POE--Pearson International, right?

[TayL 0]

Hope things work out for you! I must say when I read this thread I could see diaster all over it....

I don't know about your story, but why are you going to be living in this kind of situation?

My fiancé found these seemingly nice and wonderful people at work. They shared our values, it seemed, and they were looking for a flatmate so that they could get a larger apartment so their kid would have a little space to play inside. My fiancé's work moved, so they REALLY needed to move, and Kori did too. My fiancé talked to them for a couple weeks and they were looking at an apartment about 3 blocks from the new workplace. It's important to note that they COULD afford this apartment on their own when they showed Kori their finances, they'd just rather have a flatmate so that they would have a little extra play in their budget. They showed him a very solid budget and explained what his portion of the expenses would be. They seemed amazing, etc etc.

Kori and I talked it over and we decided that, with the situation they were outlining, it was perfectly reasonable to have flatmates when I moved down. It would save us a little money while we waited for my EAD. Kori discussed it with them and, when he discussed it before moving with them, their terms were wholly reasonable. I would clean the apartment and do the cooking until my EAD came in, and then, upon finding a job, I would pay a share of the rent until Kori and I found a place that we liked in our price range. I LOVE cooking, so this arrangement seemed fine to me.

One thing we liked beyond the financial benefits was the fact that it would allow us to start off right at the end of a lease term (Kori had very little credit going into this and now he has utilities in his name, a car loan he's paying ahead of schedule and he's just applied for a secure credit rating, and all the apartments in his area other than the real dumps want to see at least two years' credit ratings. I obviously won't have a credit rating and we'd prefer not to have to ask his mother to cosign or guarantee anymore stuff because of how his stepfather treats his mother when she helps Kori) so that we could find our own place that we both liked, rather than him just choosing a place. It also meant that he'd be living with someone who could cook and therefore not living off of microwave dinners.

It all seemed like a really good plan.

Then they stopped following their budget. And were constantly out of money. And were pestering Kori for money to do basic things like cover an amount of their portion of the rent that they couldn't afford, though they somehow still had money to go out clubbing on the weekend. And the amount of food they made was smaller and smaller, so Kori got less and less food. (They do the grocery shopping and the cooking, Kori pays them a certain amount each week for groceries and he cleans up after meals.) And now I'm pretty sure that the whole thing was them INTENTIONALLY taking us for a ride, since the pet deposit thing. I mean, with the inability to follow a budget, I was giving them benefit of the doubt--perhaps their new year's resolution was to follow the new budget they'd set out and they just failed and they didn't MEAN to deceive us. But failing to disclose a 600 dollar pet deposit? That's just deceitful.

The situation REALLY needs to change, which it's looking more and more like it will be a simple matter of Kori walking out, at this point.

Edited March 16, 2009 by TayL