This occurred in Stone Mountain, GA... I am currently in Brentwood, TN, and the other parties involved are somewhere in VA.
Some of may remember my thread about my piece of trash roommates. https://forum.freeadvice.com/small-claims-courts-24/roommates-hell-586440.html Only the guy was supposed to be moving in, for a short amount of time, and then showed up with his girlfriend and a dog. Then, they brought a cat home one day... never asking me if any of these things were cool. I gave them a discount on the first month's rent. I covered rent/utilities until they could pay the first few months. I never had them sign onto the lease or the utilities. I was dumb... I know. I got fired (the guy and I both worked for the same small business); but my boss said he would pay my half of the rent/utilities. This was fine was I was there... I got the money from my ex-best-friend/ex-boss and my roommates... deposited it in my bank account... payed the bills. I was literally gone for the whole month of June, but still paid half of the utilities (even though I didn't use them). The gas company messed up and botched a payment I mailed in... and so they tried to take my deposit and charge me a late fee. I called, disputed the charge (as it was a check that they had incorrectly entered the account number from), and got a credit on my account. This left my roommate with a $3.50 gas bill to pay. He didn't even pay this. I had come back to Nashville to look for work, and was gone from the end of July until the beginning of October... when I came with my father to get my stuff. We arrived in the afternoon, I spent the night in my room, and then we were packed and left the next day. My roommates insisted they had been paying the bills and acted annoyed that they were having to do so. But, it turns out that I was the last one to pay the gas bill back in June... and that one payment was made in August on the electricity. How the utilities weren't turned off for a lack of payment... I do not understand. In the end... I owe over $700 to the gas and electric companies; and I just got a letter from a law firm saying the power company is suing me for non-payment. The letter explains I will incur court costs, have to pay their legal fees, etc. if I lose the case (which I am 99.9999% sure that I would). I had been unemployed until the week before Christmas since May... and have a ton of medical bills as well. I was out for a week with a staph infection from NYE until returning to work this last Monday (1/7/2013). I make $7.25 an hour, and only get like 20 hours a week. If I didn't have to pay taxes and had no other expenses... it would take a month and a week to make the money to pay the bills. I literally cannot do it... and have borrowed money from just about anyone I can to cover other bills. With less than 30 days now to pay the power company... I will not be able to.
So, in my original "The Roommates From Hell" post, I learned that my conversations on FB about the utility bills being payed would not be enough to prove that my roommates had a verbal contract with me to pay their half of the utilities (and get the other half from my ex-best-friend/ex-boss). With this logic, that means that there was no contract that they could live there then either, correct? They were trespassing, and their use of the utilities was a criminal act. Can I file charges and claim that since I can prove I was in TN and not GA for those few months that I had no part in the use of the utilities and that I was the victim of fraudulent misrepresentation? I don't need to evict the pieces of trash... they're gone back to VA after the guy went crazy and snapped on all of his/our fellow co-workers, thinking they were out to get him. But, that also adds a problem... He's in VA, so getting him arrested in GA will be difficult.
Any advice would be helpful. And to anyone who is going to say, "You must have done something to them to make them do this to you," here is what the deal is... turns out the guy was convinced I had hooked up with his girlfriend. I have a communicable liver disease, and so I haven't even dated in a year. He knows this, and knows that I am adamant about not spreading it. He was severely jealous... the most contact I had with his girl (now his ex... serves him right) was when she was talking about how depressed and alone she felt in GA. I told her I felt the same way (I was not included by my co-workers in any after work "chilling" as I am "too weird"), and with her boyfriend present, I asked, "Can I give you a hug? If it's okay with him (the boyfriend)?" He was not cool with it... but the girl got mad, and came over and just gave me a friendly hug. This started a huge fight... I ended up cutting (something I have not done in years) to show the guy I had punished myself and their yelling ended up getting the cops called. They had me answer the door (despite the fact I'm on probation) and speak to the cops. The cut on my arm and the question of if I was a suicide risk became the focus for the cops, and I likely saved them from domestic disturbance charges. So yeah, that's the worst I did to the couple.
Thank you to anyone with real legal advice for me... I know that I need to choose better friends/roommates and that revenge is not a good idea. But, I am already drowning in debt and cannot afford the added weight of being sued. I need legal advice, not life coaching or a questioning of my moral compass.
