Tenant stops paying rent after finding out roommate broke into her room while she was away, later she returns to the apartment, only to find it trashed: ‘No apology, no accountability, no nothing’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 9, 2025 12:00 AM EST

Newton's third law of motion teaches us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But, as some of us learned the hard way, in some cases the reaction is much worse than the action, and all we can do is find a way to deal with it.

When we take a surprising action opposite other people, whether it is family, colleagues, or friends, we usually know what to expect from the opposite reaction. When a woman tells her husband she's pregnant, she expects excitement, when an employee tells their boss about their resignation, they expect disappointment, and so on. 

However, some actions provoke an extreme reaction that is hard to expect, which later creates a wave of consequences both sides must deal with.

The tenant in the story below took actions she thought were appropriate to the situation she was in, but she did not expect the reaction to be much worse. All we are going to tell you is that it started with her decision to leave her roommate alone in their apartment for a few months, and ended with the apartment being completely ruined. Keep scrolling to find out the rest.

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    Cheezburger Image 10463194112
    via ixelshot

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    "AITA for Moving out, stopping the electric and leaving my roommate to figure out the rent?"

    I (26F) moved into an apartment in Florida with my college bestie (21F). I let her. pick her room, so she took the master with an en-suite, and I got the smaller one. I
    via Butterflycandies
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    also furnished most of the place, including putting a 75" TV in the living room. A few months in, I got pregnant and decided to go home to give birth, but I
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    kept paying rent since I planned to return. Before leaving, I moved my TV into my locked bedroom. She could still use everything else, but I did this because
    via Butterflycandies
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    she gets careless when h¸h or -leaving keys in the door, passing out randomly, etc. I didn't want my things stolen or damaged.
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    About a month later, she mentioned her brother was staying over. He was cool, so I had no issue with it. I was actually thinking of offering him my room since he was
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    only staying a few days. But on FaceTime, I noticed a big TV in the background. I asked, "Oh, you got a new TV?" She said no. "Did he bring one?" Again, no. Then
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    she pans the camera and says, "Oh, we took yours out of your room. It just goes with the aesthetics." I said, "But my room was locked?"
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    She just shrugged. "I used a knife to get in." Like it was nothing. I blacked out, c sed her out, and ended the call. Then I asked my
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    maintenance friend from the complex to check things out. It wasn't just my TV-my room was messy, my locked bathroom had been broken into, and both she and her brother had been wearing my clothes.
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    I was livid. I called her, and she finally answered when I threatened legal action. She said it was selfish of me to put the TV in my room because they had nothing to
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    use. Mind you, we both had TVs in our bedrooms. At that point, I was done. I had my sister and a friend clear out my stuff while she was at work. Anything we
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    bought together, I sent her half the money for― including the dining table, even though I was being petty when I took it. I also disconnected the electricity (didn't want her running up
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    a spite bill) and stopped paying rent. Unfortunately, I lost the baby and returned earlier than planned. When I got back, the apartment was trashed. She had moved out,
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    stopped paying rent, and now the delinquency is on both our credit reports. Years of friendship gone, just like that. No apology, no accountability, no nothing.
    via Butterflycandies
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    Just one FaceTime call, and that was it. AITA for handling it this way? Should I have kept paying rent since moving in together was my idea?
    via Butterflycandies

  • See, the tenant's actions when she found out about her roommate breaking into her room were reasonable in her eyes. She didn't want to contribute to her roommate's living situation any further and decided to put a stop to it.

    The reaction to those actions was extremely unexpected on the tenant's side, and arguably much worse. 

    The commentators down below, however, seem to think that the tenant had it coming as soon as she decided to stop paying rent. Keep scrolling to read what these people had to say.

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    No_Philosopher_1870 I would have asked the landlord how much it would have taken to buy myself out of the lease and have her be the only person on the lease before I went home the first time, paid it, then put all of my things into storage if I
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    didn't want to move them. That would have ended the lease in a way that wouldn't have dinged my credit record. I also would have told the roommate that the power was getting turned off and taken out
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    of my name on a particular date, and she'd need to have it put into her name. Most places, if you act to have the power put into your name by that date, there is no shutoff of power, though she might have to pay a connection or transfer fee.
    via No_Philosopher_1870
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    atealein Honestly, you made one mistake when you handled it that way - you are still on the lease so not paying rent was something that was wrong and now you will have problems with it because of the credit score. Everything
    via atealein
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    else was handled honestly as best as you could at the time, the only problem is that you didn't want to drop the lease so I am not sure what you expected her to do with the apartment after you stopped
    via atealein
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    paying your part. She had already shown disregard for property before that. You should have been smarter to handle some of it differently to ensure your own financial security in the issue, but that's a lesson you
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    will now carry with you. NTA, sorry you had to find out like that what your friend was really like, but it can be good learning experience for the rest of your life.
    via atealein
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    Agreeme CEN FN TENANCY AGREEMENT
    via designer491
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    cassowary32 ESH. What did you think would happen when you stopped paying rent?? Yes, your ex friend is a major AH for breaking into your room and using your
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    things but if you didn't take your name off the lease, what exactly was her incentive to pay more? You already knew she was a user/mooch.
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    adjudicateu YTA for not breaking the lease leaving you responsible when you knew your room mate was unreliable. Instead of avoiding the situation, face into it, deal with it and protect yourself.
    via adjudicateu
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    WholeAd2742 ESH She absolutely should not have broken into and taken your stuff.
    via WholeAd2742
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    But you being petty and stopping paying rent was stupid. You were still on the lease and liable for it. You should have contacted the landlord to see what options you had
    via WholeAd2742
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    kae0603 If you stopped paying rent, what made you think you had any right to come back?
    via kae0603

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furniture landlord aita credit best friends work bad roommates tenant reddit story rent paying rent entitled Reddit roommates money entitled people apartment
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