I’m not sure what interviewing the roommate has to do with the landlady. As for the roomate, whether you can get rid of him depends if his name is on the rental agreement. If not you might beable to. I say might because you live in a pretty management hostile area of the country. If the problem with the landlady is spelled out in the rental agreement and you signed it, you’ve not nothing to complain about as you had the opportunity to read it beforehand. If on the other hand it’s not in the agreement then you’ve got a lot of sisters:).
Landlord’s a fundamentalist, Roommate’s wacky - Posted by Michael
Posted by Michael on December 07, 1999 at 06:33:19:
Briefly, I’m a grad student in architecture at MIT and plan to get my feet wet in RE in the Spring after attending the conference in Feburary. In the meantime I’ve a question which may be out of bounds for this forum. If so , I apologize, but I thought I might nonetheless find some salient advice here.
I share an apartment with someone in an owner occupied three unit building in a good location for a very good price. After ‘interviewing’ the roommate, explicitly asking him if there were any special conditions about which I should know, (answer: negative) and comitting, I learned from the landlady who lives downstairs, that “no female overnight guests were allowed, except of course my mother or sister”(!!!)
On top of that, my roommate, who had declared himself a computer programmer, is in fact a 33 year old unemployed mama’s boy who lives off of his parents considerable income and does NOTHING but play video games and watch TV ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.
In short, it would be a shame to give up the apartment and have to pay at least 50% more for something comprable.
Any ideas?
Re: Landlord’s a fundamentalist, Roommate’s wacky - Posted by Bert G
Posted by Bert G on December 07, 1999 at 14:16:33:
I’m no lawyer, but----
If the unit is an actual “apartment”, and not just a sleeping room, that female guest rule may be illegal. It is discrimination based on familial status, and a breach of your “quiet enjoyment” of the premises. (It doesn’t mean feredom from noise, it means you can do anything you’ld normally legally do in your home without peopole harrassing you.)
There’s been some talk lately in some states about the conflict between State laws prohibiting unmarried cohabitation, and Federal laws saying landlords can’t discriminate against unmarried couples.
Again, not a lawyer, just based on what I’ve read.
BG
Posted by Dave T on December 07, 1999 at 12:15:58:
You mentioned that the apartment is offered to you at a great price for the area. I assume that you are not in a financial position to get an apartment by yourself and therefore you need to share an apartment to hold down expenses.
Even though you raise an objection to the overnight female guest restriction, I get a sense that your real complaint is with the roomate. So what if your roomate has external means of support? So what if he plays video games and watches TV all day? Do these activities impair your roommate’s ability to pay the rent on time? Do these activities impair your roomate’s ability to hold up his share of the housework?
Isn’t the real issue that the roommate’s lifestyle is not compatable with your work ethic?