How do you get a bad roommate to move out?

Here’s the situation:

I recently moved into an awesome 3-bedroom house with two roomates - a girl and a guy. The place belongs to the guy, who we pay rent to (it’s actually owned by his dad but he does all the upkeep). The guy is pretty cool, easy going, and really nice. He has a wonderful Siberian Huskie dog, who stays outside full-time (he’s not house-trained).

The girl is another story. She’s a recovering drug addict, she switches jobs frequently, she keeps odd hours, I’ve heard her coming in and out and making all kinds of noise at 2 in the morning. She’s a complete slob, to the point of being disgusting.

She also has a dog, who is house trained, but when she moved in (last year sometime) there was the understanding that the dog wouldn’t be allowed inside, unless he was kept in her room. The dogs are both long-haired and shed a LOT. But whenever no one’s home she lets her dog in and he has the run of the place - she also seems to have problems keeping him in the dog-run when he’s outside, where the other dog stays most of the time, so there ends up always being dog crap all over the back patio (which is really nice flagstone beneath a banana tree). She takes the dog into the bathroom (which I share with her) when she takes a shower, she also must shower with the shower door open because after she’s finished, the bathroom is soaked, with wet dog hair everywhere (I’m not going to go into the state of bathroom cabinets - I keep all my essential bathroom stuff in a single drawer under the counter). She was using my towels until I realized they were disappearing and went through a load of her laundry to retrieve them - I now store them in my room. One of them ended up with paint stains all over it while she was using it.

She makes absolutely no contribution to the upkeep of the house. I think I’ve seen her do dishes once. We have a maid service that comes and cleans the floors & windows twice a month, but some minor maintenance needs to be done in between maid visits, espcially in the kitchen.

She’s frequently late with rent & bills, she never cleans up after her dog - I hate to see the backyard covered with dog shit, so I clean it up myself even though he’s not my dog (I also feel sorry for the poor dog having to tromp around in his own shit). The guy says that when she moved in, she painted her room black (he told her she couldn’t). She also busted one of her closet doors trying to shove too much crap into her closet. The busted black closet door is now leaning agains the wall in the living room because there’s no room for it in her bedroom.

When I first moved in, she was absent for several days - it turns out she’d been arrested for possession of somethingorother. I thought the guy was going to kick her out then because she handn’t paid rent yet and he wasn’t sure he was going to see her again. She came back, though. Every time I talk to the guy, he goes on about how he wants to tell her to leave, but has yet to actually do it.

How do we get her to move out? I know it’s the guy’s job to kick her out since he’s essentially the one renting her the room, but I’m assuming she never signed a lease (I didn’t), so he can’t kick her out for breaking a lease that never existed. Is the fact that she’s a bad roommate a good enough reason to kick her out? Should it be as easy as saying “get out!” if we’re sick of dealing with her BS?

You guys got any suggestions or similar stories that might give me ideas?

I am not a lawyer. Tenant/Landlord laws are different in every state. Make sure you understand exactly what they are and how they apply to your particular case before doing anything. That said, I would offer the following advice.

Your landlord should do the following:

  1. Ask her to voluntarily move out, and give her a reasonable period of time (at least 30 days) to do so. If she agrees, and moves out, problem solved.
  2. If she will not or does not move out voluntarily, consult a lawyer or expert in tenant law, and start legal eviction proceedings.

Above all, you and he should not try to forcibly evict her without first consulting a legal expert, as you might be opening yourself up to a lawsuit, particularly if the tenant laws heavily favor the tenant, as they do in California.

Become an even worse roomate.

Begin a strict diet of beans & cabbage.

Try playing Cold Ethyl by Alice Cooper at top volumem every morning…Worked for me.

We actually tried putting the garbage can full of dogshit under her bedroom window.

It didn’t work.

I think it’s going to have to be spelled out to her.

In the meantime, we’re making plans to turn her room into a pool hall. I’ll let you all know when the first “The roommate’s gone” party is. :slight_smile:

Trying to evict someone by making the residence unlivable for her is a bad idea, and illegal. Its called “constructive eviction” where I live, and it makes you liable for a lawsuit.

The place would probably have to be condemned before she would consider it “unlivable”.

We really don’t plan on trying to run her off by antagonizing her. Not that it would work, anyway, she’s so oblivious to her surroundings, including her housemates. Even if we did, I seriously doubt she’d have the presence of mind to hire a lawyer.

We’re just chicken-shit, I suppose. “Shit or get off the pot” as they say. But she’s so oblivious, even if we ASKED her to move out, she probably wouldn’t listen.

I appreciate all the suggestions, realistic & otherwise, though.

BTW, anyone looking for a place to live in the Orange County, CA area? We’re close to the beach and rent’s pretty reasonable. If we don’t turn her room into a pool hall, we’ll definitely need a new roommate. If we had interested parties, it might spur the guy roommate into action to get her to move out.