Unethical advice follows: if she is as stupid as it seems, you could let her “know” (whatever the reality) that she would be liable for the whole of the rest of her lease for the rest of its term, or she’ll go to jail.
Just a thought.
Are you a University student? I know UT (that’s TEXAS, bitch, not Tennessee) they had a legal service for students that you could use for free, set up for situations like this. They wouldn’t represent you, exactly, but they’d give you legal advice.
When I was in my 20’s I was looking for an apartment. I was looking at one complex, and the gal who was showing them (my age) told me she was looking for a roommate, actually, and she got a break on the rent as part of her job, and would I consider living with her?
We had gotten along so well up to that point, that I took a chance and moved in with her.
Things went perfectly. We got along really well. We became good friends. There was talk of being in each other’s weddings.
Now, shortly after she and I moved in together, she introduced me to a friend of hers and said that her friend was also looking for an apartment when she got back from her semester abroad. Would it be ok for her to move in, too? They’d of course share her bedroom and I could keep my own. I’d met this gal. A bit of a diva and kinda stupid, but nice enough. Sure, no problem.
Well, my roomie (the first) was a grad student and working at the complex part time. I was working full time and going to school part time. Diva is a FT undergrad.
Diva returns from her semester abroad, and one night they call a “meeting” and tell me that I will pay more, much more, in rent or else. (Well, Diva says this. Roomie #1 doesn’t say much at all.) Why? Because I make more, of course! I’m working full time! Plus, I have my own room!! It’s not faaaaaaaiiiiiirrrrrr!!!
Uh, I don’t think so.
I work out the math. I say, okay, let’s split up the rent differently, then. Based it on square footage, with all of us paying equal amounts for common areas. This gives The Diva and the now re-named Ball-less Wonder an advantage for sharing a room.
Nope. Unacceptable. Oh, and BTW sayeth The Diva, you’re a pig and it was always my intention to live just with Roomie #1 and not you and we’ve been writing letters to each other all last semester about how horrible you are.
Huh. Interesting - especially the pig part since it’s ROOMIE #1 who leaves dishes in the sick, beer cans all over the apartment after a party, her clothes all over your bed when you’re abroad.
Well, once I discovered that my name wasn’t on the lease anywhere (as it had to be only in Roomie #1’s name to get the discount on the rent), I quietly made arrangements to get the hell out. They came home one day and I was GONE. No more rent from me, ya bitches.
BTW, this ridiculous situation is how I found out about UT’s student legal services… quite handy.
I was going to suggest something similar to this. You can turn her intellectal disabilities to your own advantage. Let her get the idea that the landlord will come after her for her share of the balance of the lease (which I think he could actually do if he wanted to). At least let her know that she WILL end up in court one way or the other and imply that she could end up having her wages garnisheed or her car taken away (none of which would ever happen but if you say “I’d hate to see you get your car taken away,” it really isn’t a lie).
Ya think?
Have you contacted her parents about this? Get legal advice, but you may want to add the parents into the situation. It may help… or not.
Huh. There are no squirrels in north Florida? Did they migrate?
Go Big Blue!
ditto
Niblet_head, I go to the University of Central Florida, so I will definitely look into what kind of legal help the school has to offer.
jjimm and Diogenes, that thought actually crossed my mind too. The only problem is that although she’s dumber than a box of rocks, her boyfriend, parents, and other people she would go to for help aren’t. When I had my talk with her tonight I was very tempted to try that angle, but thought that might not look good for me if it goes to court and she says that I tried to make her believe she was responsible for all of the rent.
