No harm in asking, I say. Then you’ll at least know for certain.
I can’t believe you signed the lease. If they’re this bad now, I can’t wait for the pit thread six months from now. I, too, would ask the landlord if you could still back out before people moved in. He probably won’t let you, but there’s no harm in asking.
Trust me, you just set yourself up for a really horrible year.
If you talk to the landlord and you can’t get out of the lease, inquire whether he’s had any other inquiries about renting the place. Maybe you could get together with anyone he can point you to and acquire some new roomies that way, especially if the landlord recommends them as seeming like good prospective tenants.
I’m not sure it would be that easy if the roommates objected to being kicked out. If Bouv is the only lease signer, then I believe the other roommates would be deemed Bouv’s sublessee’s and may be entitled to some minimum of due process before being tossed out. Subject to the usual caveats (didn’t read your lease, don’t know the local laws, not your lawyer, not legal advice, etc.)
Although Flake sounds like an administrative nightmare, I think she may turn out to be one of your better roommates. After all, you said her parents are picking up the bill. The other roommates seem to have financial difficulties, at least she has someone presumably more reliable than her cutting the checks.
I wish I had some better advice than to bail, but your best option is probably to make soem kind of deal with the landlord and get out now. The LAST thing you want to become is “the responsible one” in a houseful of bad roommates. I speak from experience. The coming up short on the rent and for other bills will be a regular, chronic problem. Debts will pile up, at least one roommate will split on you within the first two months. People will eat you food, borrow money and steal from you. You will probably lose your cable and/or internet services within about six months. It will be one of the worst years of your life. All this will happen. Count on it. Look at the number of people in this thread who have been there, done that. Your description of the prospective roomies in question sets off every alarm bell. They will not become more reliable, trustworthy or responsible after they move in with you. You are fucked if you don’t get out of this.
This dick is not your friend. He knew he’d have to come up with the money for rent and SD and yet he LENDS someone else the money he OWES you?? Sounds like he just assumed you’d be ok with it emotionally and financially, you knowing that you’re not as important as this other friend and that you’ll cover for him financially while he shirks his monetary duties to you while supporting others. Round and round, however you look at the situation, he was a dick to you, not a friend. Are you sure his phone was really broken? Maybe he just didn’t want to talk to you. Watch this ass closely. He’s going to manipulate you and screw you over, since he already knows he can, and you won’t confront him.
Insist on Money Orders for the rent.
Get Flake’s dad’s phone number (you’ll need it often).
Ha, get all the utilities in Flake’s name.
Please keep us updated and Pit these people hard when they deserve it. You might as well use this thread instead of starting new ones, since there will be a lot of them. Then again, it all could turn out well. Stranger things have happened. Still, let off steam in this thread if you need to.
Ditto on this one. When living with other people, I try to have my name on as few bills as possible. That way, if something goes horribly wrong, the long term complications are something someone else has to deal with.
Just re-read your OP and I have a couple of questions:
What exactly was your response to Flake when she blew you off Friday night, or to all of the folks who only ponied up 1/2 of what they knew they were going to owe? Because if you did anything other than clearly convey that you would not accept being treated that way, you are being somewhat of a doormat. They will realize that, and will continue to walk all over you.
The ONLY possible interpretation of the facts as you describe them is that several of your prospective roomates screwed you over, some of them more than once. Whether out of flakiness, rudeness, inconsideration, or criminal intent, I didn’t notice you describing any of them falling over themselves apologizing to you and assuring you it will never happen again. Sound to me like folks I would not be eager to enter into financial relations with.
I don’t quite understand the specifics of your lease and the timing. Are you the only one to sign the lease? That sounds pretty goofy to me. While multiple lessees may each be independently liable to the landlord for the rent, if the other people are not on the lease, you will have unnecessary complications should you ever need to take them to court - say they move out before the lease is up. If the other 4 are paying you, and you are paying the landlord, then you should have some kind of a written agreement with them.
If I understand correctly, you signed the lease BEFORE getting ANY money from the other four? Or did you sign it AFTER 3 of them demonstrated their irresponsibility? Excuse me, but WTF were you thinking?! Signing your name to a legal document leads to real obligations and consequences.
If I understand correctly, tho you signed the contract, no one has paid any money, and only one of you have moved in. You may wish to contact a lawyer, student advocate, or somesuch to see if these factors in any way improve your ability to break the lease.
You also might wish to reconsider hooking up cable, internet, and phone. Use your cell and get your internet at school. These bums will dick you for those as well.
Finally, for an old fart it is pretty hysterical to hear younger folks using excuses of their phones being broken or otherwise unavailable to justify your not being able to reach them. Sorry, but firmly in the 21st century it ain’t like they share a coin-operated rotary phone that won’t make outgoing calls with 50 guys on their dorm floor. Again, in accepting such lame-ass excuses you are either accepting willingly more responsibility than your fair share, and/or demonstrating considerable gullibility.
Having said all that, it is possible that everything will turn out allright. Perhaps these folk don’t MEAN to screw you over. It’s just that they are glad to have you deal with their shit, and have no qualms about inconveniencing you (at best), or trashing your credit rating and worse. But with constant badgering, and floating these guys short-term loans, and rationalizing away countless slights and expenses, you’ll probably get through the year okay, while learning a darned valuable lesson about entering into legal obligations with other people.
