[rant + need advice] I'm going to sue my roomate!

Oct 11, 2002
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My exroomate left a mess at the apartment and we got charged $300 for cleaning ($417 total damage). Now this guy is a pig, he literally lived surrounded by trash and boxes. He had never once cleaned anything in the apartment, not even vacumming. Now we lived there for 2 years, just imagine how bad things were.

However he promised to clean the kitchen and even circled that room on the cleaning checklist we recieved from the landlord. To get him to agree I had to take the bathroom, the dirtiest room in the apartment. The bathroom was 10X worst than the kitchen, it had urine stains embedded on the toilet, hardwater stains in the tub, the toilet bowl, and the sink, it had hairs everywhere, and soot from the open window covering everything. It was a disaster; but me with the help of my parents and some industrial strength chemicals and a whole lot of scrubbing turned it into the cleanest room in the apartment. As a token of good faith I personally vacummed the whole apartment before I moved out; yes even his room.

This week I recieved a letter from the landlord with some harsh language. "It looked like you didn't do any cleaning when you moved out. The kitchen had a lot of grease from cooking on the walls near the stove, on and in the stove, and the cabinets. The counter top, floor and refrigerator also needed cleaning." With language like this I don't see how the roomate can truthfully claim he cleaned ANYTHING. He told me to take it up with the landlord. I did, he said 85% of the damages were just from the kitchen.

Ofcourse the roomate isn't returning my calls, so now I've decided need to sue him. He is actively lying to me, and my parents, and not returning my calls. This is clear disrespect! I'm only asking for $150 back from him, not much if you ask me. But since I have to sue him I'm going to throw in the court fees, and process service fees, per rules of the contract we signed when we moved.

Its a pity I can't sue for punitive damages in small claims court, there is clearly damage to my character in the eyes of the landlord (I want to rent from them again with a new roomate) and the lying!!! What else can I do to him to make his live more of a pain?
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
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whose name was on the lease?

just as a side-note, how did you let it get that bad? I have had messy roommates, but I've always kept the apartment clean despite it. there was one case where I stopped cleaning for a month because I was tired of being the only one to clean, but I eventually realized that the only one being effected by me not cleaning is me.
 
Oct 11, 2002
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The name on the lease was his's mother's. The name in the Landlord's database is my roomate's. So I guess I will sue them both (getting his parents involved should bring quick re-payment). How things got this bad you ask? We stopped talking about a year ago, we don't even look at each other if we saw each other on the street. I actually got sick of the disgusting nature of the apartment on serveral times and cleaned it myself. I personally cleaned the bathroom 4 times (I couldn't stand walking into a yellow grimy tub) not including the time my parents came to help!

This guy is the roomate from hell, sucks up the internet with his bittorrent, he pays he rent late, he never once paid for internet without me pestering him repeately (late as well). I'm glad its over, collecting this tiny sum of money isn't even close to payback.
 

Xionide

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2002
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Originally posted by: loki8481
whose name was on the lease?

just as a side-note, how did you let it get that bad? I have had messy roommates, but I've always kept the apartment clean despite it. there was one case where I stopped cleaning for a month because I was tired of being the only one to clean, but I eventually realized that the only one being effected by me not cleaning is me.

If that started to happen my roomates sh!t would start "disapeering". If he asked for it I would tell him it might be in the pile of sh!t he lives in. Then I would plant it in the last place they would clean.

-Xionide
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
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that sucks, man. after some horrible college experiences, I've always stuck to living with friends.

if you're name isn't on the lease, though, I don't see why the landlord is harrassing you about it. whoever's name is on the lease should be the one liable for any damages.
 
Oct 11, 2002
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We used to be "friends" but that was years ago before sh!t like this started. Little late for stealing for though, we already moved out and hence got stuck with the damages. I'm angry because we both leased the apartment, and equally paid into the deposit. But when the damages from the lack of cleaning kicked in the landlord decided to split the damages. @#!* I did my part, i cleaned the bathroom, the worst room of the apartment. I talked on the phone with the landlord, they said the bathroom was in good condition, but was charged a small cleaning, tiny amount. But they took a sh!tload off for the kitchen. This a** wasted *my* deposit money by not doing something he said he would. This a** ruined my good name as a clean tenent (probably not going to get a good price for another lease with that landlord, more money lost).
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
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Can you ask for court costs in small claims court? Look into that, and if you can't, just say the damages are all for the cleaning. If the kitchen was 85% of the bill, then he really ought to pay 85% of it, no reason to be nice about it. (you'll probably need an affidavit from the landlord stating that the kitchen made up that much of the bill). Why were you the only one who got hit with the cleaning bill? Or rather, why where you apparantly the only one who paid a deposit? With a guy with that much history of being a douche-bag, I would have wanted to verify myself that he cleaned it. I know when my roommate said he "cleaned" something he really just meant he tidied up, I was always the one decontaminating our apartment. When I moved out, he kept living there, so I didn't have to worry about cleaning (I also left my half of the $200 deposit, because I really didn't care about the money).

Kick his ass, seabass