about 5 minutes, it’s pretty quiet except for a shouting/whimpering exchange. Then, just as things look like they’re coming to a close someone sprints past us heading for the flat, bumping us on the way:
‘Wooohooooooooo!’ The half-clothed guy pelts straight in ready to join the party. About 3 seconds later, he comes running out again, minus the woohoo.
So yeah, the karma is, he got kicked out, he lost many friends and messed up his degree. The one standout moment, though was when my friends and I were sitting in my bedroom window a few minutes later. I was enjoying the fact that I no longer had to face flat hunting at the worst time of the year or be homeless, while my mates were happy to be watching the spectacle. As Joe slinked away, he looked back, and we all gave him a wave.
The loser.”
Another User Comments:
“Very interesting story. Could you have called the police on him though immediately given the circumstances?” Siegfried262
Reply:
“Yeah, I did consider this too, but for some reason, it felt a little harsh at the time. We shared a lot of friends, and getting him serious years of jail time seemed a bit much even for such an extreme case.” Reddit user
3. An Open Peanut Butter Jar And House Fly Infestation
“My horror story starts with something innocent that most people wouldn’t think would be an issue. It was an open jar of peanut butter.
It was our very first year attending college, we lived in an apartment complex that was a few miles away from campus.
The apartment itself was a nice 2 bed, 2 bath, 1,060 square-foot apartment. Being college students, and due to stupid reasons, all three of my roommates dropped out and had gone back to live at home with their parents.
Also, because it was in the lease that we had signed, we also needed to pay rent for 1 year total. With this being said, they didn’t feel the need to move all their stuff immediately, as I was still there, and it just worked out better for them as well.
Flash forward three months after they moved, it was a hot summer night and around 11 pm.
I was sound asleep until I heard someone come in from outside. I tiredly walked outside and came face to face with someone who was not my roommate, but my roommate’s mom whom I had met only a year prior. She said she was sorry for the late arrival but needed to move the rest of my roommate’s stuff.
She opened the door to the bedroom and turned on the light but immediately closed the door tightly while going inside.
It was kinda weird, I thought, especially how brisk the door shut. Then came the screams.
I opened the door to make sure she was alright, which was the equivalent of opening Pandora’s box. There she stood in the center of the room holding a peanut butter jar festering with maggots and hundreds upon hundreds of flies line the walls.
Everything was just covered in flies, and the whole room was buzzing. Needless to say, it took weeks to get rid of all the flies. Luckily, we did get a large portion of the deposit back on that apartment.’
2. Once We Asked Him To Start Cleaning, He Refused To Pay His Part Of The Rent
Uh, yeah. That isn’t a part of the deal, buddy.
“When I went to college I moved into the dorms with, we’ll call him Den, and 2 other roommates. Over the years, Den was always my roommate for the entirety of my college stay, even the year after we moved out of the dorms.
Throughout the years, Den would be the reason why our other roommates left. He always left the sink full of dishes, never cleaned the living area though he was the only one that used it, never cleaned the floor, so there was always dirt or stains on it and the microwave would always be covered with food.
I would clean up every so often after getting tired of the mess and asking him to do it himself.
I stayed in this dorm because I had a locked-in rate, it was on the first floor, and was a short distance to my classes. Though he was messy, I could deal with that because my room is always clean. I just ignored the common area.
Anyways, we moved together with 2 of our friends to an apartment 5 minutes from campus as rates were rising.
I decided to move with him despite the cleanliness of him because he could afford the rent and I knew he’d pay on time. I also thought that with our other friends there that he would shape up.
Well, that didn’t happen. He paid his portion of the rent mostly on time but was still the same messy person. My other housemates and I decided to talk to him together as I was the only one to tell him to get his act together.
We didn’t want to make it all about him, so we padded the conversation with stuff we could all do to change.
We told him he needs to clean up after himself, clean after his dog, be a better pet owner as he would leave for hours without walking her and she would destroy his room, to be quiet and stop screaming when he plays games, etc.
That didn’t work and he took it personally (as he should have I guess).
He decided to turn it on us and say that he doesn’t think it’s fair that he pays more portion of the rent than the rest of us. Now before we moved in, I was to move into the master bedroom. He said that since the room is bigger, I should pay slightly more to live in it.
Fine with me. But before we moved in, he wanted the master bedroom as he got a dog.
I thought the same agreement we made would translate for him and figured it did as he paid for rent for months without complaint. So he says that he never agreed to that, and he will no longer be paying for rent.
I called him a piece of garbage and was close to fighting him, but my other roommate stepped in to stop it.
It was a build-up over the years and the disrespect he gave the entire house.
I told him to move out and I’ll pay to use both rooms since he can’t take criticism on his terrible living habits.
We all calmed down, and some hours later, we talked again. We agreed to look over the rent, so it is fairer for all of us. He ended up paying more rent, though, after this.
He took over paying the rent to the housing office, which I used to do.