You know, in the original thread Bearflag70 gave this advice:
7*. Don’t room with flaky assholes*.
If only you’d followed his advice!
I must chime in with the chorus that says you need to get out now, even if you have to pay a bunch of money to do it. Fire up your sensitive side and all your charm and play it as a heartbreaking ordeal to your landlord/lady and see if she’ll help you out by cutting everyone out, or maybe kicking everyone else out, charging you your share of the rent and giving you some time to find more responsible roommates.
Holy fuck, man!
The first time I ever have a roommate ask my to cover his rent for him, I start packing boxes. If you’re all on the lease, give the landlord exactly as much as your share is, and let him and them know that the others are responsible for theirs. If you’re the only one on the lease, it’s ultimatum time.
They must know that it’s time to break the piggy bank, hock the guitar and get that cash advance, or they will not be moving in. Say it firmly, clearly, repeatedly, and if necessary, while holding a weapon.
I agree with a lot of what was said above.
Get out if you can.
If you cannot get out, do not have the utilities in your name. If you all have cell phones, why get a land line anyway? It’s just another bill.
Put a lock on your bedroom door, and have a small fridge in there.
Vent here often. I really hope we are all wrong, but starting out this badly is not a good sign.
This is why I am thanking my stars that I live somewhere that housing and such looks to be cheap enough that I can live by myself. Try as hard as you can to get out of this, man. Please. It’s not going to get better.
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Break the lease if you can.
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If the parasites haven’t moved in yet, and if they’re not on the lease, then they are not sublessees, and they have no squatter’s rights.
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Give the parasites their money back. As cash.
Though it is likely that you are well and truly fucked.
Give them their money back as a money order or use another way that leaves a proveable paper trail! Don’t give them cash, they could claim you didn’t pay them back and sue you.
IF you cannot get out of this thing you guys need to set up an agreement in writing as to how the various mutual bills will be handled, complete with late payment penalties and designated times and dates for all payments to be in, as well as a designated person to handle it. Have any agreed upon late fees come out of the rest of your balance on mutual bills for next month, this way nobody “profits” from the late fee.
Ex. Power bill is $200 /5 = $40 each. Make the due date 5 days before the actual due date and toss in a $2/day late fee. If there $18 in late fees from 2 people, deduct it equally ($6) from those who paid on time and let them carry a balance forward for the next bill. As an option maybe put it into a savings/money market account and have it as an emergency fund for sudden move outs by flaky roomies or to create a small revenue stream to offset some rent/bills making it a little cheaper for everyone. Hell a couple flakes that consistently pay 3-4 days late could make everyones life pretty darn easy.
Get yourself a legder book for whomever will be keeping tabs and keep it locked up. Get a separate bank account for the bills and such. might even be able to set up a business account where your roomies would be allowed to depost money to the account and it takes any two/three of you to authorize a check if there is some kind of worry you might go nuts with the bill money.
This way any of them can buzz by and make a deposit at any branch of the bank in question but not withdraw and just write their name on a copy of the cashier reciept or something to inform you that the $400 depost on 8/1/06 was from person X.
Sounds complicated, it is, but you have a messy situation that will get out of hand in a hurry without structure in a big hurry. Don’t allow any payments on past due bills to slide while more current bills are paid (ie, money does not go towards rent if you have not paid for power/internet/trash/whatever). If they are behind on the rent…amke the apppropriate warnings/notices
Talk to the landlord, you might be willing to get some enforcement help from him WRT individuals not paying rent, issuing appropriate notices, initiating evictions, etc. As long as the rest of you do your part.
nuke the site from orbit
it’s the only way to be sure
Update:
Got the other $400 from Flake today from her mother, since I was lucky enough to be working in the town she works in as well. Hopefully that will clear before the landlord cashes the check I will write her Saturday. It will leave me with just a little bit of money in my bank account, but it will be enough to get by until I get the other $800 I am owed and my last paycheck. The power bill is in Flake’s name (already set up), the water bill will be in M’s name (getting set up tomorrow), and the internet and cable will be in L’s name (getting set up I think tomorrow. As long as it’s ready by the time I move in on the 15th, I don’t care.) I guess the trash removal bill will be in J’s name, since it’s the last one left, it seems.
I don’t think the rest of the year will be this bad. It’s a rocky start, but hopefully smooth sailing from here. But I’ll find out in three weeks when I try and get the second month’s rent. 
:eek: :mad:
Fingers crossed for you, but man, think about your options for getting out of the lease and leaving the irresponsible ones on their own.
Do not put utilities in your name, absolutely.
Keep communications going with the landlord. You want the landlords to be aware that you are the responsible one in this crew, should crap hit the fan. If your roommates screw up rental payments and such, everyone tends to get tarred with the brush. The landlord (if it’s a property management company) doesn’t think: “Jim paid his rent, Sue paid her rent, but Lucy and Bob didn’t.”
They think “Damn it, 344 Elm Street’s not paid rent in full. Again. It’s time to evict and get better tenants…”
Yes, do it now! Give him a chunk of cash and a story about how you could never guarantee making rent on time. Use the cash that the flakes gave you for his payoff and give the full amount back to the responsible ones. Everyone wins and the flakes get what they deserve.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Has anyone ever had a good experience with this many room-mates?