A Student Pays $2,000 A Month For One Bedroom In Her Landlord’s House, But The Endless Rules Are What Really Bother Her
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Would you share a home with your landlord for $2000 a month?
Well, a student recently moved into a rented bedroom near her college campus, expecting a relatively straightforward arrangement.
But she didn’t know she would have to accept a bunch of rules that don’t really make for a comfortable living situation. Especially because of one rule.
After discussing the possibility of having overnight guests with her landlord before signing the lease, she was shocked when the landlord changed her mind just hours after agreeing to an exception.
And that was only one of several restrictive rules.
What would you do?
Read the full story below.
My landlord is stricter than I initially thought…
I, 21F, have moved to a new city for school, almost 400 miles away from my hometown.
I am a transfer student, now renting a 10×10 bedroom in a townhome close to my college campus as a tenant/lodger.
I share a bathroom with another college student, whose rented bedroom is right next to mine. We share the kitchen, living area, etc with our landlord, since she is the homeowner.
The rent is just short of $2000 a month.
Yikes. But it’s no luxury.
I just moved in a week ago, and initially things were alright; I was just adjusting to moving in & living with new people.
What I have started to realize is that my landlord has a lot of rules, many of which are common sense and fully reasonable, and some of which feel unnecessary.
The main rule that bothered me was a “no overnight guests” rule.
This was stated in the lease, but when I asked my LL about it before signing, she clarified it was just as a precaution so that other students were not freeloading and living in the house without paying rent (For further context, there is a homelessness crisis in this area).
But things got weird.
That made sense to me, and I mentioned that because I am new to the city and have friends and a partner back home, I would like to have them visit me when possible, if allowed.
LL said she wants to avoid this as much as possible, but would allow overnight guests for up to 2 nights, at most once per month.
This sounded great, and I proceeded to go through with signing the lease.
Yesterday morning, I had a meeting with my LL and other housemate to discuss a cleaning schedule and general rules/reminders.
Initially she printed out this long list of rules as “lease amendments” which my housemate pointed out was probably unnecessary, and my LL ended up editing out the amendments language.
Things got tense and awkward.
One thing on the list I pointed out was the “no overnight guests”, which I challenged because I had specifically talked about with my LL at least twice prior.
I reminded my LL about our previous discussions about this, and she scoffed and made a somewhat snarky comment about how my guests would be adults and they can afford a hotel.
To this I pointed out that hotels/airbnbs in the area are probably average $300-400 a night, not something your average college student can afford.
My partner works 2 jobs and a side hustle, and my best friend works 2 jobs, and both go to school. The whole appeal to them visiting would be that they could stay with me.
They came to an agreement, but it was still weird.
My LL was not ecstatic about the idea but ended up agreeing that overnight guests were acceptable with a 2 weeks notice, and only up to 2 nights, maybe 3 if necessary.
She even said “if this is important to you, then okay, I want you two to be happy living here”.
We wrapped up the meeting talking about the cleaning schedule and moved on with our days.
About 8 hours later, I had just parked at the gym when I received a text from my LL. It read:
“Hi, been thinking about this today and I am sticking to the lease language of ‘no overnight guests allowed.’ Thanks for your understanding.”
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Yikes.
… are we for real? I didn’t even know how to respond, we JUST talked about that earlier in the day!
Some other rules I think are ridiculous:
– no showers after 11 pm (she was trying to integrate this into the lease)…
– showers must be under 25 minutes, don’t run the water for more than 15 minutes. She timed my first shower here and texted me about it.
– don’t burn candles
– no guests past 10 pm, also guests can’t use the shower or kitchen
– only 2 loads of laundry per week
She needs to find a new place.
What does Reddit think?
A reader shares their thoughts.
It is baffling!
It’s absurd.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about neighborhood kids who built a master forest fort, only to find it looted by the bigger kids on the block.
This person also sounds baffled.
Another reader chimes in.
This has to be in New York.
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