Housemate from hell, need help!

wishinhopin · #1 12-21-2003, 11:06 PM

Ok so here's the situation. Liz and I moved into a house with our best guy friend, Adrian. For a good year before moving in together, Adrian was at our house every day, and often every night. We were all super tight and got along really well. So we felt like things would work alright with all of us living together. This was definitely not the case. Adrian started being vindictive, disrespectful, inconsiderate, disgustingly messy, and in general just an ass. He didn't feel that paying rent on time was particularly important, nor did he make an effort to clean or respect basic house rules.
Examples of his behavior:
-Bringing over 10 friends to our small townhouse, and all of their infants and toddlers, even when I repeatedly asked him to respect that I had school/work/finals early in the morning. I don't have kids because I don't have the time or energy to deal with them right now- and this includes being woken up a good 5 or 6 times each night by some screaming baby who is confused as to where they are, and where their mommy was.
-Speaking of their mommies...Adrian et al also had no problem smoking massive amounts of pot around the kids. Don't get me wrong, I smoke myself, but I don't consider it appropriate to do so around babies! This even continued after one of his friends, Marcy, got busted by CPS for doing drugs around her baby at her house. So what did she do? Just brought the drugs and the baby to our house. Not cool.
-We lived in a gated community, with many families and old people. It wasn't a college living place at all. Furthermore, we shared walls with townhouses on either side, and could hear many things crystal clear. This still didn't stop Adrian from doing drugs with the windows and shades open so that anyone walking by could see, blasting offensive music (I love Lil Kim and 50 cent just as much as anyone else, but I don't think that our toddler neighbors needed to hear what they have to say), going outside at 3 am and screaming (direct quote here): "Jesus Christ, that c--t slut whore couldn't handle another bong rip!"
-Etc, etc etc.

Because of his behavior, our landlords aren't particularly happy with us. So, to cover our own asses more than anything else, Liz and I decided to move out. He still owes $300 for rent this past month, which he now claims to know nothing about. He also owes Liz and I considerable sums of money, and that isn't even including what he should owe us for eating all of our food, stealing our movies and cds, and ruining and/or stealing several pieces of furniture. The PG&E bill is in his name, and he is still living at the house. Liz and I are completely moved out now, and so we weren't too concerned with giving him money to pay this bill for electricity that we don't even need. So, we cleaned the whole house, top to bottom, while we still had electricity. We also asked Adrian not to dirty areas we had already cleaned, and went so far as to lock the doors of any area we could.

When we returned yesterday to check the mail, we wanted to also check and make sure the house was still clean, since our landlord was planning on going to the house that morning. When we got there, we found the place a complete mess. There were people all over the living room, alcohol and pot on the counter, the bong on the living room floor with ash spilled on the carpet that I had to steam vaccum to get rid of the previous stains he left there, and he had gone into all the locked rooms- including our bedrooms- and gotten them dirty.

Obviously, we are frustrated. So we called the landlord immediately and explained what we saw, and he showed up and saw the same. He understands that we're in a shitty position, but he also needs to have the home clean before new tenants arrive. So basically I think we're shit out of luck, but I was hoping someone had some advice for us.

Oh, other detail. Liz and I tried to be very responsible during all d this. Since his phone was turned off, and he refused to speak to us in person, we had to resort to leaving letters for him. We have copies of all correspondance between us- for example, when Liz wrote a letter politely detailing the money he owed her, and what his options were, his handwritten response was simply, "Go f--k yourself b--ch". We also took photos of everything we cleaned, as well as all the mess that he left.

So what do we do now? He can stay in the home until the 1st, and there isn't anymore electricity in the house. So there isn't going to be anything we can do about the carpet anymore, and I know it's been stained in the past few days. We don't want to have to go back and try to clean again, but we need this money really bad. Does anyone have any advice, or knowledge of any options we might have? I guess it helped just to write it all out, but I'm desperate here- it's so frustrating! I feel like Liz and I are being punished for being the adults in this situation, and I hate it!

Hootie · #2 12-21-2003, 11:41 PM

Don't you just love rude and incosiderate people?

I bet if you called your landlord and explained everything and told him he was living there without electricity....he could evict him. Plus if your name isn't on the lease anymore you could call the cops on him for smoking pot. But only if your name is off the lease. If it's still on, you could be in trouble for it too (maybe).

Good luck.

Peaches-n-Cream · #3 12-21-2003, 11:47 PM

I don't know what you can do regarding your housemate. I just wanted to let you know that I hope this situation works out in your favor. Good luck!

justamom · #4 12-21-2003, 11:51 PM

Hey sweetie! Sure sorry to hear this has happened to you.

I hate to say this, but you have a SKANK as an ex-roomie. There really isn't much you can do. This is no consolation, but sometimes the price we pay for lessons learned is higher than we were prepared to pay. All in all, this is a relatively cheap lesson.
You could have been stuck for so much more! Live and learn means so much more than the cliche' we take it for. My own baby girl is out some cash-$200.00- because she trusted someone only to find out they are out and out psycho. Unless you have some kind of record for the money you loaned it's a he said she said situation. Maybe some of our pre-law or law students know of some precedent. I think you are lucky to be out of the situation.
Considering his careless attitude about imbiding in illegal substances, you are lucky no one called in a complaint.

