Finances can turn even the easiest roommate dynamic upside down overnight.

After a sudden rent hike, one young woman realized she couldn’t keep covering most of the rent alone, she hoped her roommate would meet her halfway.

But instead, she found herself confronting a roommate who wanted the perks of generosity, but not the responsibility.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for expecting my roommate to get a second job to contribute to rent, and that if she doesn’t she has to pay me back

I (24F) and my roommate (27F) have been rooming together for four years, and it’s been great. I don’t hold her to any expectations usually.

I make more than she does, and that’s always been fine.

But when the cost of rent went up, their roommate relationship went way down.

However, recently our landlord has increased the rent from £1800 to £2000, and I can’t afford to put in my 75% without cutting from other areas.

For context, I pay 75% and she pays 25% because she buys the food shopping and pays the electricity bills. I pay the rent and the water bills, the heating is usually split, and we each pay for our own phone bills.

I do not want to pressure her into paying more, but I have bought her a lot over the years and have never once asked her to pay me back.

This renter isn’t too happy with her roomie’s attitude about paying her fair share.

But now, when I mention not being able to keep affording my part of the rent, she never once offered to take part of it or made any signs of helping.

A week after we had our first conversation about it, I pulled her into the living room for another talk.

I asked her if she would be willing to help. She said she can’t afford it either and that’s why our agreement worked for her.

So she felt like she had no choice but to give her roomie an ultimatum.

Then I asked her if she’d be willing to get a second job to help out. She plainly refused.

Finally, I turned to her and stated, “If you don’t help contribute an extra part of the rent, you can pay me back for all the stuff I bought you.”

That being a ton of stuff — a new phone when hers broke and she couldn’t afford to replace it, a computer, amongst other things.

AITA?

Once she finally saw all the inequities between them, it was hard to go back to the status quo.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks this arrangement was asking for trouble from the start.

It doesn’t make sense for roommates to behave this way.

This type of arrangement could only last so long.

There’s a much better way forward.

One way or another, she’ll have to face the truth.

Her roommate can either own up, or it’s time to move on.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.