cowloom

cowloom wrote

I'm so sorry to hear that. I was taken advantage of by my ex-roommates as well, and it's not a pleasant experience. They would never do chores, then get upset with me when I asked them to pick up after themselves. They'd treat me like a stranger in my own home, and one even had the gall to ask me to not be at home as much, when I was letting them stay there for free. I had to learn the hard way what a "taker" is, and why they don't deserve my generosity. I relate to a lot of what you're going through.

My rule of thumb is to only involve the police if the situation cannot possibly be made worse by their presence. The only thing I can think of that'd fit that bill would be a life or death situation. It's definitely a dilemma, because you deserve to be comfortable in your own home, but going to the police might result in brutality against your roommates, which would be an even worse crime than what they're putting you through (emphasis on might, since the police are always an unpredictable variable). I would make sure I've exhausted every other option before even considering it. With my ex-roommates, I set up monthly house meetings with them, where we would discuss interpersonal conflicts and issues with the division of household labor, and attempt to settle them peacefully. They didn't get much better, but it helped a little. Maybe if you're close to the end of the lease, you could try to grin and bear it for a few more months, then just not renew the lease with them. It 100% isn't fair to you that you have to put up with this, but sadly with the "justice" system being the way it is, that might just be the least terrible outcome. In an ideal world, you would have a way to settle this issue without putting them in harm's way.

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cowloom wrote

Happy birthday! Sorry for the belated comment, I wanted to answer yesterday, but the website timed out every time I tried to post a comment. I hope you had a great day yesterday, and have another one today!

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