A man who left a room in an appalling state after being allowed to stay there as a favor from a friendly couple has sparked widespread outrage online.
Redditor u/notasinglethought shared how they had provided a spare room to the old buddy who had found himself in a difficult situation.
After 2.5 months, the tenant informed the couple he would be leaving but refused to pay half a month’s rent, claiming his expensive items left behind would serve as compensation—despite the OP making it clear this was unacceptable. The way he left the room earned 37,000 upvotes in the subreddit “Mildly Infuriating.”
“He left the entire closet full of clothes plus an entire CAR DOOR. There are too many pairs of dirty underwear scattered around the room. My husband found a few things he thought went missing, turns out the roommate had taken them, like a backpack my husband’s friend bought him a while back—and medicine for our son.
“He kept his cat locked in the room and would leave for days, and left us all of the litter and even a piece of cat sh*t on the floor! Love that! At least for his parting gift, he cleaned the litter. And dumped it. Without a bag. Into our recycle bin,” the OP wrote.
The image accompanying the post showed the aftermath of the stay: a cluttered, dirty room with cat litter scattered on the floor.
Expert Insight
Brian Rudderow, a Real Estate Investor at HBR Colorado, told Newsweek: “They could file a civil lawsuit without hiring an attorney to sue for the half-month rent. This would be the best option since hiring an attorney isn’t worth it for a relatively small claim.
“They could drop off the previous tenant’s belongings at a consignment company to liquidate the assets instead of being forced to sell them on their own.”
Stock image showing a messy room. Stock image showing a messy room. Yukikae4b/iStock / Getty Images Plus
Reddit Reacts
Redditors weighed in with strong reactions to the mess, and made suggestions on what the OP should do.
“Charge him a cleaning fee as well. Edit: it’s called small claims court,” said one viewer.
“He did not want to pay for storage or pay to haul it away. Now you have to or have a sale,” said one user.
“Pay somebody to take it all to Goodwill for you and add that cost to what he owes you. You’re not a liquidator, it’s not your job to sell his bulls***, it’s not an asset to you, it’s a liability,” said another.
“He doesn’t deserve the cat, locking her in the room like that for days,” one user wrote. “That breaks my heart,” said another.
Newsweek reached out to u/notasinglethought for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.
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