What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
in 2008 I was looking for my own place, it was the end of a long relationship in which his daughter had died 2 years prior. i had pets and ended up looking at mobile homes. i wanted to buy one, and the owner wanted a co-signer. my brother was also unhappy in college and wanted to move. for some reason he decided to come to L.A., where he would share the place with me, which was perfect because otherwise i couldn't afford it on my own. i would have gotten a roommate but i figured family was better, and we got along. at first i let him pay about 1/4 of the rent. i thought he'd get a job and start paying more. this went on for about a year before he started paying slightly more. about a year ago I insisted that he pay $800 each month, because I just couldn't carry the burden. He still didn't have a job, was still using my car and on my insurance, which I paid for, and never really pitched in for the utilities or the home insurance, because he never had money. He would do things like care for the yard and plants, and watch my animals if i was gone for a night or a weekend or the summer. they only needed fed and let in and out, and they usually let you know when they need either of those things. but he would complain about it. i would do nice things for him like bring home something i knew he liked to eat or drink, or give him some silver coins, which he collected... i continue to do these things, just because i like to make people happy. i like finding simple ways to make someone's day. to the best of my recollection he's never done anything like this for me. i don't expect him to but it would be nice. he watches the pets, that's the only real thing, which is great but then he complains about it. he'll clean the house a bit but he's supposed to do that anyway, without my asking. i'm not the only one using the bathroom but i'm the only one who ever scrubs it. anyway. i've felt like i've been taken advantage of when I was just trying to make sure he got on his feet and found his place in the world. he's still using my car (but should be paying the insurance now that i'm gone, though if he keeps up his attitude i might just have someone sell it so he can go buy his own damn car and get his own insurance), is not caught up on rent, and complains about everything he has to do because I'm moving. He's known about this for months. I booked my flight in March. I started fishing around for a roommate for him, or someone to let the whole place. I put ads at the church, and I asked him to look too, but since he knows i'll pay to keep the place, he didn't seem to look too hard. we had one person who fell through. When I left, the day of my flight I was still cleaning and painting, and he had little left to do. I'd painted everything (except the bedrooms), put 95% of my belongings in the shed, shampooed the floor, etc.... I left before getting a chance to take photos and waited several weeks before he took photos to send to me so I could advertise the place properly. By then I'd paid for May. I also ended up paying for June. Our subletters moved in mid-june and gave us a check, which we signed to my brother. he has yet to give me any of it although he's living somewhere else and I'm out an entire month's rent plus May when he could have had a temporary roommate but wasn't done "cleaning". I came back to find the place a little emptier after he had moved a couple things to the shed, but I still had to clean the entire fridge and freezer, there were things left unpainted (but it's not noticeable so I left it for now) though he did finish up the glaring missed-spots behind the fridge and oven, and toilet. The carpet was dirty again. I could see where he did some things, which I'm thankful for, but he cost me an entire month's rent. And he doesn't think I should pay myself back over the months with our subleaser's payments. I was even fine with a slow repayment so as not to put him in a difficult financial situation.
The tenants decided they wanted to have a longer lease and pay less, so I told them and my brother that I would be by on a certain day, the day before my flight, to take care of all of that. My brother didn't come or call or decide to take part in any way, so I signed an agreement with them that matched what we had advertised. Being the real owner of the house (my brother only co-signed and really takes no responsibility for anything) and being satisfied with the amount we agreed on, I figured it'd be fine. Because he's been difficult with giving me the rent for Jne, I had them sign over July's check to me, and I passed along a check to my brother that subtracted part of what I'm trying to get back but left more than enough to cover the costs for July. He has somehow decided that this isn't fair and somehow hurts him, and is threatening to make life more difficult for me. I'm dealing with moving to a foreign country, I have a lot on my plate at the moment. He has few responsibilities and he manages to make them all sound like the hardest thing in the world. He didn't open a couple bills in the first month I was gone, including the home insurance, which got briefly suspended until I paid it (and managed to avoid the late fee). He has some sort of entitlement problem where he feels like he should have my car whenever he needs it, he doesn't have to pay full rent or pay it on time (he's still about $200-300 behind, maybe more because I don't think he paid me much for May) and then tells me I have no right to recover over $2000 that I paid for him to live alone in my house and for another family to live there while i couch surf through half of my stay. I feel it's not up for negotiation when I'm the one who made the downpayment on the house and I'm the one paying for everything. It doesn't affect him at all if I pay myself back but he's making it very difficult. I don't know what to do.