I would pay $50 to pay for it online on my own, but he didn’t know I did that. He also took over more utilities because he would leave his computer, lights, and electronics in his room, and the rest of us would conserve. His pet also destroys his room, so we had him pay more because we knew we were going to lose the security deposit due to that damage. He ended up paying about $120 more per month than before this conversation.
So he sucks as a roommate, but after moving out on my own, we’ve kept being friends as he’s still a good friend outside of that. He is much better to be around without thinking about how much of a slob he is.”
1. Beautiful But An Absolute Trainwreck
“I had a roommate who was extremely beautiful at the time. Men became helpless around her.
I lived in a duplex in Silicon Valley back in the nineties. I rented out the bedroom and slept in the living room to make ends meet.
This girl, I will call her “Sally,” seemed nice.
She went to the same church I went to. She went to a bible study with me, and when she opened her Bible, it was highlighted in all different colors, like she was trying to prove something. She tried to pretend to know verses but didn’t really know much. Her cool, tall Christian fiance and she were going to get married.
But Sally had issues.
Her fiance wanted to wait to make love till they were married. She pushed to have it earlier.
He caved. Then he decided to repent of this, and she got mad. So I got to hear some of the fights (her mainly on the phone in the kitchen wailing).
Meanwhile, he broke up with her for whatever reason. Within one day, her ex from before him was over. They had very loud interactions. I had to be up the next day at 5 am to get to my awful job in Bay Area traffic (I worked in a bottling factory, checking every 5th bottle for defects).
I was upset and told her to keep it down. She didn’t seem to respect my rights.
Now her fiance must have come by the house and heard this loudness outside the duplex (it was definitely loud enough to pull up your car and hear). To this day, I don’t know how he found out, but that is my theory. He refused to talk to her. She also came to a friend’s get-together bbq I brought her to.
A man of a woman that just birthed their baby hung out by the car while Sally sat in it with her legs facing him. He was kneeling in front of her, leaning on the car. His lady saw this, and it hurt their relationship. She knew he was in a committed relationship and led him on for fun. The lady stayed inside. Complained. Then cried.
She also was singing in a group for fun.
She didn’t have much talent, but the main guy was obsessed with her. So when she told him she wasn’t interested, he decided to break into the duplex (he left the window open). He oddly didn’t take anything. But he went to her work, found her car, and lit a fire under it.
I came home and found my kitten outside. I remember leaving him inside the day before. I saw the window was open.
I called the police.
So, one cop plays our answering machine: 3 or 4 messages of various guys all wanting to go out with Sally. The cops all laughed, and one asked her out. As she didn’t want to press charges, so not much happened. The burning singer guy did leave her alone after police talked to him. I wanted to add, her ex-fiance came over before cops as I begged her to call him as I was that scared. He said he would because “I asked him, not for her (Sally).” He brought a baseball bat, per my request. He wouldn’t talk to her much.
She was unhappy about that. To this day, I have a lot of gratitude for his kindness to make me feel better.
My mom was the owner. So, my mom evicted us. I found a one-bedroom right away and moved. Sally stayed until the eviction notice expiry date. She left the place full of rabbit poop (her pet rabbit enjoyed the freedom to run around). She did finally leave.
Sally got a job as an exotic dancer in the area.
I was friends with a guy who knew her from there (weird coincidence). I laughed and then made a crack that I thought she’d try calling me if she knew my number. The next day, I got a call from her… She left me a creepy message on my answering machine that if she wanted my number, “she’d get it… just like that (snaps fingers)” after she went through a rambling diatribe about me. Yikes!
So I cut off contact with that guy and didn’t believe him that he “didn’t give her my number nor say anything I said.” Sure. This, by the way, was about two years later from the burning car incident and break-in.
Fast forward about 5 years later from the phone incident. I was in a nail salon and in walks Sally. I don’t think she recognized me. She looked haggard, attractive still with bleached hair. But the beautiful face… gone.
She had aged 10 years in half the time. Her skin even lost its luster. She dressed in skimpy clothes, and her hair was straw-like. She looked now the part. Gone were the LA Girl cute sneakers and clothes too. I couldn’t believe it.
The nail lady complained to me about how mean she was. I was done and quickly wrote my check. Gave it to the nail lady and ran out the door. I heard Sally chewing at the workers.
I don’t think she recognized me because I got fatter and had glasses on.
To this day, glad she is out of my life. I tried to help her socially make friends as I felt sorry for her. My guy friends never made passes at her and were faithful to their ladies; however, their friends, I can’t say the same. Wanted to update on her ex-fiance. He lived next door to my friend’s partner at the time.
One day when I was over for a bbq, I saw her ex-fiance holding hands and walking down the street with a tall, pretty lady. Not as beautiful on the outside as Sally, but he was smiling and looked very much in love. I asked about him and was told they were getting married. He got over Sally pretty quickly.”
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