Our conversation tonight was very interesting though. Many times I had to try to contain my urge to scream at her at the top of my lungs so she wouldn’t be able to say that she was afraid to live with a crazy person. When I made the point to her that I would be willing to let her boyfriend move in here so her rent would be less she made up a list of other reasons she wanted to move. First she said that if she stayed my cat would have to leave. Her reason for this is that in the past two weeks she’s been sniffly and woken up coughing at night because of my cat. Fine, except all the problems with her logic: 1) the cat is never in her room, and rarely in the common area; 2) she’s been fine the rest of the time, and absolutely nothing has changed; and 3) I knew her before we moved to Orlando for college and she had a cat and a dog at home that I know for a fact regularly slept in her room. I replied that if that was truly the problem why didn’t she tell me when it first started happening? her answer:“I don’t like confrontation.” I told her that I would be willing to vacuum every single day to keep cat hair at an absolute minimum. Then she had to come up with another “problem.”
She said that since I don’t have a job, and she works full time and takes a few classes, that I’m “not a good influence” on her. Supposedly when she knows I’m at home she is tempted to not go to her night classes. I called bullshit by pointing out that when she skips her classes, it’s not to hang out with me, but so she can fuck her boyfriend, who gets off work at 3:30! And also, I’m not her babysitter. If she doesn’t have the fucking self control to make herself go to school and work, I certainly am not the one to blame. Then I reminded her what I had told her and everyone else–after I healed from my getting my wisdom teeth extracted, I HAD to get a job. In fact, I’m going to a job fair at Disney tomorrow, so that logic doesn’t stick either.
The biggest problem is the cat thing though. She knows that I most likely won’t get rid of it, and I’m damn well not getting rid of it when I think she’s lying about her allergies in the first place. And, correct me if I’m wrong, don’t people with minor pet allergies become more immune the more they’re exposed to the source anyway? If she’s truly allergic, I know it’s not a severe issue, because of the history that’s stated above. But I’m not completely stubborn, if there were steps I could take to help a minor allergy, I would be more than willing. I just doubt my ability to lessen an allergy that doesn’t exist.
I’ll have to see how all of this unfolds in the next few days, but right now her choices are to deal with her “allergy,” move out and find me a suitable roommate to replace her, or move out and continue to pay the rent that she owes. I’m trying not to sound like a “crazy cat lady” here, but that cat is a much better roommate than she is, so tough shit if she thinks I’m getting rid of it.
E-Sabbath, I will bring her parents into this if need be, I wanted a chance to talk to her first. They seem reasonable, and I really don’t think her dad would think highly of her breaking a contract.
Vinyl Turnip, you may be whooshing me here, or maybe I didn’t state that part well in the OP. Her position was that squirrels do not live in Florida, that they only live up north. I educated her otherwise.
Jimmy and Architect: Learn it, Live it, Love it!! 
First of all, I’m sorry you have an idiot for a roommate. My roommates are very similar. They think someone just comes in and magically does all the dishes and takes out the trash when they are done making a mess.
I think calling her parents would be a hit below the belt, but completely necessary if she still wants to move out. Her parents might not even know she wants to move in with her boyfriend, maybe she has told them she is moving in with some of her girl friends.
Good luck, and keep us updated and let us know what happens.
IANAMD, butmy own cat allergies didn’t develop significant symptoms until a few years after I’d got my cats. From what you’ve said though, I think your roomie is probably faking or mistaken.
Not AFAIK; I’m not a doctor but several friends are mega-allergic and they keep developing new allergies on top of the old ones. Real fun, for example for that one who’s a vet and became allergic to cats (he went into a second career as an air traffic controller after having to be taken into the ER twice because of terrible reactions).
But in any case, if she suspects she’s got an allergy she should see a doctor. The doctor may give her some antihistamines and/or get her checked (hereabouts, if a specific allergen is suspect, they get you checked, under the notion that if you can avoid the allergen it’s better than taking antihistamines every day “just in case”).
Check out the legal situation and give a second thought to getting another roomie. The only case where one of my roomies was someone I knew beforehand turned out to be one of my Roomies From Hell and I’ve had both real bad and real good roomies. In some cases we didn’t become friends or anything, but there was also no problems re. cleaning, sharing food, buying some stuff for the roomie since anyway you were going to the supermarket for yourself etc.; we just lived separate lives which happened to include the same kitchen, bathroom and living room.
