Imagine renting an apartment with your friend. It goes well for awhile, and you split all the bills 50/50.

What would you do if your roommate suddenly started having money problems and was late coming up with his half of the rent month after month?

In this story, one man is in this situation, and he lied to the landlord for his roommate for several month. However, he’s sick of doing that and finally decided to tell the landlord the truth.

Now, his roommate is mad, and he’s wondering if he messed up.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for telling my roommate I’m done covering for him with the landlord?

I (26M) live with my roommate (27M). We’ve been fine for like a year and a half, split rent evenly, no drama.

But for the last four months he’s been late on his half of rent almost every single time, and I’ve been the one calling the landlord with some excuse “it’s coming, he just switched jobs,” “there was a bank thing,” etc etc … whatever he tells me to say.

I didn’t love doing this but he’s my friend and I figured it was temporary.

Except it’s not been temporary.

OP has had enough.

Last month he paid two weeks late.

This month we’re already eight days past due and he told me this morning he might need until the 15th.

I told him I wasn’t going to lie to the landlord again.

He got upset, said I was throwing him under the bus and that “we’re a team,” and that if I just told the landlord one more excuse we’d be fine.

OP took action.

I said no, and that if he can’t make rent he needs to be the one having that conversation, not me.

He didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day, then tonight he left a note on refrigerator saying I “chose to humiliate him” and that a real friend wouldn’t have sold him out.

I texted the landlord myself and just told him the truth that I’ve paid my half and my roommate is behind.

Now he is saying I could’ve at least warned him before I did that, and that our friendship is basically over. His family thinks I overreacted too, since apparently he was “already stressed enough.”

He could’ve given his roommate a heads-up that he was going to text the landlord, but I can understand why he didn’t. He was sick of lying for his roommate and just wanted to clear his own name.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person points out that they’re not a team.

Here’s a suggestion to find a different roommate.

Another person thinks the roommate is the one who should be talking to the landlord.

Here’s a suggestion of what to ask the roommate’s family.

His roommate needs to make paying the rent a top priority. It’s not fair to OP to have to cover for him. They’re lucky the landlord has been so cool about it so far.

I wouldn’t want to be roommates with someone who can’t afford the rent. If he doesn’t start paying on time, OP might need to find a different roommate.

Money can ruin friendships.