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I have no idea if this goes here, but it's been bugging me the past day or so and I need some validation. My roommate, who is responsible for making the payments to our landlord on time, forgot this month that his bank was not set up for automatic payments. This caused our rent to be several days late, incurring many fees. I had no idea that the rent had still not been paid until receiving a notice several days later. It makes sense that my roommate should have to pay the fees associated with the late payment, right? His argument, naturally, is that it should be a shared responsibility as both our names are on the lease. It's a relatively small amount, and I'm not one for drama, but this has me riled beyond belief.
My roommate, who is responsible for making the payments to our landlord on time, ...It makes sense that my roommate should have to pay the fees associated with the late payment, right?
I think you answered your own question from a moral perspective. From a Legal perspective, that is less certain. Moving forward I would make my own monthly rent payments. You should also work with your landlord to have separate Lease agreements instead of 1 Lease agreement with multiple names on it.
He has made the payments on time for nearly a year now without issues, which is why I haven't been concerned. We extended the lease and he forgot to set it back up with this bank, which is understandable, but I think the responsibility should still be with him. What bugs me even more is that he knew it was late, but didn't tell me so we could be proactive in preventing other fees. I suppose I could have been more investigative and checked with the landlord myself, but if everything was fine before, why would I expect a change?
I have no idea if this goes here, but it's been bugging me the past day or so and I need some validation. My roommate, who is responsible for making the payments to our landlord on time, forgot this month that his bank was not set up for automatic payments. This caused our rent to be several days late, incurring many fees. I had no idea that the rent had still not been paid until receiving a notice several days later. It makes sense that my roommate should have to pay the fees associated with the late payment, right? His argument, naturally, is that it should be a shared responsibility as both our names are on the lease. It's a relatively small amount, and I'm not one for drama, but this has me riled beyond belief.
Of course he should pay the late fees, but should and will are two different things. Are you good friends or just room mates? How long have you been living together and has this happened before? If it were me, I would suggest he pay the late fee. I am assuming he hasn't even suggested paying it, am I right?
OK, now I see you have been roommates for a year or almost. Just go ahead and throw in 1/2 of the fee and explain to him, in a nice way, you will not help out next time.
Legally, he's correct. Morally, you're correct. It's not your fault he had issues with his bank account.
Yep. Both parties would undoubtedly be jointly and severally liable for the late fee. But the roommate is a jerk for trying to have the fee split, IMO. On the other hand, though, the roommate may be thinking of things along the lines of: my automatic payments has resulted in added convenience for the OP, which is something that should be considered in the late payment situation.
I'd say we're pretty good friends and have been living together for the past year. It hasn't happened before and so far he has made no offer to pay it. In fact, he threw part of the initial late payment onto my portion of the rent mentioning there was "an extra fee". I didn't dig too much. Then we received a notice several days later that it hadn't arrived yet, with additional fees. He's very stubborn, and any suggestion of him paying fully will undoubtedly lead to an argument with him trying to twist the situation to his favor. Ideally, I'd like him to take responsibility for his mistake and pay for it without me having to defend my position and fight over it.
I'd say we're pretty good friends and have been living together for the past year. It hasn't happened before and so far he has made no offer to pay it. In fact, he threw part of the initial late payment onto my portion of the rent mentioning there was "an extra fee". I didn't dig too much. Then we received a notice several days later that it hadn't arrived yet, with additional fees. He's very stubborn, and any suggestion of him paying fully will undoubtedly lead to an argument with him trying to twist the situation to his favor. Ideally, I'd like him to take responsibility for his mistake and pay for it without me having to defend my position and fight over it.
Sounds like the two of you need a marriage counselor...
and then probably a divorce.
Perhaps he would let you take over the responsibility of paying it so you won't ever have to worry about it again.
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