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Maybe, but you are taking advantage of him too. Try finding another place for $400, or even $500 a month with no strings attached. Babysitting one night a week as a condition of such reasonable rent, and being given the largest bedroom with a private bath seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.
What are you talking about? She's renting a room in a house, not an entire apartment. It's not even an entire basement "apartment." It's a room. That isn't a high price for a ROOM anywhere but the most crazy rental areas, and I've lived in multiple cities, in multiple countries. Room rentals when you're stuck living in the landlord with an unequal balance of power are always cheaper than splitting apartments, at that.
Status:
"It's WARY, or LEERY (weary means tired)"
(set 25 days ago)
Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
16,150 posts, read 21,310,284 times
Reputation: 43949
Quote:
Originally Posted by sparrowmint
What are you talking about? She's renting a room in a house, not an entire apartment. It's not even an entire basement "apartment." It's a room. That isn't a high price for a ROOM anywhere but the most crazy rental areas, and I've lived in multiple cities, in multiple countries. Room rentals when you're stuck living in the landlord with an unequal balance of power are always cheaper than splitting apartments, at that.
Who says it's a room rental?he says she shares the house with him and his kids.That's a lot different than a room rental with (or without) kitchen privileges and $400 for that is not that unreasonable for cost sharing, regardless of the fact that the kids probably make for a less than ideal situation.
What are you talking about? She's renting a room in a house, not an entire apartment. It's not even an entire basement "apartment." It's a room. That isn't a high price for a ROOM anywhere but the most crazy rental areas, and I've lived in multiple cities, in multiple countries. Room rentals when you're stuck living in the landlord with an unequal balance of power are always cheaper than splitting apartments, at that.
A room in San Francisco costs $1500/month. In Berkeley, around $1000, maybe $800 with luck. The OP was getting a 20% discount for not even once weekly babysitting. Now that she's working on Fridays, the rent goes up to market value. That's certainly fair. If she's doing a certain amount of voluntary cleaning up after the kids, though, she could try to use that as a bargaining chip. It depends on how much time she spends/week on that.
I like the kids and my issues aren't with them particularly. I am grateful they are not "super nanny children". That would be unbearable. My roommate is still married to his wife but the reason why they aren't together is because she is in another county and cannot come back to U.S. The third child came here after getting approved for green card. The kids don't speak English by the way. I barely speak their language though. The third child is 16 years old. He doesn't want to force her to stay home and babysit. So if I'm not there he has to PAY for someone to watch his kids.
I did not come into the house on an discount. The rent was offered at $400. Only after I moved my things in, my roommate explained that he was not paying me to babysit on Friday nights because my rent is low enough that it's practically like paying me $50 a week anyways. He's trying to save money i get it. So, I guess the rent was supposed to be $600 for the master bedroom and bathroom. Mind you this is a ranch house and the master bedroom is the same size as secondary bedrooms. My bathroom is 6 feet wide, pedestal sink inches away from the toilet and stand up shower inches away from the sink. My roommate is 300 pounds and cannot use this bathroom which was another reason why the room/bathroom went to me.
This is not an ideal place for me to live. It's 40 miles from my job and i have a 250 gas bill every month.
A much better option is the $450 rent at a place closer to my job(which i was interested in before my roommate asked me to live with him to save him money). I'm here to help him out with rent and to help myself out paying rent. That is the point of having roommates!!!! I don't need to give him more. But i do. I don't just stay in my room and put on music. I cook dinner, I play with the kids on weeknights, I take his oldest to her zumba classes. I like the kids but I don't think any of this is to be expected of me as a job and I don't think I should be charged for not babysitting either. He's not exactly out of options if I am not here Fridays. He has a 16 year old child who can watch them for the 3 hours until they go to sleep and these kids aren't clumsy children that need two eyes on them the whole time.
I am 23 and prior to living here I lived in a dorm room on a college campus that i payed for by myself and also with scholarships grants and loans. My parents don/t take care of me and haven't since i went to college because they can't financially do so. I feel that because i help out and pay rent on time and I am not a disruption or unclean that he should reevaluate raising rent on me. I have a second job to better myself as i am jut out of college, make 11 an hour, and need a new car. I can't take care of his kids Fridays but i do every other day of the week when he needs to go out. Normally roommates aren't as involved in their roommates lives and lives of their children and I think he sees me as convenient. Not only do i pay him rent but i'm another adult presence who can do household things. I have a car so that's convenient too.
Status:
"It's WARY, or LEERY (weary means tired)"
(set 25 days ago)
Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
16,150 posts, read 21,310,284 times
Reputation: 43949
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mialady
I did not come into the house on an discount. The rent was offered at $400. Only after I moved my things in, my roommate explained that he was not paying me to babysit on Friday nights because my rent is low enough that it's practically like paying me $50 a week anyways.
That puts a different spin on it for sure. So at first he was happy just to have someone to share cost with and afterwards he added in the free babysitting too? Yeah, anytime someone offers you a deal and then attaches conditions to it after you accept it, that's not right. Time to start looking.
(in my experience anytime someone gets the only private bath in a rent sharing agreement, they usually pay a good bit more than the the guy left sharing the other bathroom with guests/other roommates)
I definitely think she should move out too, but not for the reasons you listed. I think she needs a dose of reality regarding rents, utilities, and the real-life lesson of getting what you pay for.
That depends on where she lives. I don't think she said where she lived, but in many areas, $500/month for a roommate situation like she described isn't a very good deal, especially if they only get a room and not the whole house. Besides, I think you're being harsh. She already lives away from home and pays her own bills so she's not dependent on her parents, unlike many young adults.
That depends on where she lives. I don't think she said where she lived, but in many areas, $500/month for a roommate situation like she described isn't a very good deal, especially if they only get a room and not the whole house. Besides, I think you're being harsh. She already lives away from home and pays her own bills so she's not dependent on her parents, unlike many young adults.
She does have use of the house, she has already talked about cooking dinners and cleaning up after the kids.
She has since come back and added a lot of information that wasn't in her OP. And now it really doesn't make sense that she would remain living in a house so far from her job if she has other options.
I feel like there are many places around the country where you can find rent on that level but where you wouldn't be living in those conditions. You might have to pay more but to me it would be well worth it not to live under those conditions!
Now after the update;
I still think you are being taken advantage of, or he is at least trying to. If he is not even capable of using that other room, its not like he is doing YOU a favor by giving him the big room; you are doing him a favor by filling it. I think you need to be firm with him, that you are not going to pay any more. If he doesn't understand the situation (how being so far is not ideal at all, its eating up your gas money and your time) explain it, and that you WON'T pay more. Be prepared to move out, and don't take any crap about it. Sounds you like you do plenty to help out and you do it because you've been a friend of the family.
Your only other option is to play his game, and play it better. Start itemizing EVERYTHING you do that your average tenant is not gonna do for him or his kids, (cook, babysit, chauffer, etc...) Show him how much more everything is going to cost him.
Personally, being that far away, that never would have been a long term plan. If you plan on staying at the job for a while, then that would be enough reason for me to move closer to it. Also, not sure, but it sounds like you have not yet lived alone. If not, is this something you are avoiding?
You weren't forced to move in and kept in chains, so get out if you have a problem with the situation.
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