Racer's Lounge - Advice on ex roommate situation

Here is the situation, we had a 'friend' that was graduating college over summer and we let him stay at our place so he did not have to move all of his stuff for one summer session. He had lived at my current house the previous school year so his stuff was already here. We let him stay here thinking he was our friend, so we didn't bother making him sign anything...obviously a huge mistake on our part. He said he would pay us his rent and he says he "did." This was in July, he left the last day of July and was the only person at the house. He says he left the rent right on the kitchen table. I was the only person who was at the house in August and there was no money.

Anyway, here is the problem. He had asked me to pay his Gas Bill, which was technically ours because we had been living at the house for a month and had not switched the bill into my name. I did not pay the bill because I was furious that he did not pay rent and left us with a $375 electric bill because he had to have the AC on 24/7. Keep in mind we have now been here for 6 months, there are 5 people here, and have never had a bill more than $210 dollars. He racked up this $375 bill by himself mainly because I was only there 3 days a week.

Anyway, he called us today saying collections are calling him, my roommate spoke with him and basically said, "when we get your rent, we will pay your bill." He just hung up on us. I highly doubt he left the money, why would you just leave the rent on a table? If its any shot to his credibility, he sold drugs out of the house the year before and called the landlord on his roommate who smoked weed in the house. He never told us he left the rent until months after and he never even told us when he was moving out. We checked under everything and could not find money. Anyway, should I be concerned with anything here? I am not really worried about the money aspect. None of the bills are in my name, I guess my only worry would be him coming up here and fucking shit up or something.

Any advice on what to do in a situation like this?

Stick to your guns. No sensible adult leaves rent money unattended on the table. Either he'll cough up his portion, or Edison will teach him an expensive lesson.

Well in my house we do things like leaving money laying around. I'd consider myself a sensible adult and we've never had problems with money going missing or bills not being paid on time.

If I were you, you need to tell him, this is going to absolutely kill his credit score. I bet it already has since the agencies are already calling him.

If I were you I would just threaten him with the credit score story since he doesn't know that it has already affected it. I doubt you'll get him to pay up. When people don't pay, it's for a reason. They come up with all kinds of bullshit stories and make more effort not to pay, when it would of just been easier to pay the damn bill.

It's probably not hard to rack up that much of an electric bill either. I tried my hardest to keep the thermostat down and they still turn it up and it was over 210 for that month. 375 seems kind of high though. He must of had it set at 65 and left all the lights on or something, because that is ridiculous, or perhaps electricity is a bit more there.

Don't fall for his bullshit stories. Don't pay those bills till he gives you the rent he owes. It didn't just get up and walk off. Unless one of your current roommates took the money of course...who knows. But he definitely should give you the money for that electric bill.

He would have the AC set at 64/63 and then leave for the beach or something on weekends. I would come back Sunday night from my parents house and the ac would be on full blast and no one was home.

I am not worried about getting the money, I have accepted I am never going to see it. It just irks me that I feel like a d bag when me and my roommates are the ones that got screwed.

If he really wanted to pay us he could have slipped it under one of our doors, wrote us a check and mailed it to us or just have paid us when came up to see some other friends recently. It is very convenient that he left the money and it went missing. The fact that he did not even tell us he paid us until two months later is a good story also. I am more worried about him coming back and doing stupid shit to try and get even or some shit.

He would have the AC set at 64/63 and then leave for the beach or something on weekends. I would come back Sunday night from my parents house and the ac would be on full blast and no one was home.

I am not worried about getting the money, I have accepted I am never going to see it. It just irks me that I feel like a d bag when me and my roommates are the ones that got screwed.

If he really wanted to pay us he could have slipped it under one of our doors, wrote us a check and mailed it to us or just have paid us when came up to see some other friends recently. It is very convenient that he left the money and it went missing. The fact that he did not even tell us he paid us until two months later is a good story also. I am more worried about him coming back and doing stupid shit to try and get even or some shit.

That's just stupidity. I have seen this happen before. I like my roommates, but some of the shit they do is just, no common sense. I come home with it set at 65 and all the lights are on. It's like 70 degrees outside...:punch:

Well if you see him again, just tell him that bill won't be paid and it will really hurt his credit score. He probably still won't care, but thats as much as you can do. I'd tell him he is a dick and very irresponsible and that it's really messed up.

Those agencies call for a long time as well. Make sure you give them his number, sounds like they already have it. You could also notify his parents and if the agencies call the phone # at that house (if you have one) give them his parents numbers. My sisters don't pay their bills, so yes they still call my parents. Ridiculous right?

Who knows, maybe his parents will care enough and actually do something about this.

Thanks, should I feel bad? I mean, I try to be a decent person, but I am really getting sick of scummy people. I mean no ones calling me, the bill was in his name. What bothers me more is, he screwed us out of $300 yet he is calling us over his $24 gas bill.

Don't feel bad, it is common now days for people to use others. Believe me man, people have tried pulling shit like this on me before. People have no morals or ethics any more. I've met a lot of people in my day, this almost feels normal to me.

