When House Guests Become House Pests: Is It Time to Kick Them Out?
Ah, the joys of being extraordinarily kind-hearted. You think you’re welcoming two desperate souls into your humble abode for a short stint, and next thing you know, they’re practically using your address to register to vote. Welcome to today’s juicy tale of hospitality gone horribly, horribly wrong.
This story comes straight from the vault of Reddit’s AITA (Am I The A**hole?) subreddit, where every tale leaves you wondering if some people graduated cum laude from the University of Nerve. So, let’s get into it, shall we?
Meet the Players
Our story starts with a generous, albeit unsuspecting individual—let’s call them Alex—who’s dating a girl with arguably the most inconvenient friends ever. This so-called friend, let’s call her Linda, bags an invite for herself and her boyfriend, we’ll dub him Bob, to stay for a couple of weeks. They promise $200 per week for the favor. They’re traveling across the country doing UberEats, and this shelter arrangement is more financially palatable than blowing money on motels or curling up in their car every night.
The Sliding Scale of Mooching
The first few weeks are peachy, the dynamic duo shells out the proposed rent, and everything is hunky-dory, aside from the occasional seizure Linda experiences due to her tumor. But, and there’s always a but, Bob and Linda’s car decides to join the train wreck. Enter the dilemma: their car is on life support, Linda’s health takes a nosedive, and suddenly, the few weeks turn into a marathon-length freeloader fiesta.
Now, it’s been three grueling months. Our narrator, Alex, feels less like a host and more like housekeeping. Even though Alex themselves is physically disabled with limited income, they find themselves shouldering chores and watching their girlfriend’s paychecks disappear faster than socks in a laundromat.
The dynamics? A cocktail of pity, resentment, and lingering ‘what-the-hell-was-I-thinking?’ vibes.
Frustration Hits Defcon 1
You’d think there’s a limit to free-loading, but evidently, Bob and Linda didn’t get that memo. Alex informs the freeloaders of their ever-approaching eviction when—surprise!—their decrepit car finally gives up completely. Now, they want permission to sleep in it in the apartment parking lot. If that isn’t a shoo-in for a “Dear John” letter, I don’t know what is.
And just when you think it can’t get worse—back to the drawing board. Linda has another seizure and heads to the hospital. Can you spell emotional extortion? They’re laying on the guilt thicker than grandma’s famous gravy, making Alex question their resolve to send these two packing.
The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back
What really does it is the hidden troves of trash and the uninvited insect pals. Yes, Linda and Bob have been not just free-loading but also free-littering and introducing bug life to the habitat. Our poor host finds bags of trash stashed away and can’t remember the last time the couch was pest-free.
Everyone has a limit, and our pal Alex finally hits it.
A Sordid Farewell
After a spine-stiffening talk, Bob and Linda apologize for being the human embodiment of apocalyptic roommates. They’re supposedly ready to leave, though whether the departure gets executed without drama remains to be seen. There’s a written agreement: they get two days to find refuge or face the music.
Roger’s Two Cents
If you ask me, Roger the ever-sassy Oracle, it’s high time Alex kicked them out with the swiftness of a breezy wind through a broken screen door. Folks, charity and kindness are virtues until they morph into life-sucking traps. You can’t afford to hemorrhage sanity, finances, and personal space just to be someone else’s crutch.
Generosity without boundaries? Recipe for disaster. Bob and Linda had more red flags than a clearance bin at a flags store, and it took Alex three months of misery to see that.
So, my dear readers, if you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, channel your inner bouncer and show those clingy guests the proverbial exit. Say it with me: Kindness begins at home, and sometimes, it means kicking people out of yours.
Original story
About 3 months ago a friend of my girlfriend and her boyfriend asked if they could stay at our house for a few weeks as they saved up for a new car.
They offered us $200 a week because they travel the country doing UberEats and that’s much cheaper than staying in a hotel and nicer than sleeping in their car.
Now I want to state even though this is my girlfriends friend they were never that close and we don’t really know her boyfriend at all. She basically just watched her kid as a babysitting job and they kinda got along.
It was fine for a few weeks, they gave us money and they worked everyday. 3 weeks was cutting it cause technically we aren’t even supposed to have guests that long in our apartment.
The friend has a tumor and has seizures. At week 3 the car they had stopped working right.
They couldn’t go out for long everyday because it kept overheating and the girl had a couple seizures.So we let them stay a bit longer.
It’s been 3 months now. They’ve stopped giving us money completely.
I am disabled myself and bring in very little income, so my girlfriend is basically supporting four full grown adults. I’ve been asking my parents to help lately but I can’t ask them forever either.
They got the car kind of fixed about a week ago and my niece was supposed to come visit so I told them they had to be out by Tuesday. Well today their car apparently pooped out completely.
Now they’re asking if they can sleep in their dead car in the apartment parking lot…which they can’t because I don’t wanna risk loosing my apartment as they shouldn’t have been here this long anyways. They used to be gone all day so it wasn’t a huge deal but now the car is just sitting there and management can see it so I’m worried about it messing up our security.
She also had a seizure and went to the hospital yesterday and are really laying on the guilt.
I’ve been sick a lot since they’ve been here because I’m cooking,cleaning etc and they have only offered one time in months to help and since they’ve been here I’ve noticed BUGS and I keep telling them to clean up their mess but yesterday when she had the seizure I moved stuff so they could get to her in the room I found bags of trash under their clothes and stuff.
She was just crying saying she doesn’t know where they’ll go and part of me wants to move things around so she can stay because I feel bad but the other part of me wants to put my foot down and say they have to leave no matter what.
But we can’t afford them anymore, I can’t clean up after them anymore and my family can’t come visit while they’re here. Would I be the asshole to put my foot down?
EDITED TO ADD: We also were asked if we could do something nice for his birthday, which I didn’t mind but that ended up being the first week they didn’t pay us and I kept expecting to get it back so basically we spent $150 on his birthday meal THAT I COOKED 🤷🏻♀️ and somehow the girlfriend still got partial credit for that?
UPDATE: we had a long discussion with them about resources etc and I think after their initial panic they’re okay. They are ready to leave, I gave them two days to call resources for a place to sleep or get on a list for housing.
They apologized for how it’s been. We are going to keep some of the stuff that was in their car so if it gets impounded they won’t loose everything.
They are gonna try to push it to another place. They’re leaving on the 14th, I have it in writing.