Peace.
~beardie
Some of may remember my thread about my piece of trash roommates. https://forum.freeadvice.com/small-claims-courts-24/roommates-hell-586440.html Only the guy was supposed to be moving in, for a short amount of time, and then showed up with his girlfriend and a dog. Then, they brought a cat home one day... never asking me if any of these things were cool. I gave them a discount on the first month's rent. I covered rent/utilities until they could pay the first few months. I never had them sign onto the lease or the utilities. I was dumb... I know. I got fired (the guy and I both worked for the same small business); but my boss said he would pay my half of the rent/utilities. This was fine was I was there... I got the money from my ex-best-friend/ex-boss and my roommates... deposited it in my bank account... payed the bills. I was literally gone for the whole month of June, but still paid half of the utilities (even though I didn't use them). The gas company messed up and botched a payment I mailed in... and so they tried to take my deposit and charge me a late fee. I called, disputed the charge (as it was a check that they had incorrectly entered the account number from), and got a credit on my account. This left my roommate with a $3.50 gas bill to pay. He didn't even pay this. I had come back to Nashville to look for work, and was gone from the end of July until the beginning of October... when I came with my father to get my stuff. We arrived in the afternoon, I spent the night in my room, and then we were packed and left the next day. My roommates insisted they had been paying the bills and acted annoyed that they were having to do so. But, it turns out that I was the last one to pay the gas bill back in June... and that one payment was made in August on the electricity. How the utilities weren't turned off for a lack of payment... I do not understand. In the end... I owe over $700 to the gas and electric companies; and I just got a letter from a law firm saying the power company is suing me for non-payment. The letter explains I will incur court costs, have to pay their legal fees, etc. if I lose the case (which I am 99.9999% sure that I would). I had been unemployed until the week before Christmas since May... and have a ton of medical bills as well. I was out for a week with a staph infection from NYE until returning to work this last Monday (1/7/2013). I make $7.25 an hour, and only get like 20 hours a week. If I didn't have to pay taxes and had no other expenses... it would take a month and a week to make the money to pay the bills. I literally cannot do it... and have borrowed money from just about anyone I can to cover other bills. With less than 30 days now to pay the power company... I will not be able to.
So, in my original "The Roommates From Hell" post, I learned that my conversations on FB about the utility bills being payed would not be enough to prove that my roommates had a verbal contract with me to pay their half of the utilities (and get the other half from my ex-best-friend/ex-boss). With this logic, that means that there was no contract that they could live there then either, correct? They were trespassing, and their use of the utilities was a criminal act. Can I file charges and claim that since I can prove I was in TN and not GA for those few months that I had no part in the use of the utilities and that I was the victim of fraudulent misrepresentation? I don't need to evict the pieces of trash... they're gone back to VA after the guy went crazy and snapped on all of his/our fellow co-workers, thinking they were out to get him. But, that also adds a problem... He's in VA, so getting him arrested in GA will be difficult.
Any advice would be helpful. And to anyone who is going to say, "You must have done something to them to make them do this to you," here is what the deal is... turns out the guy was convinced I had hooked up with his girlfriend. I have a communicable liver disease, and so I haven't even dated in a year. He knows this, and knows that I am adamant about not spreading it. He was severely jealous... the most contact I had with his girl (now his ex... serves him right) was when she was talking about how depressed and alone she felt in GA. I told her I felt the same way (I was not included by my co-workers in any after work "chilling" as I am "too weird"), and with her boyfriend present, I asked, "Can I give you a hug? If it's okay with him (the boyfriend)?" He was not cool with it... but the girl got mad, and came over and just gave me a friendly hug. This started a huge fight... I ended up cutting (something I have not done in years) to show the guy I had punished myself and their yelling ended up getting the cops called. They had me answer the door (despite the fact I'm on probation) and speak to the cops. The cut on my arm and the question of if I was a suicide risk became the focus for the cops, and I likely saved them from domestic disturbance charges. So yeah, that's the worst I did to the couple.
Thank you to anyone with real legal advice for me... I know that I need to choose better friends/roommates and that revenge is not a good idea. But, I am already drowning in debt and cannot afford the added weight of being sued. I need legal advice, not life coaching or a questioning of my moral compass.
Peace.
~beardie
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