Reply #23: Time to look for a new roommate. [View All]

[haele]

Hate to put it that way, but anyone who lets a monthly bill go that far along - and not tell you s/he hasn't been paying it on top of that, has more money and credit problems that will probably come up to bite you in the ass pretty soon. Like a subpoena from a creditor to go before a judge, or an unhappy visit from a loan shark. I had that problem with one of my rentmates; a former co-worker; I kept "being nice" and paying the utility bills she was supposed to be paying, she had insurance problems, she had been foreclosed on a few years prior and was still paying off bills, was three months behind on her half of the rent due to her partial payments of rent, etc, etc...and then, finally, the server came by; she owed over 10K and a couple bounced payment checks from a couple years past and they (the contract company she had done business with) finally decided to collect in court. She ended up kicked out of the Navy and in jail for grand theft; I packed up all her stuff and took it over to her aunt who lived in the area - her aunt agreed to it and I'm sure the woman and her family picked through Katie's things for choice items after I dropped the boxes off. Money and credit problems have a bad habit of ruining most careers and relationships.

Hopefully, the electric is not in your name and your roommate arrangements are written down as some sort of a contract. If the electric is in your name, my experience is that there's a 90% chance you'll never see the money from the room mate and you'll have to pay the bill off to get any electric service if you move anywhere else. You may still be liable for the bill if you move out and move in with someone else; you might want to check on that rather surreptitiously.

Good Luck

Haele