I agree with the others who suggest the the cat-allergies thing is just an excuse. If you find a way to eliminate that reason, she will come up with another. Perhaps tell her that you are looking for another home for the cat, and see what her reaction is. This should show if she is lying or not.
It’s pretty obvious. She wants out of there, and there’s really nothing that’s going to stop her. If she’s made aware of her financial liability, then if she’s smart (huh?) she’ll find a way to make it work.
I third the idea of approaching the 'rentals. Odds are they’re paying for some part of her education, and while they might not be thrilled by her majoring in basket weaving, they’ll go out of their minds if they think they are supporting her new major of “modern matress-dance”.
Of course she’ll hate you and the rest of your lease will be less than pleasant (I’d get a lock for your room; a Nice Strong one). And yes, I also agree that you need to start canvassing for a replacement roommate via flyers, student center bulletin boards, and the school newspaper.
My information about allergies possibly diminishing with more exposure came from my friend who at first couldn’t be in a room with dogs or cats, but now lives with them. He said he’s gotten to a point where he can pet them for a short time and be okay. Could be an isolated incident, that’s not the same for everyone though.
As I was laying in bed last night though, I thought of another little tidbit of information, and now I’m almost 100% certain she’s lying about this. Her boyfriend has a dog that he brings over to visit sometimes, and the dog sleeps in her room. She pets the dog and plays with it, and is certainly not concerned about his hair floating around her room. Except she said she’s allergic to dog and cat hair, so that definitely does not sound right. Oh, and I did suggest taking something for her allergies. She replied that she didn’t want to take a pill everyday.
I know she’s does doing all of this so she can move out with her boyfriend, and she’s going to come up with excuse after excuse until she gets what she wants, or until it gets really messy. I really appreciate all of the advice, and I know that it’s essentially common knowledge that living together ruins friendships, but it worked for the year before, although admittedly it wasn’t just the two of us. I figured our only problems would be minor, typical roommate stuff like someone leaving a dirty dish out, or who was supposed to take the trash out that week. I decided I wouldn’t let small problems escalate and ruin our friendship, because in the long run it wouldn’t be worth it. This is different though. The best way to piss me off is to lie about things.
<SLAPS Scarlett67 with a Wet Trout in a FRENZY>
DO!
NOT!
SING!
THAT!
HERE!
EVER!
AGAIN!
If she really wants to move out, there isn’t really much you can do about it.
You just need to make sure that she understands that she is still liable on the lease.
Check your lease (and any addendums), it may forbid things like subleasing, boarding or rooming in which case she can move out but noone else can move in (unless you feel like you should risk eviction to accomodate her).
If your lease allows for subleasing, a sublease usually requires both of your signatures, she can’t just dump someone on you. Basically, if she wants to move out, she will have to pay two rents unless she can find someone you are happy with.
I know others in this complex who have taken someone off the lease and put another on, however I don’t know how much trouble they went through to accomplish that. Obviously I plan on researching that. I have let her know that she will still be liable for her portion, but I’m going to continue reminding her of this daily. She often forgets things people tell her and denies that she was ever told in the first place. Much in the same way she decided we have a ghost because a jacket was hung up in her room and she didn’t remember doing it–even though I did see her do it and told her so. Anyway, I know the landlord probably won’t get into this and hold her liable, because he doesn’t care who his money comes from. I will make sure she is held liable by someone, even if it has to be a court.
*As a side-note here, on the off chance anyone happens to recall my thread about being attacked by a cat, I just wanted to clarify that the cat she may or may not be allergic to is not the cat in that thread. That cat lives at my mother’s house two hours away from here. Just making sure everyone knows I’m not fighting to keep a homicidal cat here against my roommate’s wishes!