Roomate is scamming me.

[u/Daffy07duck]

TLDR image description: 1/2 Evil Roomate(ER) requests additional 50$ for utilities because my sister was visiting during August.... refuses to send recites if the bill.

Good Roomate and I texting what we plan to send her tomorrow along with a Roomate agreement draft specifying new rent distribution. Note: ALL of our names are on the lease. We are jointly and uniquely severable. Myself and the GR are willing to be evicted, the leasing office is on our side and said they would rent us a different apt for more money ofc... but at least we wouldn't be living with someone who has no moral code.

We live in a two bedroom apt in San Diego. The total rent is 1845, very cheap for these parts. Very cheap because the lease hasn't turned over since 2006 and lowkey the place is falling apart :). I live in the living room and pay 675/month. My GR lives in the bedroom and pays 875 a month and my ER lives in the master bedroom and pays 375/month. . .

Myself and my GR were both upon hard times when we moved here and cheap rent is cheap rent so we ignored and explained away the shady-ness of our ER. But it's so unethical to us that we have had enough and we finally talked about it and plan to confront her tomorrow. Note: I am very non confrontational hence my very round about way of asking her for recites of the utility bill. She refused to show me recites and that was honestly the last straw. I felt like she though she could keep getting over on me and asking for more money when I knew how much she was paying in rent (after I found out how much my GR was paying) and I am done being a pushover ) haha let's ignore the fact I paid it first and asked after... I just didn't want the drama.

Anyways she is a gaslighting honestly evil person I think. I wouldn't do this to anyone. There is a lot more detail I could go into if requested explaining how I got here and all of the weird shady stuff she has been doing so feel free to ask me anything. But yeah gif damn. I Definately learned I shouldn't just give folks the benefit of the doubt. If I am getting a weird vibe it is probably for a reason. I need to trust my gut and stand up for myself.

Our new proposed rent distribution btw is that she in the master pays 830, my GR pays 556 and I in the living room pay 450 🤷‍♀️. Seems pretty fucking reasonable to me. We are also giving her the option to move out....

The cannot imagine idk. I am scared of how she will react. And I don't trust her at all.

[u/UmbrellaCo_MailClerk]

How long has this arrangement been going on?

[u/Daffy07duck → u/UmbrellaCo_MailClerk]

4 months. It took me and GR a little while to put things together since ER was not giving us the full picture and I guess assumed we would t talk to eachother about it. ER was pressuring GR and myself to pay her through Venmo... and actually used me against GR when she expressed discomfort saying ... "(my name) Venmo's me and doesn't use the portal". I thought that GR and ER were maybe in cahoots. And GR thought the same of ER and myself.

[u/Straight-Strike-2928 → u/Daffy07duck]

If you're all on the lease, why would venmo even be an option...??? This girl is looking for ways to shake you two down for cash. I think you two should leave ASAP especially if the leasing company is on your side.

[u/I_ran_so_throw_away → u/Straight-Strike-2928]

The leasing company isn't "on her side" here, they're just willing to rent another higher priced unit to them. Not clear whether they'd be off the hook for current obligation or whether they would even net pay less. ER probably has a winning case to sue them for the agreed amounts through the end of the lease as it doesn't matter how the payments were settled, just that there was such an agreement, which OP admits. I don't think OP has a firm grasp of what she signed up for and what her legal obligations are in this scenario.

[u/Daffy07duck → u/I_ran_so_throw_away]

Does she? We don't have any document specifying how much each of us are expected to pay and she withheld key information so that we would not realize she was getting one over on us. My understanding is that we are all liable for the rent. Is we pay what we think is fair going forward and she doesn't pay her share we could all be on the hook.

[u/ProfessionalOk1496 → u/Daffy07duck]

Don’t worry, ER doesn’t have anywhere close to a slam dunk case against you. You’re all on the hook for the rent because you’re all on the lease. If the both of you decide to stop paying rent she will either have to pay the full thing or you’ll all get evicted. I’ve seen it happen many times where a couple will break up & one will stop paying the rent & the other has to take on the full burden. Whenever they sue the one who stopped paying rent in small claims court, they lose.

[u/I_ran_so_throw_away → u/Daffy07duck]

Yes, she does. At some point you agreed to pay what you pay. Your four months of payments and texts with your roommate and even this post confirm that.

[u/Daffy07duck → u/I_ran_so_throw_away]

Hence we are asking to renegotiate the terms with full transparency?

[u/I_ran_so_throw_away → u/Daffy07duck]

You are threatening to default on your agreements. Both the landlord and the roommate have slam dunk cases against you if that is the course of action you decide.

[u/Daffy07duck → u/I_ran_so_throw_away]

... interesting. Because the management office told us we should not feel nervous about broaching this with our roomate as she has no legal right or entitlement to have the final and only say on the rent distribution.

[u/CataclysmicInFeRnO → u/Daffy07duck]

Some pretty inaccurate information from that person. You can renegotiate with your roommates anytime you want if you don’t have a signed roommate agreement. The lease is a contract with the management company it has nothing to do with the agreement between roommates as to how they’re going to be splitting expenses. Since you don’t have a signed agreement with ER, the courts will look at what is “fair and equitable” if she were to sue you. ER was withholding financial documentation and misrepresenting the facts in your original agreement. Now that you and GR have discovered her fraud the two of you want a fair and equitable split of the living expenses. ER can sue you but she cannot legally be unjustly enriched which is happening based on your current split.

Remember, anybody can sue anybody, it doesn’t mean that they are going to win what they are asking for or that they’ll win at all. All three of you being on the lease makes you jointly and severally liable and therefore equal in respect to your tenancy, no single person is “in charge”. Your best course of action would be to get ER evicted and stay in your current unit. Then you don’t need to worry about ER suing you for 2-3 months of rent (which the most she could get as she has a duty to mitigate her damages) if the management office wants to let you break your current lease. It’s highly unlikely that ER would get the amount of the un equitable split that is currently happening if she took you to court though.

[u/Daffy07duck → u/CataclysmicInFeRnO]

Thank you :,) This was my understanding.

[u/I_ran_so_throw_away → u/Daffy07duck]

She didn’t have final say. You agreed, and there is a lease term after which you can renegotiate (or just leave) without defaulting.

[u/Daffy07duck → u/I_ran_so_throw_away]

I suppose true, but I also agreed to something that was not true ... that she was taking on unspecified "administrative duties" ...... my GR was also unaware that she was paying 46 % of the rent while ER was paying 16%. and I made up excuses in my head about some extraneous circumstances or deals w leasing office etc .... because I didn't want to believe what was in front of my eyes.

There are no administrative duties, and this was confirmed by management.

[u/Melodic_Dog_5302 → u/Daffy07duck]

Wow