I asked him to write me a few blank checks so that I could gradually recover the rent I paid in May and June, since i didn't want to leave him with too little money at any time by asking for it all at once. Instead of discussing this with me, on the ride to the airport, he put two checks in my purse that when i discovered them said really snotty things and were void. So I'm still out over $2000. Plus he said he told the subtenants to void their check to me. I'm at my wit's end. he claims he did so much work to make the place presentable, but it was fine. it wasn't perfect or done, but for a short term roommate sublet it was fine and honestly it didn't have to take a whole month to do whatever it is that he did. i'd say maybe a week, but not a month. he claims that because i didn't find him a roommate then i should have to pay for that month even though i'm paying for a place in France. in my opinion, he should pay the entire month's rent since he was living there all alone and had several months to prepare for this. but I'm not asking him to do that, i'm taking it out of the money we're getting for renting it out. Or I would be if he wasn't holding it ransom. He's threatened not to pay and have the place go into foreclosure and eviction for all of us. He's threatened to have my car impounded (so impractical of him since it's his free transportation). He thinks he has a legal right to steal this money from me, and I just don't know what to do. He's never behaved this way before, and I don't know why he's doing it now. I had it all set up so that everything would get paid and we would even have a little extra, later, but he's really messing it up so that we could lose the entire thing and foul it up with the people living there. Help!!!
in 2008 I was looking for my own place, it was the end of a long relationship in which his daughter had died 2 years prior. i had pets and ended up looking at mobile homes. i wanted to buy one, and the owner wanted a co-signer. my brother was also unhappy in college and wanted to move. for some reason he decided to come to L.A., where he would share the place with me, which was perfect because otherwise i couldn't afford it on my own. i would have gotten a roommate but i figured family was better, and we got along. at first i let him pay about 1/4 of the rent. i thought he'd get a job and start paying more. this went on for about a year before he started paying slightly more. about a year ago I insisted that he pay $800 each month, because I just couldn't carry the burden. He still didn't have a job, was still using my car and on my insurance, which I paid for, and never really pitched in for the utilities or the home insurance, because he never had money. He would do things like care for the yard and plants, and watch my animals if i was gone for a night or a weekend or the summer. they only needed fed and let in and out, and they usually let you know when they need either of those things. but he would complain about it. i would do nice things for him like bring home something i knew he liked to eat or drink, or give him some silver coins, which he collected... i continue to do these things, just because i like to make people happy. i like finding simple ways to make someone's day. to the best of my recollection he's never done anything like this for me. i don't expect him to but it would be nice. he watches the pets, that's the only real thing, which is great but then he complains about it. he'll clean the house a bit but he's supposed to do that anyway, without my asking. i'm not the only one using the bathroom but i'm the only one who ever scrubs it. anyway. i've felt like i've been taken advantage of when I was just trying to make sure he got on his feet and found his place in the world. he's still using my car (but should be paying the insurance now that i'm gone, though if he keeps up his attitude i might just have someone sell it so he can go buy his own damn car and get his own insurance), is not caught up on rent, and complains about everything he has to do because I'm moving. He's known about this for months. I booked my flight in March. I started fishing around for a roommate for him, or someone to let the whole place. I put ads at the church, and I asked him to look too, but since he knows i'll pay to keep the place, he didn't seem to look too hard. we had one person who fell through. When I left, the day of my flight I was still cleaning and painting, and he had little left to do. I'd painted everything (except the bedrooms), put 95% of my belongings in the shed, shampooed the floor, etc.... I left before getting a chance to take photos and waited several weeks before he took photos to send to me so I could advertise the place properly. By then I'd paid for May. I also ended up paying for June. Our subletters moved in mid-june and gave us a check, which we signed to my brother. he has yet to give me any of it although he's living somewhere else and I'm out an entire month's rent plus May when he could have had a temporary roommate but wasn't done "cleaning". I came back to find the place a little emptier after he had moved a couple things to the shed, but I still had to clean the entire fridge and freezer, there were things left unpainted (but it's not noticeable so I left it for now) though he did finish up the glaring missed-spots behind the fridge and oven, and toilet. The carpet was dirty again. I could see where he did some things, which I'm thankful for, but he cost me an entire month's rent. And he doesn't think I should pay myself back over the months with our subleaser's payments. I was even fine with a slow repayment so as not to put him in a difficult financial situation.
