WIBTAH if I sued my apartment complex?
For the past school year, I (F21) lived with four other girls in a 6 person apartment. When we first moved in there were only four of us. I will call the two I like Zaria (F21) and Sofia (F 21) and the one we had issues with Odalia (F 40?). Zaria and I were already friends and signed the lease together but the other three were random girls. Zaria,Sofia and I lived on one side of the apartment and Odalia had the other side to herself. Zaria and Sofia shared a room while I was in the single in our hallway and Odalia had the double to herself.
Three days after the four of us moved in, Zaria and I were out at a school event and Sofia stayed behind because she was feeling sick. While we were gone, Sofia caught Odalia sneaking into her and Zaria’s room and Odalia started going through Zaria’s valuables. Sofia confronted Odalia about it and Odalia denied trying to steal Zaria’s jewelry. Odalia did a couple other strange things that semester but other than that one instance she typically stuck to her own room and never came out. Zaria, Sofia and I told the leasing office about Odalia sneaking into our rooms but they couldn't do anything about it since we all signed the lease and they couldn’t kick Odalia out.
Zaria and I wanted to renew our leases for the following year but were very hesitant since we didn't want to live with Odalia again. We told the leasing office this and they told us that if Odalia renewed they would move Zaria and I to another apartment free of charge. Zaria emailed the apartment telling them that they had verbally guaranteed us that we would not live with Odalia again.
Over winter break we received a message saying that we were getting a new roommate. I am going to call her Nelly (F 21). Zaria, Sofia and I were very hesitant about Nelly since we thought that maybe she was Odalia’s friend and they would cause more issues together. Both Odalia and Nelly are from India and they never turned the fan on while cooking and would stink up the whole apartment. They both also always consistently turned the temperature inside the apartment to 80F. For reference we go to school in a fairly warm area. It was consistently around 70-90F outside.
When we moved back into the apartment after winter break we were very welcoming and nice to Nelly. However, the very same day we all moved back in she would call people on her phone on speaker in the common area from around 1-3am and then again at 7am. Zaria, Sofia and I were very annoyed but gave her the benefit of the doubt since we assumed that maybe she was still jetlagged. THIS WENT ON FOR TWO WEEKS before we said anything.
This is where the issues really started with Odalia and Nelly. After two weeks of both Odalia and Nelly constantly calling people at ungodly hours of the night I finally had enough. School had started and we all had morning classes. I believe it was a Wednesday night around midnight, I was out in the kitchen doing some homework when Nelly came out to make dinner. (btw who makes dinner that late?!!?) She had a show playing on her laptop and it was kind of loud. I asked her in these exact words, “hey would you mind turning the volume down a bit?” She agreed and turned down the volume. After that I decided to go to bed and when I closed the door to my room, SHE TURNED THE VOLUME HIGHER THAN IT ORIGINALLY WAS. I was FLABBERGASTED. Around 1am she got on YET ANOTHER CALL with someone on speaker phone and didn’t get off till around 3am.
I was fairly upset and so I wrote a slightly passive aggressive note telling her to stop calling people on speaker phone so late in the night. The next morning Zaria and I put it on Odalia and Nelly’s bathroom door. This was the start of what we like to call “The sticky note war”. It eventually escalated into Nelly accusing Zaria, Sofia and I of being racist towards Indians. (which we aren't, we just wanted to sleep). I'm going to write out what each sticky note said.
Mine: " Please stop taking phone calls on speaker past midnight in the living room"
Odalia and Nellys: "Saw the note, thanks for lmk. Just wanted to add that during day there's a lot of noise which i've been totally okay with since its shared space. Lets try to be mindful of each other overall :)"
Ours: "Hi, we got your note. We understand where you're coming from but there is a very big difference between being loud during the day vs. after midnight. We don't mind if you watch your shows/are on call during the day, we just request you don't do that between 12am and 9am and be more mindful :)"
Theirs: "Yes I understand it won't happen. You can tell me on my face :) . Do you guys have any taboo with indians?"
Ours: "No, we don't have any taboo against indians. We just have class in the morning and would like quiet hours to be respected. If you would like to talk face to face we can arrange a time"
After this incident, Nelly cornered us each individually in the kitchen to try and talk it out with us. We eventually did talk it out with her and we became friends even. During this time, Odalia had gone back to India. Zaria, Sofia, Nelly and I were friends with each other for about a month and we would regularly hang out in the common area together. Then one day, Odalia came back from India and Nelly became really cold and distant from us. We were very confused what had happened but we just let her be and continued to be friendly with Nelly.
Around halfway through the spring semester, Odalia and Nelly started to leave their dishes everywhere and wouldn't clean up after themselves and leave their messes out for a couple of days. They would also leave bags of trash just outside their door and it would just sit there for a couple of days. There would be food scraps just all over our counters and floors and there would be dirty pants just lying around the counters.
