Help! How do we encourage a bad roommate to leave? (lease, how much)

[helpineedasolutionfast]

I rent a room in a 4-bedroom pad in SF. There is a Master Tenant, two other sub-tenants and my boyfriend and me living here. One of the other sub-tenants is a real "problem". She's been here 2 years and wants on the lease, but the MT won't hear of it. She doesn't work (her father was paying her rent but recently stopped) and now she is trying to claim that she has one or more disabilities to get SSI to pay for her lazy ass. She's a total slob (there is no visible floor in her room and dirty dishes are piled high). She cleans nothing up after herself in common areas and she's caused 5 previous roommates to quickly terminate their stay here. The MT says she lies and steals and snoops around in other tenants' rooms (we've caught her and have since put locks on our doors).

I moved in almost 2 months ago as a sub-tenant. I love my room, my cat and boyfriend are both really happy and at ease here, the other roommates are cool--we all get along just fine (except for the problem one of course), the vibe here makes us feel very comfortable and the location in the city is perfect for us.

This may confuse you, but you'll see how it all relates in a minute. The big problem at hand is that I want to stay and the MT already signed a one-year contract with someone else who he said is now past due for moving in. I have nowhere available to go and I really want to stay here anyways. I know I somewhat suck for this, but so does the MT (there's a whole 'nother story within this one, but it's irrelevant at this point because the MT and I are now in agreement about things, so please just take my word for that and read on). I was told my move-out date was the 15th, but I simply stayed. The MT said he was going to throw my stuff out the window, he was pretty stressed. I researched SF renting rules, knowing nothing of them prior to this point. Found out I had a lot of rights. The rent board had me file some kind of 'stop this unauthorized eviction' papers. The MT was not very happy about that (the problem sub-letter had actually given me the idea of checking in with the rent board, she'd reported the MT for collecting more rent for the rooms here than he paid to the landlady, (I think that's understandable though with him being MT). She's wanting him to give her thousands of dollars now--yep, now that daddy stopped paying for all her stuff....she's like 39 by the way). The MT was also panicking because he told his friend he could move in here on the 15th. Now here it is the 5th of July and I'm still here but his friend is not. According to the rent board, he can't make me leave yet and I don't want to. He doesn't want to start legal proceedings against me and neither do I against him, but he also doesn't want to get sued by his friend who already signed a one-year contract with him and has reportedly already begun paying for a room.

I asked the MT if his friend loved the room, because I really do love my room. He told me the guy's never even seen it, they'd just been trying to co-habitate together for years and this seemed the time it was going to happen. So I asked the MT what about the problem sub-tenant's room, did he think the guy would maybe want to live in there? He said that would be awesome, that would make everybody happy and everything would work out, but the problem sub-tenant was rooted and wasn't about to leave. The MT told me she was truly evil and he was beginning to get physically run down and sick from all her stress.

So anyway, I think that where there's a will there's a way. I'm not about to do anything nasty or harmful to try to push her out, I'd like to be honourable and keep my karmic slate as clean as possible. I'm thinking there's got to be some solution to this where it's a win-win-win-win situation and everyone comes out happy. Only thing is, I can't seem to put my finger on that solution or come up with a solid idea. What I do know is that none of us wants her here, she's poisoning us and we all like living with each other and would like to have that situation created somehow and as soon as possible.

So "Help!" Can anyone out there help us? Please? We're not creeps, but none of us likes her at all (mind you, she herself is responsible for this) and we especially don't want to be living with her.
I know there's someone out there with a brilliant idea that we just haven't thought of yet.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[terribleChild]

Have you tried bribing her to leave? Since she's desperate for money and can't pay her rent, there no way she's going to be able to stay indefinitely (I hate people with thick skin). Try to negotiate with her about how much she wants to be willing to leave. The rest of you can just divide it up. Now if she wants a ridiculous amount, I'd say go talk to the landlord. He/she must have a way of kicking people out who don't pay rent.

[nomadic220]

These tatics will not cause you legal problems or harm to anyone. Have some fun. LOL. use your nose grease to write scary messages on the bathroom mirror before she takes a shower.(write them backwards its scarier.LOL) Once the room fogs up the message will suddenly appear. This is creepy, but if she believes in ghosts it will work even better.Remove one or two hinge pins from her bedroom door. This will drive her crazy on a daily basis. Also, put some cabbage leafs in her air vents a day it will start smelling like dead bodies.I know you stated you wanted to keep that karma clean. But I am currently having the same problems and Im in "battle mode." Sometimes even if your roommate knows everyone dislikes her she will stay just to **** you off. Some times you just have to get mean. Let me know if you want a decent roommate. Im ready.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Garlic, lots of it. It needs to be coming out of your pores.

(Of course, in order to pull this off, you either need to have very understanding coworkers or work from home)

[iTsLiKeAnEgG]

Just rub butter on the kitchen floor.