The tenants decided they wanted to have a longer lease and pay less, so I told them and my brother that I would be by on a certain day, the day before my flight, to take care of all of that. My brother didn't come or call or decide to take part in any way, so I signed an agreement with them that matched what we had advertised. Being the real owner of the house (my brother only co-signed and really takes no responsibility for anything) and being satisfied with the amount we agreed on, I figured it'd be fine. Because he's been difficult with giving me the rent for Jne, I had them sign over July's check to me, and I passed along a check to my brother that subtracted part of what I'm trying to get back but left more than enough to cover the costs for July. He has somehow decided that this isn't fair and somehow hurts him, and is threatening to make life more difficult for me. I'm dealing with moving to a foreign country, I have a lot on my plate at the moment. He has few responsibilities and he manages to make them all sound like the hardest thing in the world. He didn't open a couple bills in the first month I was gone, including the home insurance, which got briefly suspended until I paid it (and managed to avoid the late fee). He has some sort of entitlement problem where he feels like he should have my car whenever he needs it, he doesn't have to pay full rent or pay it on time (he's still about $200-300 behind, maybe more because I don't think he paid me much for May) and then tells me I have no right to recover over $2000 that I paid for him to live alone in my house and for another family to live there while i couch surf through half of my stay. I feel it's not up for negotiation when I'm the one who made the downpayment on the house and I'm the one paying for everything. It doesn't affect him at all if I pay myself back but he's making it very difficult. I don't know what to do.
I asked him to write me a few blank checks so that I could gradually recover the rent I paid in May and June, since i didn't want to leave him with too little money at any time by asking for it all at once. Instead of discussing this with me, on the ride to the airport, he put two checks in my purse that when i discovered them said really snotty things and were void. So I'm still out over $2000. Plus he said he told the subtenants to void their check to me. I'm at my wit's end. he claims he did so much work to make the place presentable, but it was fine. it wasn't perfect or done, but for a short term roommate sublet it was fine and honestly it didn't have to take a whole month to do whatever it is that he did. i'd say maybe a week, but not a month. he claims that because i didn't find him a roommate then i should have to pay for that month even though i'm paying for a place in France. in my opinion, he should pay the entire month's rent since he was living there all alone and had several months to prepare for this. but I'm not asking him to do that, i'm taking it out of the money we're getting for renting it out. Or I would be if he wasn't holding it ransom. He's threatened not to pay and have the place go into foreclosure and eviction for all of us. He's threatened to have my car impounded (so impractical of him since it's his free transportation). He thinks he has a legal right to steal this money from me, and I just don't know what to do. He's never behaved this way before, and I don't know why he's doing it now. I had it all set up so that everything would get paid and we would even have a little extra, later, but he's really messing it up so that we could lose the entire thing and foul it up with the people living there. Help!!!