Tenants demand to stop paying rent after discovering their roommate is the landlord, leading to a dispute about how they found out: ‘They went through my mail’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 27, 2024 7:00 AM EDT

There is a big difference between living with roommates and having a landlord and living with your landlord as a roommate. Nobody wants to do the latter, for starters. Having roommates is hard enough, imagine how unbearable it would be to have your landlord as a roommate, watching over your every move.

If you are a landlord, and you are looking for roommates, I would definitely recommend telling them what they are walking into, because they deserve to know. That is what I would tell the girl in this Reddit story, who decided to not tell her roommates that she is actually the one who owns the house. Eventually, they found out by going through her mail, and they decided to confront her about it. By this point, I had no idea who was in the right and who was in the wrong.

Keep scrolling to read the full story. After you are done, click here for a story of an employee who got fired for accepting fake bills.

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  • 01
    "Why should I let you live here for free?" RESIDENTIAL LEASE AGREEMENT ential Lease Agreement ("Agreement") made this AND ("Landlord") with a mailing address of City of as a "Party" and, collectively, as the "Partie mutual promises and agreeme andlord under the follov
    via Snowdrop's Images
  • 02
    AITA for not telling my friends I am technically our landlord?
    via OldOutlandishness252
  • 03
    So I (18f) am very lucky in that I have two very hardworking parents that are successful and love me. We aren't mega-wealthy but we are very comfortable as my parents
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    are extremely smart financially. We own multiple houses as part of our real estate portfolio that we rent out for extra income. I recently started college and as a present for working hard and getting into my
    via OldOutlandishness252
  • 05
    dream school my parents gifted me one of our houses that is near my college. I was going to inherit them all anyway but I really appreciated their gesture. Where I live real estate law is a little tricky
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    and we would have to pay significant taxes to officially transfer the house to me so we decided to have my parents own it legally for now.
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    The house is pretty big with 4 floors(including a fully furnished basement) and a roomy attic and since it is near my school I decided to look for roommates so I could start earning money early. So far I
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    have two roommates, who we'll call Sasha(18f) and Bea(19f) who also go to my school. We have been living together for a couple months now(they moved in around
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    August) and we are all pretty good friends, and very compatible roommates. This is where I might be the . I didn't want to tell them that I own the house as I thought it might create a weird
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    dynamic between us, and I didn't want them to view me any differently. We split the bills and rent, with me technically paying nothing. Since my father legally owns the house and we have
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    different surnames(I took my mothers last name) they have no idea I own the house or that my dad just sends the money back to me.
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    Sasha recently found the money my dad sent back while I was at class and told Bea, and they cornered me about it a few days ago. I told them everything and they're mad at me for hiding this
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    from them and think I'm not only in the wrong for keeping it a secret but for making them pay rent in the first place. The house's mortgage has already been paid off so the rent goes entirely into
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    my pocket. I responded by saying that they shouldn't have gone through my mail in the first place and that it was illegal, which I'll admit was kind of a low blow. We weren't friends when they moved
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    in and the whole point of me wanting roommates was so that I could earn extra cash so I don't see why I should let them reside for free. AITA here?
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    Edit 1: people in the comments were asking, basically we have a system where whoever is home brings all the mail in and puts it on the kitchen island. Bea brought the mail in but Sasha opened my mail
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    before I got home. My dad doesn't send me straight up cash lol, he mails two cheques, with the amount Sasha and Bea paid, and when Sasha saw the cheques from
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    the landlord to me with the exact amount of her and Bea's rent she put two and two together and interrogated me when I came home. I don't know why she opened my mail in the first place,
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    I've never noticed her snooping before but maybe she has and I just never saw. Edit 2: ok answering a couple things I keep seeing in the comments.
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    Yes I know the assets aren't technically mine but Inhave unlimited access to them, will inherit all of them one day(my parents have told me this directly it's not an assumption) and my
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    parents consider it equally mine, so yes I consider them mine as well. I didn't earn them, I was just lucky enough to be born to amazing parents and I'm grateful to them for that.
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    *generic comment about evil landlords: Bea and Sasha are NOT poor, and I'm not charging way above market price. If they felt the price was too steep they could dorm which is actually cheaper or
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    find a cheaper place. They are paying extra for luxury, I'm not exploiting broke children. Why use cheques instead of ebanking: I do all of my business online but my dad bought a fancy
    via OldOutlandishness252
  • 24
    custom mailbox and he's trying (and failing) to concince my mom that it wasn't a waste so he likes to mail EVERYTHING now. I get letters instead of texts. Yes it's ridiculous and after this incident we'll definitely be doing our finances online only.
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    I maintain that I'm not mega rich. Yes, I acknowledge that I'm extremely privileged compared to most other Americans but in my head at least mega rich is people like my boyfriend's family that own
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    actual mansions, and have yachts, or like celebrities and billionaires with private jets etc. Compared to most of my friends I'm middle class. Why I changed my last name when I'm on good terms with my father:
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    My parents are both British Indian immigrants, and my dad has a super ethnic and long hard to pronounce last name whereas my mom has a nice short and cute last name. When I apply for jobs people will judge me based on my
    via OldOutlandishness252
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    name and I don't want that. My dad faced that discrimination and I grew up in a predominantly white community so I know people's perception of you change based on how American/white you are
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    perceived to be. Also my mom went through labour and 9 months of pregnancy, she deserves to have her last name continued.
    via OldOutlandishness252
  • 30
    Striped Badger • 2d ago • Edited 2d ago Supreme Court Just- [129] but for making them pay rent in the first place And so your point is proven immediately. NTA.
    via StripedBadger
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    But stop saying that you aren't mega-wealthy. You got given a 4- story house in a college city as a graduation gift, and enough income that you can afford to live in a house like that with only two roommates; you family is absolutely
    via StripedBadger
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    wealthy and your attempts at trying to be humble make the teeth itch. I'm saying this because recognising you are wealthy is an important part of you looking to change you're viewing these sorts of interactions.
    via StripedBadger
  • 33
    Aggressive Cloud2002 2d ago • Aficionado [14] NTA but why are you mailing money back and forth?! That is so ridiculously risky... And you are very wealthy, don't try to play it down.
    via Aggressive_Cloud2002
  • 34
    QualityOfMercy • 2d ago You're not an for charging them rent, but YTA for lying to them. Living with a landlord is different than living with an equal roommate and they deserve the chance to decide if they want to do that.
    via QualityOfMercy
  • 35
    Medical-Traffic-2765 • 2d ago • Partassipant [1] Stopped reading at "real estate portfolio". YTA.
    via Medical-Traffic-2765
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    scarbunkle 2d ago • Partassipant [4] ESH. They shouldn't expect free rent, but there's a reason I refuse to rent a room w my landlord—I have a LOT fewer protections as a tenant, and I don't like the power dynamic.
    via scarbunkle
  • 37
    Personal-Listen-4941 • 2d ago • Aficionado [12] ESH You and your family are clearly extremely rich yet are dodging taxes rather than paying your fair share
    via Personal-Listen-4941
  • 38
    Your flatmates should not be opening your mail nor does it concern them how their rent money is then redistributed
    via Personal-Listen-4941

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landlord aita drama roommate house friends reddit story petty rent entitled rich people Reddit roommates money rich entitled people
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