u/happybaker16

Over the course of my two years living in my apartment with my cousin (40s), her boyfriend(30s), their dog, and me (20s) and my boyfriend (20s). I have become so incredibly frustrated by the behavior from my roommates that left me feeling like I was responsible for maintaining the home while they contributed very little to the common areas. Financially, I feel screwed over. I paid approximately $1,075 per month, while the total monthly rent for the apartment was approximately ~$2,200 (she never sent me utility usage bills, red flag). Despite me and my boyfriend paying nearly half of the rent, I had significantly less living space. My roommates occupied the master bedroom and attached bathroom, used the majority of the kitchen storage, and their furniture and belongings occupied essentially the entire living room (extremely cluttered, by the way), leaving me with comparatively little shared space despite contributing nearly half of the housing costs.

I was regularly the one taking out overflowing trash, washing dishes that had been left in the sink for extended periods, and cleaning the common areas because if I did not, they simply remained dirty and would start to smell terrible. It became a routine for me to come home from work and find the sink full of dirty dishes, food left out, and the trash overflowing. Sometimes dog waste was thrown into the kitchen trash and left there, causing the apartment to smell for hours while no one seemed concerned enough to take it to the dumpsters. The apartment was also consistently cluttered with their belongings, making it difficult to move through shared spaces. For a long period of time, large furniture blocked the living room sliding glass door leading to the patio until management required it to be moved. Even after it was relocated, the living room and hallway remained crowded with furniture and storage items. It sucked because I could rarely ever use the outdoor patio due to the amount of dried dog poop scattered around that never got cleaned.

Another major source of frustration was the repeated weed smoking inside our apartment. The property is a smoke-free community, and while I don't judge anyone for smoking as I used to be one myself, our apartment complex is very against smoking of any kind. The smoke detector in their bedroom repeatedly went off while he was smoking at 2-3 AM when I needed to work in a few hours, and instead of preventing it from happening again, the smoke detector was eventually removed so it would no longer go off. Waking up to smoke alarms during the night and later realizing the detector had been removed made me really annoyed that he couldn't just smoke outside. Plus, it wasn't very pleasant to wake up in the morning and go into the kitchen to get ready for work where it reeked of weed.

I also became increasingly concerned about the care of their dog. The dog regularly barked and howled when left alone, was often left by itself for extended periods, and frequently urinated and defecated inside our place, resulting in pee pads being used indoors and unpleasant odors throughout the shared living space. I often had to keep the dog out of the kitchen because it would eat anything within reach while I was cooking, including potentially harmful substances. From my observations, the dog was walked very infrequently as well.

Finally, I was disappointed by how the end of our tenancy was handled. We had all discussed moving out and going our separate ways when the lease expired (because our rent was going up astronomically), so I spent weeks searching for a new apartment based on that understanding. I was then surprised to receive a lease renewal addendum in my email showing that my roommate and her boyfriend intended to remain in the apartment without ever discussing that change with me. When I asked whether I could remain as well (I'd be saving a bit of money so why not), I was later told that they wanted the apartment to themselves. While that's a perfectly valid decision (and honestly a blessing in disguise), I felt blindsided because I learned about it through a random email one morning rather than through an honest talk with each other.

Luckily I have a place I am moving into soon, my dream place, and I am so over the moon about it. I can finally invite all my friends from college over and be proud of my space as it will no longer be dirty and cluttered. This was definitely a learning experience for me, and I am so tired of being used by people.

Now question: should I report this information to the leasing office once I officially move out? What would you guys do in my situation? Leave it be?