Living with roommates can get complicated pretty fast, especially when respect and communication start lacking.

So, what would you do if you opened your home to someone going through a tough situation, but even though you set clear expectations, the person chose to ignore them? Would you just keep dealing with it? Or would you finally draw a line and end the arrangement for good?

In the following story, one woman faces this decision and is forced into the latter. Here’s how it all played out.

AITAH for forcing my roommate and her daughter to rehome after being disrespected

My BF (34M) and his ex (29F) share 50/50 custody of their 8-year-old daughter.

When the mom was possibly facing homelessness, I offered a room in my apartment. Without adding her to the lease, we signed a 6-mo trial with terms: on-time rent, respectful communication, and in-person conflict resolution and documentation.

She added privacy from my BF, supervised interaction with her daughter, and no expectation of friendship.

Even though there were issues, she still allowed them to stay.

Early on, there were instances of misleading intent and lies to my BF about things I said. I received vague apologies and chose to tolerate it, just being more intentional with my words. Then she started leaving the front door unlocked for her daughter and fell behind on rent.

At our renewal meeting, I agreed we could continue living together if two issues were fixed: get spare keys, answer the doorbell, and pay rent the next day. She agreed. Neither happened. Communication stopped.

Around Christmas, the living room was filled with gifts while rent was still unpaid, and the door was still left unlocked.

Fed up, she tried to have a talk with the woman.

She later decided, without discussion, to pay $300/week while now two months behind. When I asked to talk, she said she’d be away for weeks. She was home. I got petty and pulled the breaker to the washer/dryer (her peace chore).

I texted her that I’d restore it once rent was paid and the keys were handled. Within seconds, she apologetically set a meeting date. Then came out of her room, making demands and vague threats. The meeting was postponed with less than 12 hours’ notice anyway. Again, she was home.

I drafted a formal Notice to Quit, restating the same two terms, giving her time to find other housing if unresolved. She asked to discuss it, then threw it in the trash and berated me for 20 min. Five minutes in, she admitted my concerns “weren’t a priority.”

Unfortunately, the woman wasn’t willing to even see her side of it.

In summary, she said, “Grow up, stop being a coward, have a conversation like an adult, and don’t take your personal life out on us because you’re also affecting this child you supposedly care about and her father, too.”

At that point, the pattern of lies, dismissal, and hostility was making me feel unsafe. I decided it was time to move on on January 18. She refused to leave, so I terminated my lease with my landlord.

Regardless of fault, we were no longer functional roommates.

Now, she’s worried because the daughter doesn’t like her.

She said she has no idea why I’m suddenly forcing her to rehome. I had been transparent through texts, emails, and the notice about my disapproval of the situation since December 19.

Now her daughter, with whom I had good relations, is saying she learned I’m a bad person and I deceived them because I “don’t have their best interest at heart.”

My anxiety has been the worst, worrying about the impact on the daughter’s mental health since my bf and I will move in together.

AITA?

Yikes! What a messy situation.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about everything that happened.

For this reader, everyone is wrong here.

According to this comment, she wasn’t very nice to herself in all this.

Here’s someone who thinks the ex is playing games.

This person sees it as a bad idea from the get-go.

Luckily, she was able to get out. Let’s hope she never makes that mistake again.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.