No written contract? Sure!

[tallone]

BG
Lately I've been looking for a place to move out but with not so much luck thus far. Good news, I had my first house inspection tonight! Frankly, I would prefer if they were called interviews. I got grilled by these guys tonight.
/BG

After having a look around I was quite happy with the place. The room was nice, it would fit my over sized big person furniture and the rent was tolerable. Location was excellent, maybe five minutes drive by car including stopping for lights. I thought it too good to be true, alas it was!

The other tenants were one female grad student we'll call S, a male public servant called G and the son of the owner delightfully known as M. They were 26, 32 and 20 respectively. Things were going great until we sat down at their big glass table to discuss the rules and regulations of the house. I had a big nifty notepad ready to take notes and jot down the answers to all the pertinent questions I had - all written down to be easily remembered of course! As I whipped out the pen M and S had a chortle as G explained I wouldn't need all that. A little confuzzled I nodded and put the notepad away. The discussion went (memory serving) mostly like this. I’ve split it into the three main ‘discussions’ we had.

Got a girl there, slick?
G: Now we can tell you're pretty new at this share-housing thing.
Me: Yeah, this would be my first time out of home.
M: One thing we aren't big on is coupled people. Do you have a girlfriend?
Me: (slightly taken aback) Well yes, but we don't hang around home much. Probably I'd go over to hers rather than her coming here -
S: Is she pretty?
Me: (more taken aback) She's beautiful, what does that have to do with this?
G: We don't like people who are too over confident you know?
Me: I don't really get it, aren't we talking about me moving in?
M: Well yeah, but we're looking for a specific kind of personality, someone who will really mesh with the other housemates.
Me: ooookayy..(alarms bells are well and truly ringing) and what qualifies for that exactly?
S: Well, frankly M's parents are too cheap for a professional cleaner, and it's hard work doing this whole house. We want someone who will really help out around the house.
Me: But they shouldn't have a girlfriend?
G: We find that people with a boyfriend or girlfriend spend too much time making out and neglect the housework.
Me: Right. Well, I'm not like that. Frankly my girlfriend would cuff me over the head if I were.

$$$$
M: That's great then! So you know the rent is x amount per week, paid at y intervals-
S: He doesn't know WHERE to pay M!
Me: Yeah, I had a couple questions about that, will it be paid to a 'house' account or directly to the owners?
M: The money comes to me.
Me: Umm, is that the usual thing to do?
M: I'm on the lease.
Me: I thought all of you were?
S: We are. But we're on the lease so you should be paying us, and we'll pay to the owners.

Nothing in writing, please.
Me: Ok, that's another thing I had questions about, am I going on the lease?
S, M, and G: *laughter*
Me: Heh, guess not then?
S: No! Of course not! *"playful" pat on my arm* There's a hierarchy here.
Me: hierarchy?
M: Yeah, obviously I'm the boss, because my parents own the house. Then S, she's been here longest, then G and then you.
G: And you're not on the lease.
Me: That's fine; I know that a lot of places have sharehouse agreements, as a written contract rather than have all tenants on the lease-
M: Yeah, we don't do that.
Me: Okaaay….
S: Basically we were thinking a verbal agreement, just between us. You pay x every y, and obviously do your share of work according to the hierarchy, and then maybe after a few months when you're past "probation" you can get a written contract.
Me: And I want to do that why? I'm not Cinderella, and I'm pretty sure I'm not that stupid.
G, M, and S: *utter shock*

I said my goodbyes, deflected S's hastily scrawled number and thanked them for the opportunity. From G's contemptuous glare it was obvious they knew I wasn't coming back! S downright creeped me out. Maybe getting into shape was a bad idea after all...

[miss_ann_thrope]

You dodged a bullet!

I'm stll in No contract? Hierarchy? Checking out your girlfriend? What?   

[Amava]

What a creepy, weird bunch.
At least they were quite upfront about the fact that they were planning to take advantage of you. 

Hierarchy... "we don't like people who are overly confident"... wow, are those adults? They sound like a gang of highschool bullies.
I don't know why they thought that was going to fly!

[Missy2U]

tallone, let me tell you a story.  Sit down over here by Aunt Missy2U.  My son, who is in the Navy, was moving from South Carolina where he was in Nuclear Power School, to Ballston Spa, New York for Nuclear Prototype School.  Right after he graduated Power School, he got to come home on leave to visit me which was wonderful.  When he left SC for leave, he had an agreement with three of his buddies to go in on a house in New York all as roommates.  So he thought he had his housing all set (they have NO barracks for them or anything - they all have to find their own places and are given a housing allowance).  When he got back to SC from leave and a week before he had to drive to New York to move and report, his "roommates" told him that they'd signed a lease agreement without him in New York and wouldn't have the room for him so he was on his own.

