Hi Bonita,
I am living off campus for the first time, and I’m having kind of a hard time. I have two roommates: one who is a casual friend from school, and the other is one of their friends. The place that we’re renting is not in very good condition. The floors are uneven, and it smells old (if that makes sense). At first I thought it was going to be a cool old house, but now it’s just a gross old house. On top of that, my roommates are jerks—I don’t know how else to put it. They drink too much and are loud, they leave messes around the house, and one doesn’t pick up after their super sweet cat. I hate the thought of forfeiting my deposit, but I’m not sure how much more I can take. Any advice?
Anonymous
Hey Anon,
Don’t be too hard on yourself for biffing it your first time living off campus, because at least you realized this fairly quickly. I assume y’all moved in either on the first or the 15th, and we are currently in that sweet spot at the start of the semester when there is lots of roommate trading and house hopping going on. Believe me, you are one drop in a flood of people who are realizing that their rentals are dumps or that their roommates suck. Some people get so excited about living off campus that they go super hard with booze and nihilism, because they think that they can finally do whatever they want. They’ll realize the error of their ways when they still have roommates at 40 and get the shakes if they don’t have a beer as soon as they wake up in the morning, but right now you have the power to not make their problems your own.
You could always let the landlord know about what’s wrong with the house, but you and I both know they’re not going to fix things to your satisfaction. If anything, they’ll use your complaints as a reason to refuse lease renewal to y’all before slapping a coat of paint on the walls, doubling the rent and moving in another group of students who they hope won’t complain this time around. Just move out.
Hop on Facebook Marketplace, or wherever young people are doing their crowdsourcing these days, and start looking for folks who need roommates. There should be plenty right now, but you need to act fast before all the vacancies get snatched up. And you don’t have to say goodbye to your deposit, because whoever they move into your space should pay you the deposit, and then they can have yours when it’s refunded at the end of your lease. Let’s be honest—you’re probably not getting your deposit back no matter where you end up living, but luckily Athens has attorneys like Sarah Gehring who are making it their mission to address this egregious abuse of power and privilege by landlords and property management agencies. Gehring has experience in areas regarding security deposit return, repair issues, retaliation and eviction, and she works with the nonprofit Athens Access to Justice Initiative, which you can contact for assistance and find more information at facebook.com/AthensATJ. I would also recommend always looking up reviews and researching landlords and property management agencies.
Need advice? Email advice@flagpole.com, or use our anonymous online form at flagpole.com/get-advice.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
