i’m not saying that i’m actually for or a big fan of corporal punishment, but the more i’m having to deal with college kids who don’t seem to know how to conduct themselves against other people, the more i’m starting to think that beating some sense into them might not be a bad idea after all.
one event that has especially fired this sentiment into me was the sudden and abrupt departure of a housemate of mine, who was subleasing a room in the house until december with another friend of mine. she had previously mentioned that she was wanting to move out after november and did mention that she was looking for places to stay for the next semester, to which i told her to keep me posted because at the time i was interested in moving out of my current room as well.
one thing about this particular (ex) housemate, is the fact that she’s not very sociable and didn’t venture out of her room too much; her roommate (my friend) used to be around the house a lot, but found himself a girlfriend and was also not around too much, which left us clueless as to what’s going on about/in that room.
so come december, when it came time for rent, i sent both of them a text message telling them it’s time to pay rent — my friend (her roomate) responded and told me he’d come back home the day i told him i’d need the check by to pay rent, but the housemate in question did not.
curious, and a little worried, i tried repeatedly to call her and find out where she is so we can get our rent check together to the landlord — i called her and left her texts on her phone with no avail; and asked a few mutual friends to try calling her and see if they could get in contact with her — also without success. so when the day came to finally pay the rent, my friend (the housemate in question’s roomate) came back to his room for the first time in two weeks, only to see that the housemate’s belonging’s were all moved out and was missing from the room.
puzzled and shocked at the situation, we both tried again to reach her through all means possible: facebook, phone/texts whatever, but she didn’t respond — but since rent is rent, and the landlord asks no questions and what/how as long as he gets the money, my friend (the housemate’s roommate), being the responsible guy decided to pay the other half of the rent (265 dollars) seeing as how he was the only one who had technically/or would be living in the room in the event such a thing happened.
(on a side note: our current housing situation is that everyone is on an unofficial monthly lease, so it’s designed in a way that anyone can leave at the end of the month so long as they’ve found a replacement and they’ve fully notified the other housemates of his/her departure.)
frustrated, we came back after paying the rent angry but decided to keep the issue on the afterburners since there’d be nothing we could do so long as she keeps avoding contact. two days after paying rent, however, i received the following email from her:
To whom this may concern:
The agreement was that I would move out by December 5th. I also notified Scott and (roommate) before the 5th of November that I would be moving out before December 5th ( more than 30 days), I also reminded Berdin before Thanksgiving break, whether or not you chose to acknowledge this is beyond my concern. I do not have to pay for December, therefore I will not pay for December, so leave my friends, people I associate with, and me alone.
Sincerely,
flabbergasted, this is the reply i sent back.
1. if you had actually notified me and berdin that you were moving out, then we would not have been harassing you or your friends — the fact that berdin came back and was wondering where you were pretty much tells you that neither he nor I knew that you were moving out.
2. if you had really told us that you were moving out and if an agreement was already put into place, why did you go to such great lengths to avoid making contact with me, berdin, and the rest of the housemates?
3. even if you somehow think you’ve excused yourself from paying for december’s rent you still need to pay for PG&E and Water/Waste for the month of November.
4. we don’t really care that you chose to move out, and we would have been fine if you had told us ahead of tiime and made it perfectly clear that you were moving out — as i have mentioned before, i don’t think 265 measly dollars is worth all the trouble you’re putting yourself and us into.
but the fact that you didn’t make yourself clear and the fact you chose to avoid contact with anyone in the house during the week we’re supposed to pay rent when an update on such a situation would have been appreciated, is what’s bugging me at least.
i do remember you talking about maybe moving out after november but you never made any definitive statement at least to me, and the fact that berdin didn’t know and was surprised to find all your belongings gone after he came back after spending some two weeks out of the house also suggests that you did an insufficient job in notifying the residents of your departure.
so for all of you who thought the above was tl;dr:
NEXT TIME YOU PLAN ON DOING SOMETHING THAT AFFECTS OTHER PEOPLE MAKE SURE YOU LET THEM KNOW AHEAD OF TIME SO PEOPLE DON’T GET CONFUSED OVER SHIT LIKE THIS.
and cut the formal bullshit — you’re like the least responsible person i know with your “oh i’ve never written a check before”, “oh i must written out my check but forgotten to sign it,” and “oh maybe i won’t get noticed if i move all my shit out during thanksgiving without telling anyone.”
keep your 265 dollars and i really sincerely hope your new housemates are a little more tolerant about bullshit than we are.
Best,
Scott.
yes i do understand that murphy’s law exists and people will take advantage of “unofficial monthly leases,” and yes i do realize that i could have been a little more mature in the email, but let’s face it — if your child is 21 years old and doesn’t understand that paying rent is serious business, you’ve failed as a parent.