I've learned never to trust anyone and never loan out money. It takes me a long time before i trust someone, even with simple bills like this. $20 bucks here and there..."oh i'll pay ya when we get back to my car" etc.

Don't feel bad, he's the one that owes you money.

Now I could be totally wrong here too, but according to you, you were the only one in the house and the first one to check the table where he supposedly left the money.

It sounds fishy to me and you for a reason, he probably didn't leave the money.

Ya, we were not even aware that the money was on the table until 2 months after we all came back for school. The only reason we found out is because my one roommate, Sam, saw the kid at a Lax tournament down in Maryland. He then decided to tell us he paid his rent. I was around for one weekend in the middle of august and there was no money on the table. I have no reason to believe anyone I live with currently would steal. We haven't had any problems so far.

Like I sad this kid, was selling his aderal out of the house. Meanwhile he called the landlord and got one the kids that he lived with here last year kicked out for smoking weed and 'selling drugs.' Ironic?

I know there are two sides of every story, but I try to be a good person and I really am getting to my wits end with people.

Don't talk to him or take any of his calls.He'll eventually just go away.Keep a Gun nearby just in case

I have a baseball bat lol.

Baseball bat with Nails and you should be good.

Its not like he lives around the corner, does live 3 or so hours away.

Tell him that it sucks to be him, I work for a electric company and we dont get involved with the domestic side of things.

Basically who evers name is on the bill is the one we hold responsible, so just take of the bills in your name and make sure the rent is up and tell him to pound sand on the gas bill..

BUT...




The gas company may not turn the service on in your name, I know that if we see a high unpaid final bill for a previous customer when a new customer is trying to setup service and if we are able to tie the two customers together the unpaid final bill from the previous customer can be added to the new acct and become the new customers problem.

Basically the way we see it is all parties were using the utility and all of them can be held liable to make sure the final bill is paid off.

Bill has been in my name since August, I pay on time. I have not gotten any warnings in my name, just the monthly bill. Thanks for the info.

Probably depends on the company

who evers name that is on the account is responsible. cash is cash, i ALWAYS give it to the person that i owe money too, or give them a money order. that you wo KNOW for sure the person got it.

Right, I would have paid the bill, I had no issues about it. It was going to be 5 dollars apiece between my 4 other roommates. He chose to dick us over. He also did other stuff, I came back one night and it smelled like a dead animal, I eventually found an open can of tuna up on top of a cabinet. I can only say it was either him or his friend because no one else was there. I guess I can not prove it was him, but no one that lives here would do it because why the hell would we wanna stay in a house that smelled like a rotting carcass.

Some friend. never lend anyone more than $20 and you'll be fine for the rest of your life. The number of folks I would leand more $ to is about 10 people in my whole life.

This dude sounds like a worthly scum bag.. Never let freeloaders into your home, once they are in you can't throw them out without legal ramifications.

You're lucky the bills aren't in your name.. The problem is when the utilities cut off from not being paid then what? This duche bag still has the upper hand..

Good luck...

I dont foresee our service getting cut off. They know he doesn't live here anymore and they have his address in Virginia. I am glad I did not actually 'loan' him 300 dollars. It just feels shitty getting taken advantage of.

2 things. Someone who leaves rent money on the table for any one to take is stupid. Second, never trust someone whos credibility has been shut down. Used to deal drugs? I would call bs on the rent.

2 things. Someone who leaves rent money on the table for any one to take is stupid. Second, never trust someone whos credibility has been shut down. Used to deal drugs? I would call bs on the rent.

If you can't trust a roommate with money laying around, then you shouldn't be living with them.

My roommates and I leave our money/checks on the table to pay the bills. I don't see the issue, maybe you are friends with the wrong people.

A check would be fine, if he left a check and no one got it, he could have written another one. Its convenient that the money just disappeared. I only lived with this kid for a month, I have never had any problems with any roommates in college besides this one issue.

my advice is to not live with roommates. roommates fuckin suck

my advice is to not live with roommates. roommates fuckin suck

Disagree, I had a hot girl as a roommate one time.. We later became girl friend and boy friend and I almost infact married her years later. No regrets as that was one of the better loves in my life.. That silly girl shouldn't have pressured me to marry her with ultimatums. I don't like to getting forced into anything so I asked her to move out and bail. If she would have kept it cool and not forced the issue I probably would have tied the knot eventually.

End of story.

Since you mentioned that you're worried he'll come fuck some shit up, I'd be keeping a REAL close eye on your F-Body.

...of course if he fucked with your car, you'd have no choice but to quietly dispatch him. :007:

Ya, the f body is stored away at the parents house thankfully. I mean, if he really comes up here hes got some problems. He hasn't called us back or even tried to defend himself about the money.

Since you mentioned that you're worried he'll come fuck some shit up, I'd be keeping a REAL close eye on your F-Body.

...of course if he fucked with your car, you'd have no choice but to quietly dispatch him. :007:

Ya thats the only thing I would be worried about but like you said its put up. Anytime I get into any kind of confrontation this is where my mind goes. "Will this douche key my car?" lol

Hope you get your money!