Live data from Hacker News

Worst Roommate Ever

nymag.com

221–230 of 290 posts

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#221
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very non-charitable way of reading my statement, I believe you are very sure you're not reading it correctly. But yes, I do "believe it should be a human right to have a home to live in". Not given freely, but having the opportunity for housing. It's even in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Even if it's at the cost of someone else who does not wish to single-handedly carry this burden? I have seen first hand the damage someone can cause to a home. I really think that when they are not paying for it they have even less of an emotional stake in the livability of the home post inhabitance.

Yep, I was an accidental landlord due to the housing bubble bursting in 2008 (had to move for a job, couldn't sell the house without taking a huge loss).

Hired a property manager, found a tenant, and did my best to be a good landlord. Let the tenant pay a couple of weeks late a few times without getting bent out of shape, fixed things promptly, etc.

Then the time finally came to sell last year. The market had recovered, I could sell the house and actually make a profit. My reward for doing "the right thing" (not defaulting/short-selling/etc.) was ready to be reaped.

Tenants moved out... got our first look at the house. It was a complete nightmare. Turns out they raised rabbits (as in, to sell) in the property and trashed the place (poop everywhere, stained walls, and egads.. the smell). Ended up taking a large loss on the property anyway - had to basically dump it in order to find a buyer and just be rid of the thing.

The tenants lost their security deposit. That's it. I lost tens of thousands on the sale price (and this was a sub-$200k home), not to mention the years of maintenance, etc. I spent (well, my useless PM charged me) while they were in the house.

Yea, should have just sent the bank the keys in the mail and walked away. In the end it would have been less painful.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#222
post #53

The kind of tenancy laws I read in articles like these, sound absolutely idiotic. If you let someone into your home, and they aren't on the lease, you should be able to kick them out anytime they overstay their welcome. If you do sign a lease with someone, and they haven't paid their rent, you should be able to throw their stuff out and change the locks as soon as their security deposit has run itself out. As a forme…

Where I live it's pretty common to have multiple tenants in housing zoned for single-family residential use (I imagine this is true of much of the US). I'm curious whether that makes it easier or harder to evict someone.

In California at least it doesn't matter. Even in an illegal dwelling the tenants have rights.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#223
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a weird story. One strongly suspects that there must be more to it. As reported, to not even be indicted (which usually has a low bar) for stabbing someone to death in full view of numerous witnesses seems like a pretty abnormal outcome.

Universities will do anything to lower their crime statistics.

How does a grand jury declining to indict someone == a university "doing anything" to lower crime stats?

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy cow! (about multiple things you just wrote).

It's even worse. In the US, mechanically speaking, you only really need an account number and routing number to pull money from someone else's account. (Legally, you also need their permission.) These two numbers are printed on the check. In fact, some merchants will accept a check at point of sale, and then use those numbers to initiate an ACH electronic transfer, then void the check instead of cashing it. Checks re…

Checks almost certainly fall into the category of US systems that we'd never design today but which work well enough for most people most of the time that there seems to be no great urgency to roll out a better replacement system. Obviously options exist even today but "writing a check" is still the norm for a lot of people in a lot of circumstances.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#226
post #78
post #65

Huh, as I started reading I was thinking "I've had some pretty bad roommates, I wonder if this is worse." About a quarter of the way through I realized this is way worse. About three quarters of the way through I was filled with dread as I was pretty sure it wasn't going to end well. Excellent writing..

I had the exact same experience. I was an inch away from not reading the end, then the stabbing happened, then the murder happened... then everyone was dead.. Insane. It escalated quickly.

It's like Hamlet. A really slow burn through four acts, and all of the sudden it explodes like a powder keg on fire!

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy cow! (about multiple things you just wrote).

It's even worse. In the US, mechanically speaking, you only really need an account number and routing number to pull money from someone else's account. (Legally, you also need their permission.) These two numbers are printed on the check. In fact, some merchants will accept a check at point of sale, and then use those numbers to initiate an ACH electronic transfer, then void the check instead of cashing it. Checks re…

Holy cow! About yet more things. I think the last time I bought anything at a shop with a cheque was 1997. I think almost all shops around here (UK) stopped accepting them a long time ago.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...than the persons renting out a house they don't need. Is a camera rental company just "renting out cameras they don't need"? Maintaining rental properties is a livelihood, a bad faith tenant is just as abusive as a bad faith landlord. People buy properties on loans to rent them out, when a tenant refuses to pay the rent, the utilities and the loan payments fall to the landlord. The obvious effect of this is that…

If it destroyed someone's life to go without a camera then this would be a reasonable analogy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_housing

If you want a closer analogy, we don’t require grocery stores to tolerate shoplifters; we have food stamps and soup kitchens.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#229
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco, it is illegal to for a master tenant to rent a room for more than the subtenant’s proportionate share of the space. You can charge more, but hell will descend upon you once the subtenant figures it out.

How does that even work? By floor area? That's not how pricing works!

It prevents you from arbitraging rent control, which is great, or master leases in rent controlled buildings would never turn over at all.

Re: Worst Roommate Ever

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy cow! (about multiple things you just wrote).

It's even worse. In the US, mechanically speaking, you only really need an account number and routing number to pull money from someone else's account. (Legally, you also need their permission.) These two numbers are printed on the check. In fact, some merchants will accept a check at point of sale, and then use those numbers to initiate an ACH electronic transfer, then void the check instead of cashing it. Checks re…

see also https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/04/229224964/epis...

"So we're making a T-shirt and we do this Kickstarter campaign and we raise $590,807 (which, really, we can't thank you enough).

It turns out the money collected on Kickstarter is handled by Amazon. Great, we figure: This is the company that will sell you anything on the planet and get it you you the next day. And what we need in this case isn't even a thing, really. We just need Amazon's bank to send money electronically to a checking account at Chase bank. It's just information traveling over wires. How long could it take: A minute? An hour?

It took five days.

On today's show: Why the invisible pipes that move money around America are so slow. (And why the ones in England are so much faster.)"

Post reply on HN