Living with roommates involves a constant give-and-take, so you have to choose your battles wisely. If you’re not careful, everything can quickly turn into a fight.

So, how do you react when your lease ends and there’s an additional bill to be paid?

Do you just cover the cost, or do you contact your roommates to pay their share? And what happens if they ignore you and block you to avoid paying?

In today’s story, a young woman finds herself in this exact situation and devises a great way to solve the issue.

Let’s take a look.

Roommate used me so I told his mom

Okay, so this happened a couple years ago while living in my first apartment with “friends.”

There were a couple people that rotated through the apartment, but the result ended up being the same.

My roommate (20/21M let’s call him D) and I (23/24F at the time) had gone through about 3 roommates during our lease.

The first, a “friend” of mine decided to move back in with family and stopped paying rent, so she left.

The second roommate (let’s call him J) had an urgent and very important family matter and had to move back home to care for his relative.

The third roommate (call him R), decided to stay. This is all relevant later!

Sometimes, you have to learn to share when you have roommates.

So, when we moved in, I was struggling mentally due to some personal reasons, and I quit my job. I did what I could to make money and still contribute to the bills.

D picked up the slack, and I was so grateful!

What I wasn’t grateful for was a disgusting kitchen every single day. I provided everything in that apartment except his personal items and his food.

Everything else I brought or was gifted. Furniture, dishes, lamps, food, seasoning, beverages, ALL OF IT!

She found out how hard it was to live with D.

D also has TERRIBLE hygiene!

He worked in fast food and restaurant kitchen cooking and always smelled like grease and a gross kitchen after work but wouldn’t shower, just get in bed or change his clothes and then get in bed.

He ALWAYS smelled bad to the point I’d repeatedly request he shower.

Day after day, I begged him to clean up, but he never did. It was always “Okay, yeah I got it,” but never “Hey, I did it,” so I got stuck cleaning.

I got tired of wanting to cook and being unable to because all of my dishes were in the sink.

With one blessing comes another challenge.

Our next door neighbor had roaches, and I found one in our cabinet and told him to take care of it.

Once he saw it (a tiny one), he freaked out and started doing his own version of a deep clean (wiping EVERYTHING do with a wet rag. That’s it.)

Between R and D, I couldn’t take it anymore. By early 2022, I had gotten a great new job with amazing pay! I started contributing and doing my part with bills.

I was over the moon. R, however, had not contributed a dime, as he didn’t have a job. J had offered to let him move in, without talking to me and D, knowing that R did not have a job.

The road was rocky with J for other reasons, so I left it.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse.

R and D got along famously, which was great! D needed a friend since him and I were butting heads every waking moment.

Well, one day, D comes home and says his work hours got cut, and he was looking for something new.

All good, I could cover the slack like he did for me. And I did, from March to August, when our lease ended.

In that time, the dirty kitchen got worse.

I’m talking food had mold growing on it, refrigerated items were being left out, multiple trash bags in the kitchen (D parked right next to the dumpster!) and the icing on the cake, a RAW CHICKEN alternating between the fridge and the counter!

It leaked raw chicken blood juice everywhere! This never got cleaned.

D probably shouldn’t have said all of that.

At this point, I had stopped cleaning and stopped caring. I was footing the bills for the apartment AND cleaning while these 2 bums were off spending money on shoes and girls! I had had enough.

D and I got into it one last time before moving out. He blamed everything on me. The dirty kitchen, the roommates that left, bills not being paid.

I told him that was his mess, I can’t control other people and I’m not his mom. We didn’t speak for 2 months.

So, for 2 months R and D had to cook and eat from their own dishes.

Reminder, they had none. I packed up all of my stuff and put it in my closet in a way that would be ovious if they moved it (they had no regard for my space when I wasn’t home.

Would just go in my room to use my bathroom or get a dish). They were livid.

Finally, she got fed up and went in another direction.

We finally move out, and I clean the entire apartment, top to bottom. The carpets in their rooms had to be replaced so we lost the deposit.

We got the bill for the cleaning services, and I asked for their part of the payment. R still had no job, and D was living back home with his mom.

For months, I reached out to D for his payment, but he would block me wherever I reached out. Eventually, I told him I was going to take him to small claims court, and he ignored me.

So, I called his mom to tell her my plans.

D’s mother to the rescue!

D’s mom was a sweetheart to me, always! She even tried to warn me about living with him but didn’t disclose why.

When I told her I was going to sue, I told her everything. She asked when he last helped with bills and I told her April.

Turns out from April to August, he had been asking his mom for money for the bills and spending it elsewhere. She was livid.

She assured me that I was going to get my money back and if I didn’t, I could sue.

He called me and immediately started cussing me out.

I hung up on him.

His mom checked in every couple of weeks to make sure I was getting my payments.

He planned to pay it back in 2 months.

It took him 6.

Use me as your live-in housemaid and bank account, deal with the consequences of stealing from your mother!

Yikes! That’s a messy situation all the way around.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit had to say.

Someone shared a similar experience.

Here’s a great point.

Proof that not all roommates are bad.

This person is happy that she told his mom.

Ultimately, everyone involved still had some growing up to do.

Glad they worked it out and hope everyone learned a lesson.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.