Hi
I (24m) live with two girls (22f, 24f). I will call them Jordan and Pippen. None of us knew each other prior to living together but since moving in I'd say we are close, if not friends, and have lived together since last summer.
Myself and Pippen (24f) have been sending Jordan (22f) our rent payments and she would pay the total rent to the landlord. Jordan and Pippen send me their shares of utilities and I pay those to the utility company. We have always just split everything evenly. There were no issues until recently.
Last month, both Pippen and I had sent Jordan each of our rent payments as usual. Jordan went to Coachella and while she was gone we received a notice of nonpayment from the landlord, a somewhat scary letter. I called Jordan to no immediate response, so I called the landlord to confirm rent was not paid, and managed to pay online the entire rent myself plus a $100 late fee. I paid this out of my savings.
Jordan eventually returned my call and said something went wrong with her bank, I assumed it was just some transfer taking too long or something. When she got back from her trip I talked to her and she said she could pay me back by June and that her bank had taken the money to autopay something. Again I didn't think a whole lot of it, something went wrong, she said she'd pay me back.
This month, she had gone on a trip to Japan with her brothers and while she was gone I went to double check everything was squared up between us all for utilities. I only use Venmo for sending my rent and receiving the utility payments. This may seem dumb but I was just paying utilities out of my bank account and letting cash accrue on Venmo, since eventually I'd just use that to pay rent.
After doing some digging I noticed Jordan has not paid me for utilities since December last year. Missing utility payments as well as the months rent she owes me totals about $3400 which is quite a chunk of cash.
I really don't know what to make of it, she seems like an otherwise nice and competent person, she has a decent paying job and just generally seems responsible. I feel like I should've been much more observant of the utility payments over time but now it seems like I've been taken advantage of especially since she's been spending a decent amount of money traveling this year. She got back a few days ago and while she's been working quite a lot it also feels like she is sort of avoiding me, I have seen her literally once.
Anyway I'd like advice on how to approach the whole situation. I think I am easy going and I a have an okay salary, if she needed extra time to pay me for anything all she would've had to do is tell me, but instead I was just sort of forced into this situation of unwitting lender. My other roommate offered to moderate some sort of conversation about it. I don't have any experience with financial troubles or poor spending habbits or whatever she may be experiencing, nor do I have any experience being scammed if that's what she's doing. I would like to be paid back and want to emphasize how serious this all is to me, but also don't want to mess up the peaceful living dynamic we have/had.
Also of note I was thinking of proposing I or Pippen handle the payments of rent to the landlord, as I feel uncomfortable sending money to someone that already owes me quite a bit. I think this is fair and prudent but would like input here as well.
tl;dr Roommate made my and my other roommates rent one month vanish causing me to have to pay a months rent for all of us out of savings, after which i noticed she had not paid me utilities in months. How do I approach this situation
Any and all advice is appreciated, thank you in advance.
Submitted May 31, 2023 at 12:12AM by anonymous32880649 https://ift.tt/yLwdoHv
