Some context: I am a co-tenant with the subject of this post, Lisa. We have five subtenants. You can read my other post in this sub to get a better idea of what’s going on.

I have lived here 4 years. Lisa moved in 1.5 years ago with her boyfriend Wilson. When a spot opened up on the lease about 6 months after Lisa moved in, it was natural that I take it, given that I have lived here the longest and have a relationship with the landlords. I also have moderate professional experience with tenancy administration in our locality, and I work on and off for a tenant attorney. But Lisa was a fucking brat about it, she needed the security or she was going to move out. It was whatever, I let it go, it’s a pain in the ass with few benefits anyway. She signed on with Rachel (whom she has known since they were kids), and basically made Rachel do all the work of collecting rent and facilitating repairs. By the time Rachel moved out a year later, they were no longer friends.

I did sign onto the lease after Rachel left. I wasn’t thrilled to be in a legal contract with Lisa, as I’ve never really felt like she respects me. She is a conventionally attractive actress and model, while I’m a fat, queer, neurodivergent former street rat. If you are marginalized, you know that sneaky fucking feeling…the one where you know you’ll have to work twice as hard to earn half the respect. We both work our asses off in our daily lives but I never felt like she recognized that in me like I do her. All of this was confirmed after finding out that Wilson, our (now problematic) other housemate Mia, and she all bonded over talking shit about me FOR A YEAR. Like, conspiring to antagonize me into move out (so Lisa and Wilson could take my room, at the core of it, but anyway).

But oh how the turn tables. Mia stopped paying rent and is turning drunkenly belligerent (see other post). We need her evicted, and since we can’t afford an attorney, I’m the one with (barely) the literacy to handle this. In total I have probably spent 15 hours doing research, contacting attorneys, drafting letters, etc. in the last month. Suddenly Lisa and Wilson are washing their hands of her, including the very vital conversation someone needs to have with Mia. She fucking hates me and I am doing so much else, I was really hoping they would step up and start trying to collect the rent from her instead of me.

They said they’d try two weeks ago. Nothing. Rent is coming due and I have been sacrificing my own privacy by renting out out couch and my bedroom floor to cover the rent Mia probably won’t pay. Then come to find out…Lisa has been cheating on Wilson for months. One of them is moving out and now we might be out TWO housemates. That’s a $2-400 rent increase for everyone else until we sort this shit out. Our house is about to crumble over this.

I drafted a letter for Lisa and I both to send the landlords, as co-tenants. It has been a week and she STILL hasn’t even looked at it. I’m at my wits end and about to just leave these motherfuckers to deal with their own selves, but there are three other people I consider family and would be fucking over in the process.

Am I an educated, experienced professional who is going to help you out of a jam? Yes? THEN FUCKING TREAT ME LIKE ONE. LISTEN TO ME AND PULL YOUR WEIGHT OR YOU WILL LEAVE US ALL HOMELESS. I DID NOT SPEND 10 YEARS DRAGGING MYSELF OUT OF THE GUTTER JUST FOR YOUR SPOILED ASS TO PUT OFF WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. I DON’T CARE WHO YOU FUCKED JUST APPROVE THE DRAFT. Goddamn.