Talk about much drama, gnashing of teeth in outer South Carolina, and many, many phone calls to Mom about how those jerks left him high and dry.  Well, we did what we had to do, and now, my son is over the moon happy living with a roommate who is one of the foremost eye surgeons (cornea transplants) in the country, in a beautiful house, with a ton of room, they get along famously, and his rent is dirt cheap!  Plus, the roommate/landlord takes my son places and shows him around this new city he's living in, they hang out together, and he's made a friend for life, I think!

So, the moral of the story is - you'll find somewhere, and when it's the right place, it will be fantastic!  Don't give up - what may seem ideal at the outset generally isn't what's ideal in the end. 

If you managed to follow this whole thing, I have to say congratulations.  I even lost MYSELF at times! 

[boxy]

Oh my gosh, those people sound SCARY!  I'm so glad you didn't take that place.  It would've been awful.  What a bullet you have dodged.  While it may have looked great and a short drive to work you would never have had peace living there.  It will be interesting to see what turns up instead. 

Hierarchy 

[shhh its me]

   Once they asked if you Bf handsome I'd know I wasn't moving in but Evil minimerry would have stayed and asked a million questions just because I would want to see how deep the crazy went.....

S: Basically we were thinking a verbal agreement, just between us. You pay x every y, and obviously do your share of work according to the hierarchy, and then maybe after a few months when you're past "probation" you can get a written contract.


wow you seem very organized. do you have a chart prepaired ?  or do you all assign me my chores each Monday?

[Lisbeth]

I think I would have run for my life as soon as I was asked about a GF...or at least, after being asked if she were pretty.  I'd have responded to the first question about GFs with "Why do you ask?  I'm the only one who's going to live in this apartment."

[JacklynHyde]

Wow.  Those three reminded me of the flatmates in Shallow Grave.  They were the high of rude smugness (or smug rudeness) to all the interviewees until they found someone who cowed them universally.  You're far better off avoiding the fate of those folks.

[tallone]

The lame part is, with it so hard to find a good place they probably WILL find someone to move in. And they'll do it with no written contract (read: no protection against being unceremoniously booted onto the street), do all the house work because they're the lowest on the ladder AND do it with a smile and think how good their house is!

Curse my pride, that makes me too uppity to be their slave  I also don't think Tallgirlfriend would have liked S very much. Not included in the dialogue was the vibe I was getting from her! Odd though, it seemed like she was trying to be coy and look me over without looking me over but since she was sitting across from me and interviewing me she had the perfect excuse to look!



And that is a great story Aunt Missy2U! I also would have been pretty peeved at my "friends" in that situation, I'm glad it worked out for your son!

[katallen]

Wow. It sounds like you did everything right here, and seriously dodged a bullet.  Good luck finding your Goldilocks flat!

[Alex the Seal]

The lame part is, with it so hard to find a good place they probably WILL find someone to move in. And they'll do it with no written contract (read: no protection against being unceremoniously booted onto the street), do all the house work because they're the lowest on the ladder AND do it with a smile and think how good their house is!

Yep, that's the saddest part  Aside from the effect that a very, very little bit of power seems to have on some people 

[Twik]

Oh my ears and whiskers!

So, basically, they're looking for someone who isn't too confident, who they can use as their cleaning person, while having him or her pay for the privilege? Bwahahaha!

No. Just ... no. Sharing space is hard enough, without your fellow roommates being power-crazed psychos.

Getting into shape was a GOOD idea. Run, tallone, run!

[Sirius]

  And also

You did dodge a big bullet, Tallone.  You're right about one thing, though - always insist on something in writing, even if it's on a piece of notebook paper.  The one time I moved in with someone else she and I wrote up a contract on notebook paper, I then copied it exactly and she reviewed it, and we both signed and dated it.  I lived with her and her little boy for a year until I got an opportunity to buy a mobile home, and although we got along fine for being so different from each other I found that she would often get herself into situations and I would have to get her out. 

[DangerMouth]

Awesome story of standing up for yourself right from the beging when it can do the most good! (as in the best way out of a bad situation is to avoid it in the first place).

And while it's sad to think they'll find their victim, there's also a good chance (considering some of the roommate stories I've read here) they'll find someone who seems sweet as pie and then turns into a PA witch as soon as 30 days have passed and has tenent rights (even without a signed lease).

Well, we can hope

[Amava]

And also

I like this one. And it is absolutely right for the situation, too!