Buggered

[TheEarl]

Basically, the situation started off with one tidy person and one untidy person.

The untidy person, J, was naturally so and practically did not notice his mess. He was comfortable with his own level of tidiness, low though it was. The tidy person, R, was not happy with his level of tidiness. She had a level of tidiness verging on OCD-quality and relentlessly cleaned and tidied our shared house in a vain effort to bring it up to her exceedingly exacting standards.

I, and another housemate M, were comfortable with the household tidiness level, as we were somewhere in the middle. The average of J and R kept the house about as tidy as we liked and so we pitched in to keep it at this level.

However, R was not comfortable with the household tidiness level and so began complaining to the landlord about us. Thus began problem no 1 - the landlord now does not like us and will be unwilling to renew our housing contract for the next academic year.

Problem no 2 began a fortnight ago, a week before we were due to sign the contract for the second 6 months of our year's housing contract. R decided that she had had enough of tidying up after J and announced that she was moving out. This left J, M and I with the unenviable task of having to find another housemate, halfway through an academic year, or having to pay an extra £90/month rent in order to cover R's empty room.

This would normally have been okay, as I'd imagine we could find someone, sooner or later. However, J, the guy who has been in charge of the search for a new housemate, has instead busied himself by finding a new place for him to live. Never mind that this would leave M and I very thoroughly screwed, with a choice of paying double rent or being without accomodation.

J hasn't spoken to me about this yet. I found out through reading his LiveJournal tonight.

I'm guessing that there is some catastrophic fault with my mobile that is preventing me from receiving either calls or text messages from J, warning me that he is planning to abandon our current house and find alternative accomodation.

I guess I'm lucky though. Even though J's decision means that I will probably have to transport most of my stuff across the width of England in order to store it at my parents' house whilst I crash at my girlfriends' house and attempt to look for alternative accomodation, I'm not in the same position as M. M has no girlfriend to crash with. M has very few friends in the city. As far as I know, M has nowhere to stay. I appreciate that there is an element of 'every man for himself' in this equation, but I have constantly kept M's welfare in the back of my mind, as I know that, should we break up this housegroup, he has few other options available to him. It astounds me that anyone could contemplate being such a fuckwit as to be so completely selfish and ignore everyone else, especially without so much as a by-your-leave.

Excuse me if I'm incoherent/vitriolic/misanthropic. I'm working on drubnk and this is Grade A venting. Sorry all.

The Earl

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Don't be sorry. I think it's shitty too.

 

[HisLady]

*hugs*
Here when you want/need me

 

[rgraham666]

Humans.

*HUGS* Earl.

 

[starrkers]

Madly sending "home seeking students, go see the Earl" vibes in your direction.
That sucks mightily. Been in similar position (although I did have an edge- I owned a fridge, which made me a VERY popular housemate prospect )

 

[SeaCat]

Earl,

Sorry to hear this. Not a good thing or a good time for it.

Things like this do sometimes happen, and sometimes the changes that happen are actually for the good.

As I mentioned before my wife and I moved to Florida six years ago. We left New England and headed south with nearly everything we owned. When we arrived here we had no jobs and no place to live. We were Homeless for more than a month, we ran out of money.

I did some things I didn't like to do to get enough money to survive, but survive we did. It took some fast talking and some outright lies to get us housing and jobs but we did it. We rented and we worked like slaves.

It took us five years to get out of debt, five years of brutal hours and shitty food but we did it. Five years with most of our money going for rent and the rest of it going for paying off the bills. Then things started to turn for us. We paid off our bills. We were able to start looking ahead more than a week at a time. We bought a car on credit to start rebuilding our credit. Then five months ago we came across a dream. A Mobile Home for $1K. We borrowed some money from my parents and we bought the place.

Yes the place needed work, a lot of it. It still does even though we are slowly repairing it. Now here is the important thing. We own our own place. The work we are doing on it is for us and no one else. Yes we were homeless and yet we now own our own place.

In an odd way I hold our being homeless has led directly to our owning our place.

Cat

 

[Grushenka]

Excuse me if I'm incoherent/vitriolic/misanthropic. I'm working on drubnk and this is Grade A venting. Sorry all.

Don't apologize. That certainly is "Grade A" venting. Don't take this the wrong way but that was an enjoyable read (however based on crappy reality).

You seem so very English to me. I know you are, but all this business on tidiness and degrees of, just so English in a BritCom sort of way. Do take care, lad.

Grushenka

 

[Liar]

Sorry to hear it, The.

But isn't there always legions of desperate students roaming the treets looking for a place to move to? And if you have spots open where you live you'll be Everybody's Bestest Friend? That's been my experience.

 

[R. Richard]

Sorry to hear it, The.

But isn't there always legions of desperate students roaming the treets looking for a place to move to? And if you have spots open where you live you'll be Everybody's Bestest Friend? That's been my experience.

Liar's scenario has been my experience. ADVERTISE! Seek out roommates from among the ranks of students. There have to be any number of students lookimg for a place they can afford. [Any prospective co-tenant looks under the rugs for dirt, OUT!]

 

[Tom Collins]

That's pretty screwed, Oil. Try posting flyers with your phone number written in a row along the bottom and cuts between to make it easy to tear a copy off. There's got to be other students who hate their roomies, and are desperate for a new scene.

 

[English Lady]

*hugs* Love, that sucks big time. Hope you can find people to fill the vacant places the alternative sounds not good at all, really.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Summary

* R deserves a damn good slap for running and telling tales to the landlord, instead of discussing it with you guys.

* J... what an arsehole! I think you should confront him about it.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Definitely an unenviable position.

I'd definitely let J have an earful though it sounds like both R and J could use a nice ding to the ear.

My household got a double whammy of a housemate moving out and the landlords upping our apartment's rent by $100 for renewel leading to me and my SO seeking a smaller apartment that we are in the process of moving into for much less.

Perhaps the time has come to look on the british equivalent of the classifieds for a smaller place you'd be able to split with M and possibly your girlfriend. With R trashing your reputation with the landlord the time may be ripe anyway.

I know the british housing situation is insane but I live in southern california which has one of the most in-demand housing areas of the country these days and I was able to find a place within a couple of weeks so I doubt its impossible if you started your search early. Hell, J was able to do it, fucktard that he was.

Definitely good luck to you and if you need some demon ninjas to kidnap J and R and teach them what basic courtesy looks like, I'd be more than happy to make the call.

 

[Vermilion]

Earl - check your contract pronto.

The contracts we use round here mean that if someone backs out of the contract early then they are responsible for finding a new flat mate or paying the rent until one is found. Find out who is liable, you may not be as screwed as you think you are.

All else fails go see the Citizens Advice Bureau and get some advice.

PM me if I can help in any way
x
V

 

[TheEarl]

Thanks for the response all. Appreciate the love.

Current sitch is that I'm probably gonna have until the end of the month to find a new place. No legal action's possible, for those who suggested it, as R didn't back out of a contract, just refused to sign the renewal a week before it was due. Hopefully I'll find a shiny new place before the end of the month, but if not, I can crash at my baobei's for a week or two.

Thanks again.

The Earl

 

[Goldie Munro]

Bummer of a situation. Can I just say though - love the word bugger! So British!