Whether you’ve loved your roommates since second grade or just met them when you moved in, renting an apartment in college means not only great times (pizza delivery, watching Lost marathons, and meeting their brother), but hard times. Stressful times. Times in which a roommate may be violating your lease agreement, or even not paying their share of the rent. Do you call the landlord, or fix it yourself?
Assess
First, let’s talk about the circumstances. Did your roommates skip town with their share of the rent missing? Or, is this a friend who is having a hard time scraping her share together because she lost her job? Is he going through a rebel-without-a-cause phase and bucking the rules of every establishment around?
Get to the root of the situation because either way, the call on this is fix it yourself. Your landlord is owed the rent money in exchange for your living space, bottom line, and your signed your name to a list of rules alongside your roommates. If any one of you is in violation of that contract, you’re all in violation of it. It’s easier for a landlord to rent a whole apartment than to get involved in your unit’s personal drama.
Act
In the case of missing rent, you will either have to come up with the cash, or get another roommate, pronto. Don’t delay the conversation for the sake of tender feelings.
If your roommates are truly MIA up to the moment when rent is due, you might consider telling the landlord but ONLY in order to apprise him or her of the situation. It might get you some leniency on when it’s due (after all, it’s not your fault that 50% or whatever isn’t in the kitty), but don’t expect that. Be sure to call with a plan in mind for when a new roommate will come in and pick up the slack. If you can’t pay the entire amount owed on the 1st, your landlord will want to know it will be coming on the 15th, regardless of how you’re going to get it. Do not lead your landlord to think you don’t, and won’t, have the money ever. Stress that it will be paid. And—only do this if you know your landlord is pretty nice. Otherwise, not paying the rent? It’s grounds for eviction.
Plan Ahead
The best way to avoid this scenario altogether is to pick your roommates carefully, and not the same way that you pick your friends. A sense of humor and killer FIFA skills aren’t going to help you stay on top of your bills each month.
If you’re worried about it, either ditch your group, or look for an apartment that offers individual leases. It’s still a relatively new concept, but lots of recently opened developments are jumping on board. That way, you rent by the bed, and if your roommate misses a rent payment, you know you and your stuff are still safe.
How else do you handle trouble with roommates and rent? Tell us in the comments section!
Equal Housing Opportunity
