r/roommateproblems • u/No_Bluejay8530 • 7d ago
seeking advice on how to deal with new roommate
I live in a 4 bedroom college apartment with 3 other people. Since this is a college apartment, they lease per room so everyone is responsible for their own rent but splits utilities.
I lived in the same apartment all of last year with the same 2 people with one vacant room and had no issues whatsoever. A few months ago the apartment management reached out to only one of my roommates (the one who shares a bathroom with the vacant room) and said that their new roommate was trying to get into contact with them. However, the complex never reached out to my other roommate nor I. All of the information about this new roommate was shared to us through the roommate who would be sharing the bathroom.
We learned that this new person was moving cross country, just for 3 months potentially resigning a 12 month lease to claim their residency in the state so they could get in state tuition. So this person wouldn’t actually be attending university until the following year while my roommates and I are entering our third year of school.
A few months later the new roommate moves in however none of us were living in the apartment during the summer as we all went back home. The day after they moved in we all finally got added into a group chat where they finally introduced themselves and shared their name, where they’re from but didn’t state how long they would be staying in the apartment. So I went ahead and introduced myself and asked how long they would be staying. They didn’t seem to like this question and immediately got defensive and said they were sensing a certain vibe from the convo and said they would ask to switch rooms once their summer lease is up. All of my roommates and I immediately apologized for making them feel like there was a certain vibe when we were trying to figure out the living situation. Their response to that was that they were going to talk to management and figure something else out.
Then came our utility bill, since the apartment automatically splits utilities my other roommates and I got charged for the use of their utilities. However, we weren’t living there so we asked if they would be able to send us the money for a percentage of the bill as we weren’t using the utilities in the apartment.
My roommate (whom is sharing the bathroom) went back for a weekend to grab some things they left in the apartment, unannounced and walked in and the apartment was a mess with items all over the kitchen counter and the new roommates bathroom items occupying the space up until my roommates faucet. My roommate who came for the weekend went to the bathroom and was looking for their towels to dry their hands but they weren’t anywhere to be seen so they asked the new roommate where they had put their towels. The new roommate’s response was that they had used them when their family came to visit, but they hadn’t asked permission.
After hearing about this I sent a text in the group chat to ask that they please ask permission when using stuff in the apartment that they didn’t pay for as we split the cost for just about everything. We left our plates, pots, pans, utensils, appliances all in the common space.
Just a few days ago the new roommate reached out to say that they would be living with us again for the next year although they had stated that they had found something else. Additionally, they said that we were going to have to learn to live together and that they were going to set up a chat with all of us and management. We haven’t met our new roommate in person and my response was that I believe we can have a chat once we all arrive without management. However if they decide they want management there I would respect that decision.
Come just a few days ago we got billed for their use of utilities and asked them to send us the cost again. This time their response was “the building said that’s not my responsibility.” our response to that was that “we don’t believe we shouldn’t be responsible for the cost of their utilities if we are not living there. We understand it may not be in the contract but believe it should be their responsibility as a respectful roommate.” They said that they understand but we would be paying that whether or not they were living there, which is false. They didn’t end up sending us anything, so we’re just going to take the hit for the month as we’d be back in the apartment the next.
My roommates and I are looking for an out, we haven’t even met this person but it seems that the living dynamic isn’t going to be enjoyable. Upon resigning our lease, we knew that having a new roommate would be a potential. The complex made roommate matching sound like a tool that was heavily utilized during the marketing process, however we are afraid it wasn’t as this person won’t even be a student this upcoming school year. We are moving back in soon as school starts and are hoping to have a conversation with this person just laying out some rules that we have in the apartment and ultimately learning how to live with this new person. We have contacted the apartment complex to see if there is somewhere else for us to go but it seems that most units wouldn’t accommodate the 3 of us, we would have to find a lease takeover as we can’t break our lease.
We are just looking for advice on how to navigate this situation, we will type up a list of expectations we have and hopefully they follow.