venting

[Elsa]

I live with 3 roommates and one of them is the daughter of our landlord. So we give her the rent checks and because all the bills are set up in her name, we pay her for bills too. The problem is, she never pays it on time!! We've had our power shut off twice now (for less than a day) within the past 4 months, and today our cable was shut off because it hasn't been paid in two months. Even though the problem usually gets fixed the same day, my patience has run out. How hard is it for someone to pay bills on time, especially when you can have it taken out automatically from your checking account??!! We always pay her the money in time, so why is it so difficult for her to pay it?

would it be out of line to talk to her dad about it? None of the other roommates are confrontational and I'm sick of feeling like I'm living with little kids that don't know how to be responsible. Another roommate has offered to take on the bills, is it hard to transfer names and such?

 

[Alex]

Ugh, that sucks.

Id tell your landlord about it.

Im so sorry you have to put up with all that.

 

[Jill]

Urgh.

I'm not sure what to suggest, but you should not have to put up with it.

The reason I'm not sure what you should suggest is it's hard to tell how much the daughter has her father, the landlord, snowed. Not sure if it's a situation where she could make him believe it's not her fault, but one of yours (because not sure how reasonable he'd be when hearing what his darling daughter spins).

Good luck finding a solution. I can't imagine how annoying it must be

 

[jacks'thunder]

I like the idea of your other room mate taking over the bills. Maybe you could start by asking about taking over some of her "burden" of this responsability and say it's only fair if we all share this deed

. It could work. I'd be worried that if you went to her dad in the long run it could come back to haunt you. I'd let her keep the rent check responsability but the others you should switch over. It's pretty easy as long as you have an income and decent credit. Call and find out what it takes, gas, electric and phone should be a snap!

Good luck!

Leya

 

[Lisa]

I completely feel your pain. I just got out of a situation like that. My roommate was my cousin, she treated me like crap and that was the last straw. She had a baby in August, and I moved in October. She "forgot" to pay the electricity for two months and it got cut off. She did not think it was a big deal and thinks that I over-reacted.

I do not think you are out of line at all if you talk to her dad. You are a tenant, paying your bills on time and if she does not pay the bills with your money she is essentially stealing your money.

 

[heart k ranch]

I would ask to start taking care of the billing.....

I'm sorry this is happening to you

 

[Elsa]

I ended up calling our landlord last night after I found out we get charged $60 each time they have to reactivate our power after it's been shut off. I also told him I wrote my roommate a check for last months bills (which I have a copy off with her endorsement.. just in case) and still the cable wasn't paid for that month. Obviously she used the money for something else, and that was the last straw.

On top of that she blatantly lied to me and tried to get me to pay the stacked up cable bill of $226 in return for her paying my power bill which she lied and said was $200 (our power bill is split up so that we can see who uses how much). I found the actual powerbill which was a total of $170 and my part of it was $80.

I know she will be mad I brought her dad into this, but he must have known anyway because he's been paying our reactivation fees for the power. I'm just so sick of living with kids.

Is something like this grounds enough to break a lease if it were to happen again?