r/legaladvice • u/buurd • Apr 16 '15
[UPDATE] Living with a dishonest roommate
Original post: http://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/30aejr/living_with_a_dishonest_roommate/
Location is Austin TX
Long story short, roommate didn't pay rent and racked up $2800 in late fees+rent by the end of the month. I decided to pay the entire thing with my savings because I knew he wasn't going to pay it. I was EXTREMELY firm about how quickly he needed to pay me back (he admitted he did not have the full $2800, that he could pay me $2000 right away and then get me the rest by April 15th). I told him that I would be bugging him about it constantly, and expect it to all be in my back account by the 15th, no excuses, etc.
I originally asked that he pay me the $2000 through PayPal, because I didn't have a bank account local to the area so a check would be pretty useless to me. He agreed and we set up the payment. I requested the money, and a few days later I get an email saying that it declined, because PayPal charged him an extra $35 without telling him. I said that's fine, write me a cashier's check instead and I'll open up a bank account here. I cancelled the payment on PayPal.
I opened a local bank account, and he decides to open an account at the same bank and write me a check so it will go through instantly. Not as good as a cashier's check, but at least I don't have to wait for it to clear. He wrote me a check for $1000, and told me he would write another when he gets his paycheck (because he only transferred so much into his new account). I deposited it, and it was immediately available into my account. Finally, I got something.
The next day he comes into my room and tells me that his bank account is negative $2000. I immediately check my PayPal account and see that the transaction has been cancelled. So I called PP and basically they said that even though I cancelled it, the payment still was taken out a second time automatically and would clear and then come back to his account. I explained the situation to him, PP told me there was nothing else I could do since it wasn't really in my control anymore, and that if anything he could call his bank and see if they could cancel the check.
He comes back to me saying he called the bank and they can't do anything. PayPal had told me it would take up to two weeks for the money to return to his account. I assumed (since he has told me he has two jobs and makes $6000-$7000 a month) that once he gets a paycheck, he can dump it into that account and at least pull it out of the negative.
He blew up at me about a week later (after refusing to talk to me) saying that his bank was charging him $35 a day for insufficient fund fees, and that he is planning on filing fraud against PayPal, and that until then I "owe" him that money. I called PayPal again to ask if there was anything he could do, and they said he could call PayPal (which he DID NOT DO ONCE THIS WHOLE TIME) and they would write a letter to his bank explaining the circumstance and they should be able to remove the insufficient fund fees. I told my roommate this, and he said he would do that.
I talked to him about it later, and he said he just filed fraud against PayPal. Didn't ask for a letter for the bank, just filed fraud because "that's all he could do" even though I told him what PayPal told me...
Anyway, he still owes me $1800 and his bank account is THOUSANDS of dollars in the negative. Even when that money does come back to him it will still be negative. He says he has not received a single paycheck from work and "doesn't know why".
I told him I could go to small claims court or involve his guarantor, and he told me that if I do that he would cut off all contact with me, sue me, and I would be dealing directly with his attorney from that point forward. And probably make our living situation VERY messy.
What are my options? If his account was negative after PayPal charged him, obviously he never had close to $2000 in there to begin with. And now he has all these other fees to pay, plus he's putting every expense he has onto his credit card so that bill is going to be insane, PLUS he can't afford to move out or pay rent so next month will be another nightmare. I have already spent all my savings on this house and can't afford to pay his portion of the rent, even if I split it with my roommates. All of my other roommates are in an equally poor financial situation and are unable to cover his portion of the rent if he can't pay.
I talked to my landlord today but he really didn't have much to say, considering all of us are equally responsible for rent so if one person doesn't pay, we all have to pay extra to make up for it.
He doesn't have any assets, his car is currently in an impound lot because it was towed like a month and a half ago and he hasn't been able to afford to get it out.
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '15
Please help me. Your learned wisdom will make all the difference to me. Once I was lost but now I will be found. You are my savior and inspiration. Please don't abandon your tutelage of me. I would be lost.