Throughout this semester, Zaria and I were constantly going down to the leasing office and telling them about Nelly and Odalia and making sure that we were not living together again next year. Every time the leasing office assured us that we were not living with them and that they hadn't even renewed their lease.
Zaria and I would also occasionally pop out the window screen but the maintenance guy told us that we could be fined for popping out the window screen so we stopped. Zaria, Sofia and I each told Nelly that we would be fined for popping out the window as well. We told her, “Hey, I know we've been popping out the window screen too but the maintenance guy let us know that we will be fined for it so if you could also stop that would be great”. SHE KEPT POPPING OUT THE WINDOW SCREEN, and we all told her a minimum of ten times EACH not to pop out the window screen. She eventually broke the window screen, so now we are definitely going to get fined for it.
Now I'll get into the worst thing Odalia and Nelly did. Some background, Odalia and Nelly are both strict vegetarians so they have all their own appliances and they use one side of the sink and Zaria, Sofia and I use the other side. None of our dishes or appliances ever touch. So, one day, I was peacefully doing my homework in my room when I heard someone whispering my name outside my door. (Yes, Nelly will stand in the hallway in the dark whispering your name, it's creepy) (If you've seen Obsession, Nelly quite literally stands in the dark around our apartment, like how Nikki does while watching Bear sleep). I opened the door to find both Nelly and Odalia standing there looking really sheepish and guilty. Then Nelly tells me in these exact words, “Hey, um… ‘OP’ , uh… there's worms in our sponge … are we allowed to throw it away?”
EXCUSE ME???? WORMS???? THEY CULTIVATED MAGGOTS IN THEIR SPONGE!!!! (thank god Zaria, Sofia, and I use separate EVERYTHING from them) I told them YES throw it away, and asked if they could clean the kitchen thoroughly. (They did not. I went in after them and disinfected everything, and I think Zaria and Sofia both did too). I texted Zaria and Sofia, and we all freaked out and moved all our stuff out of the kitchen and started doing our dishes in our bathroom. (Also, why were they asking me for permission to throw away THEIR sponge??? I'm not your mom, you're literally older than me????)
Nelly did some other odd things as well, like she will just do your laundry for you?? Like she would take your clothes out of the washer for you, even though she didn't have her own clothes to wash afterwards. We didn't mind if you had to do your own laundry, and our clothes were there, but just taking them out just to take them out was a bit odd.
Nelly also ran our electricity bill through the roof. The electricity at our apartment gives you a $30 gratuity per person, and any electricity you use beyond that is what they charge you. Before Nelly moved in, our bill was around $0-$5 per person per month. When Nelly moved in, it slowly jumped up, which wasn't crazy since there was another person, until it jumped up to $50 per person. That is when we confronted her about her electricity use, and she insisted that “she doesn't use that much”.
Another thing Odalia and Nelly did was they would constantly steal our food from the fridge. It got really annoying, and the grocery store was literally like a five minute walk away from our apartment.
That is some background on why Zaria and I didn't want to live with Odalia, and mostly Nelly again. Sofia graduated, so she luckily escaped all this craziness. Now we are about to start the next school year, and up until now, the leasing office has consistently told me and Zaria that Odalia and Nelly hadn't renewed, and we would be getting four new roommates. The leasing office has consistently assured Zaria and me that we would not be living together with Odalia and Nelly.
Well, we got our new roommate assignments, and Odalia and Nelly are living with us again. I immediately went down to the leasing office and told them that they had guaranteed Zaria and me that we wouldn't be with Odalia and Nelly again. The girl working knew exactly who I was without me having to tell her, so she obviously knew what had been going on between us. (We have also literally been pestering the leasing office about this all school year, and every time they told us we were not living together)
The girl working told me that she couldn't move Zaria and me into another apartment since the building was full. I told her that they had told us that they would move us if Odalia and Nelly renewed and we have this in writing, but they didn’t. She kept apologizing to me, but this seems like a major fuck up on their end. She gave me a few options, but all of them include Zaria and me finding someone to sublet our spots to, or only one of us is put into another apartment while the other is left behind. A lot of my friends and my parents have told me that it is not fair for them to try to make us find someone to take over our leases since it's the apartment's fault for failing us. Zaria’s mom has called the corporate office and threatened lawyers, but I just wanted to know if I would be the asshole for actually suing the apartment over this.
They aren't able to find a solution to make it so that Zaria and I don't live with Odalia and Nelly again after they promised us that we wouldn't be put with them again. We can't even break the lease since they told us we would have to find someone to take over for us, and they can't move Odalia and Nelly since they renewed, and Odalia and Nelly would have to agree to move out. This just seems really unfair, and I would like your guys' opinions.
I’ve also added some photos of some of the messes they have made, the layout of our apartment and the notes from our sticky note war.