Imagine moving into a friend’s house and paying them rent. If you noticed fleas in the house, would you assume your cats were responsible, his dog was responsible, or that the responsible thing to do would be to each pay 50% the cost of hiring an exterminator?

In this story, two friends are in this situation, and they originally agreed to both pay 50% of the exterminator cost, but then the friend who owns the house got unreasonably upset about having to split the cost.

The argument escalated quickly, and now, the friend who was renting is wondering if she did something wrong.

Let’s read all about it.

AITA for calling out my friend/landlord, resulting in a 2 week notice eviction?

I (26F) moved in with my friend (26M) that owns his own house in early June.

I did so mainly to save money as rent would only be $800, and he was struggling financially so it would benefit us both.

We never really had any issues and got along well, never got into a fight.

Occasionally, he would ask me to unload the dishwasher but never complained about me making a mess/not contributing.

Uh-oh!

Fast forward to this month, he decides to quit his 96k/year job and take out his entire 401k because “he couldn’t mentally take it anymore”.

Even with this job, he was thousands+ in debt, living paycheck to paycheck and would often have to do cash advances.

With the little money he had, he would go out with friends drinking, buying stupid stuff like halloween decorations, new shoes, even went on a 5 hour roadtrip for 2 days after he quit.

He would frequently break down, saying he’d have to sell the house, his car, file for bankruptcy, and then go back and tell me everything was fine.

Now, they need an exterminator.

A few weeks ago, I noticed fleas on my 2 cats, so I put them on medication, gave them a topical treatment, and bought them flea collars, thinking the problem had resolved.

Well, I noticed fleas on my bed, on the floors and even upstairs (I live downstairs) so I told him we may need to look into an exterminator.

He agreed and initially agreed on splitting the cost 50/50 because he has a dog and there was really no way of figuring out who was at fault here.

While he claims his dog has been medicated, my cats never had fleas prior to moving in with him, and I doubt he uses expensive high-quality treatments, if anything at all.

But he’s trying to get out of paying his 50%.

He said it was likely the previous owners left fleas that laid dormant in the carpeting (he bought the house in November of last year).

Then, he went back on this and began trying to put all of the blame on my cats, telling me it wasn’t fair that he had to pay towards the exterminator.

I told him that it was possible his dog brought in the fleas, even if he was medicated, and that they could’ve jumped onto my cats and reproduced, infesting the house.

The argument really escalates quickly!

Out of nowhere, he starts complaining about how he covers utilities for both me and my boyfriend (who’s only there 3-4 times/week), how he cleans up after us (occasionally cleans a dish I leave in the sink) and that it’s not fair for him to pay when he just quit his job.

I basically call him out, telling him I’m not paying the full cost because I’m not the homeowner, he also owns a pet, and it’s not my fault that he bought a house when he was already living paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford basic home repairs/maintenance.

Well, he didn’t like this so he decides to evict me & give me a month to find a new place, and then tells me I’m still responsible for paying for the exterminator and that “it really hurts that as a friend you won’t take care of this”.

I tell him I’m not paying, especially now that he’s evicted me, and he continues to play the victim and tells me to “put myself in his shoes”.

This guy needs mental help!

Later that day, he texts me again, telling me I can either pay for the exterminator and have a month, or get out by the 31st.

I tell him that if he’s kicking me out anyway, I’m not paying because that’s ridiculous and now I have to worry about moving costs.

We have mutual friends, and I hear him upstairs talking to all of them on the phone and I doubt he told them the real reason he was evicting me was because I called him out on his financial situation, because a lot of them agree he shouldn’t have bought the house in the first place.

I should also mention he’s mentally unstable, and literally had a tantrum and threatened to hurt himself when he thought the fridge was broken…

Yikes! I think it would be good for her mental health to move out. But that guy needs to talk to a therapist or something.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this story.

Here’s a suggestion about moving out.

It was probably his dog.

This is a good question.

Being evicted isn’t a good look.

She’ll be better off living somewhere else.

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.