Anyone who would put their children in that type of a situation is NOT a fit parent. Only you know what the situation really was and if those kids were in a state of ANY kind of risk, it is your responsibility to call child welfare. Hope you get SOME restitution!
Good luck and let us know what happens. I sure hope you get a lot of advice on this, because sometimes I'm myoptic.

wishinhopin · #5 12-22-2003, 02:49 AM

Have found out through mutual friend that Adrian is planning to have a massive party this coming weekend. Plan to use this as a catalyst for bringing him down and saving our asses. More details as this story develops, comments and advice welcome.

bruinaphi · #6 12-22-2003, 06:07 AM

The best advice I have is to kick him out. Is he on the lease? Does he owe rent? If he is not on the lease and like you said he owes rend, you guys can likely serve him with a three day notice to pay or quit. The procedures are simple and then you can evict him. If he owes the money to the landlord then ask the landlord to serve him with a 3 day notice to pay or quit.

If he is not deliquent on rent and I misunderstood you, I would ask the LL to evict him for violating the lease in another way. Read your lease and talk to the LL.

Regarding the cleaning. In many ways you guys are SOL. There is a chance you could recover some money from him in small claims court, but collecting it would be a nightmare too.

Your best bet is to get him out of there as soon as possible.

Good luck!

KillarneyRose · #7 12-22-2003, 06:49 AM

Sounds like Adrien + party = lots of drugs on the premises.

I am just b**ch enough that I would call the cops on him and his scuzzy friends. But I don't know that most other people would have the stomach for that.

It really sounds like the drugs have started to get the best of him (but that's no excuse for being such a total jerk)

Good luck, sweetie!

FeeFee · #8 12-22-2003, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KillarneyRose
Sounds like Adrien + party = lots of drugs on the premises.

I am just b**ch enough that I would call the cops on him and his scuzzy friends. But I don't know that most other people would have the stomach for that.

It really sounds like the drugs have started to get the best of him (but that's no excuse for being such a total jerk)

Good luck, sweetie!

Ditto. Call the police, call CPS (because the kids are being abused by being exposed to their parents' drug usage), call whomever you need to remove this person and his friends from the premises.

Hope everything works out for you and your other friend.

James · #9 12-22-2003, 12:48 PM

Cut your losses and run. As justamom said it was inconvenient but reallly an inexpensive lesson by comparison.

Your roomie didn't boil your bunny rabbit, kill you and place you under the kitchen or anything like that . . . Or even cost you unreal sums of cash.

As far as calling the police. Thats up to you but a felony convictionhas future repurcussions WAY beyind anything the guy has done to you. Thats like an angry girl friend trick. where she is pissed at a guy and then does something that has unforseen consequences.

I think it would give bad karma.

Runaway

IF you lost your security deposit . . well . . . sometimes that happens even when everything is perfect. Landlords are noted for looking for ways to keep that.

Kevin · #10 12-22-2003, 12:50 PM

File in small claims court if you want your money.

Bring all those letters and you should have no problem.

KillarneyRose · #11 12-22-2003, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by James
Cut your losses and run. As justamom said it was inconvenient but reallly an inexpensive lesson by comparison.

Your roomie didn't boil your bunny rabbit, kill you and place you under the kitchen or anything like that . . . Or even cost you unreal sums of cash.

As far as calling the police. Thats up to you but a felony convictionhas future repurcussions WAY beyind anything the guy has done to you. Thats like an angry girl friend trick. where she is pissed at a guy and then does something that has unforseen consequences.

I think it would give bad karma.

Runaway IF you lost your security deposit . . well . . . sometimes that happens even when everything is perfect. Landlords are noted for looking for ways to keep that.

See, I think Roomie-from-Hell brought bad karma upon himself and hauling his a$$ into jail is just kind of tying up loose ends.

But, I'll admit, I'm a fairly vengeful person so maybe I'm not a good person to ask

rho4life · #12 12-22-2003, 06:13 PM

It sounds like your landlord is somewhat reasonable. Try talking to them and showing them the pictures of how well you cleaned the house. Those photos can be compared to what the landlord finds come Jan 1. You may not get all your deposit back, but you may get some back.

Good Luck.

Optimist Prime · #13 12-22-2003, 06:19 PM

Weed doesn't make people jerks. This guy was a jerk to begin with. Now he's just a jerk that smokes up. He's still a jerk.

Call the neighbors to apoligize and explain the situation and then tip them off to the upcoming party. Then they will call the police if they feel neccecarry. Also, I would find a lawyer.

Good luck.

G8Ralphaxi · #14 12-22-2003, 08:02 PM

For the carpet - buy this stuff called "Spot Shot" - it works wonders. The house in which I used to live, the former tenants had keg parties and put the keg on the carpet (WTF?!) and Spot Shot got that out.

Are you still in college? Most colleges have student legal services, where students can consult w/an atty for free, and the atty usually knows a lot about landlord-tenant law.

I would seriously seriously seriously consider calling the cops. Depending on your local laws, allowing all those drug use, child endangerment, and other problems at your house can cause YOU problems - you are "aiding and abetting" the illegal activity.

Definitely take steps to end your lease - and your legal responsibility! - for the house ASAP.

Get a copy of your lease and READ IT carefully - there may be a section that allows termination for illegal/destructive activity. Most residential leases include such clauses. Good way to get this jerk out of the house.

You may want to get an attorney - look in your phone book for your local county bar association - they all have lawyer referral services. They may be able to refer you to someone who will be affordable.

GOOD LUCK!

ETA: just "running away" is not a good idea - if the damages to the house are more than the security deposit, the landlord can still come after you. And they will find you - you had to give them all that personal info when you signed your lease. And judging from the stories we've heard so far, it's entirely possible that the damages will FAR exceed the security deposit.

wishinhopin · #15 12-23-2003, 01:04 AM

Just went to the house to check on the state of affairs, and discovered that Adrian has stolen Liz's $500+ queen size bed. I have no comment except to note that things have definitely gone too far. How stupid can one person be?