Repercussions Persist

Updated!! (See below.)

When a crisis occurs you often hear people console you with the phrase, "Things will get worse before they get better." I just wish I knew how much worse.

My roommates are no longer comfortable with our living arrangement. They disagree with how I have handled the situation. (See bottom of post for one of their thoughts on how I behaved during the intial weeks following the threat.) Initially they decided that it would be best if I simply move. They intended to have another friend take over my part of the lease. I then expressed my desire to fulfill my lease term simply because I lacked the emotional energy to relocate so suddenly. I felt safe enough with Travis in jail to at least maintain my residence through the current lease term. However, they felt it necessary to convey that they were shocked that I would change my mind and stay. They went on to say that I shouldn't feel safe continuing to live there and that I could jeopardize the landlords chances at selling the house in the future if anything were to happen. Oh! And that they hadn't read the messages Travis had sent completely which was quite offensive to me. I felt that as a friend they kind of had an obligation to attempt to fully understand what I had went through especially if they were going to criticize my decisions. So refusing to read any of the messages or articles showed their lack of intent to fully understand.

Anyhow...I reluctantly seceded to moving out. Next thing I know they inform me that they will be changing the locks and that I needed to make arrangements with one of them to access my belongings. (!!!SRSLY!!!)

I was no longer shocked or hurt; I was angry. I informed them that changing the locks without providing a key to all persons of the lease was illegal. I also told them I would need time to find a new place and they just needed to bare with me as I intended to be out by the end of the month not the end of the week as they expected.

At this point I also called the landlord who lives out-of-state and informed him that my roommates threatened to change the locks. He was more than happy to let any of us remove ourselves from the lease as long as the terms were met by whomever remained on the lease. I told him I would get back to him with my decision to stay or go in the next day or so.

The next day the landlord calls and tells me that my roommates opted out of the lease and had in fact already vacated the house. He then asked if I would be able to uphold the lease solo. I was even more displeased at this decision by my roommates. I told the landlord that I wanted more than anything to have a little more time in the home, but that monetarily it would be quite a hardship. He also expressed that I was no longer an ideal tenant and he wanted to put the house up for sale. I was welcome to stay as long as I was on alert that I would have to vacate as soon as the house sold not to mention always be available to show the house to perspective buyers.

Fed up with both my roommates' and landlord's lack of sensitivity I informed the landlord that a law existed protecting my rights to put my safety first if I felt my life was in danger by remaining in the home. And if terminating my lease maintained my safety then I could not be penalized. I told him that I was being more than amicable in attempting to fulfill my end of the bargain, but my roommates were making it impossible since I was only responsible for a third of the rent and utilities thus far. Suddenly tripling your housing and utility expenses would be a hardship on anyone. He then decided that he had enough of the situation and simply asked that I be out of my home by the end of March.

Update 3/15: Today the landlord offered to let me abide by the lease. I told him I would like to stay in the home if at all possible, and upon returning to my home I find the roommates have indeed moved, but they took my couches. Isn't that basically 'looting'?

Update 3/16 5:00pm: After conveying that he expected me to abide by the lease, the landlord fails to answer or return my calls. I have not completely ironed out the details to my staying in the house and his lack of response worries me that he has, yet again, changed his mind.

Update 3/16 6:45pm: Still no answered or returned phone call. I have left messages everytime. So I decided that a call from another phone number will at least get him to answer the phone. And I feared that my roommates have the landlord convinced that I am the one at fault here. So my father offered to contact the landlord and try to mediate. So as much as I hated to, I played the daddy card. I am a grown woman but when the man won't even pick up my phone calls I wasn't left with too many options. Plus the couches were intended for my dad's house, and he was not happy that the landlord had given them away.

Update 3/16 7:00pm:While waiting for my dad to speak with the landlord I arrived at the house to find that the electricity had been shut off. Guess I'm won't be able to stay at my house tonight. When I first moved into the house I was without roommates and the landlord was comfortable with just leaving the utilities in his name and billing me for them. We did that for 3 or 4 months. The new roommates moved in and were not comfortable with not seeing the utility bills. So we all agreed to put the utilities in one of our names and since the roommates had service at their old place they could very easily just transfer it all over to their name. Well guess what now they have had the utilities turned off without giving me the chance to put them in my name or back in the landlord's name. I know this is exactly what the most homeowners prefer to avoid. So yet again an example of their lack of concern for the others involved in this lease.

Update 3/16 7:15pm:Fortunately, the end result of my father's conversation with the landlord was much more pleasant than I had expected. We didn't get a chance to mention the utilities debacle since my dad wasn't aware of it before he called him, but the landlord agreed to call the roommates and have them return the couches. He also agreed that I could stay in the home as long as it took me to find somewhere else to live. Remaining in the house for the full term of the lease isn't something the landlord is interested in though. He isn't comfortable with the instability that is now my life. He doesn't want to worry that I would be forced to move if something happens with this case and Travis gets out of jail. So it sounds like he is at least willing to meet in the middle with a compromise. So the ball is in my court as I need to phone the landlord myself and iron out the details, but he is at least willing to discuss things with me now and no longer expects that I will be out by the end of the month. So I am relieved.

In the meantime, I will be waiting to see if the roommates actually follow through with his request to return the couches.

Update 3/16 10:30pm: The couches have been returned!! However, the roommates refused to leave me the ONLY garage door opener and their copies of the house keys. They stated that they will be returning them to the landlord not to me. So this means that they will have a key to MY house for ten more days while waiting for the landlord to arrive from the east coast to pick up their keys. Oh how spiteful they continue to be and how powerful they must feel. I still can't believe how difficult they have made this situation.




Things that were said to me by my roommate after the threat:
"Our disconnect in the whole situation is due primarily to the reaction and your actions over the last 3 weeks. Whe we found out via the news, and confirmed with you via text, that you were moving, we did the sensible thing and made sure y...ou could move by us staying. We then assumed that was in action, and hadn't really heard from you regarding your plans.

To avoid pushing you to make such decisions while you were healing and working things out, we didn't message you to figure out when it was you were moving.

It was frustrating to witness how much energy you were putting into getting your story out to the media, responding to naysayers, and your supports on facebook.. and we weren't getting any feedback from you regarding the future and everybody's situation.

If your expectation in us keeping in touch and being informed was for us to try and fully understand what you went through and get involved like the others in responding to every facebook status you put out there and follow your news, that wasn't our way of dealing with it and felt that we observed the situation enough to know you were safe and sound.

Listen: We're not trying to be difficult and stupid. You made a decision and stuck with it as far as we knew. Until now, we didn't know you were going to want to stay.

Last we heard on text was your affirmation that you would be moving, that you apologized that we didn't know sooner, and you thanked us for our understanding.

We then consutled with (landlord name omitted), and you didn't make any effort to backtrack from that paradigm. So, any sense you have that we are holding you to a decision is your own notion and coming from something guilty or trapped. It's the conclusion you've arrived at for us all, if you can't get passed the way (name omitted) and I have reacted. We can understand why it is we didn't talk about these throughout. It was frustrating, yes, but we get it.

(Name omitted) and I aren't the type of people to go into the intimate details of things and try to support you in ways that are destructive in this situation. We didn't see the benefit to you in reading these messages and helping you get worked up about the situation. We wanted to be supportive in the ways that helped you get past it in terms of safety and future considerations.
If you expected what we couldn't give you, then our friendship didn't live up to your expectation and for that I'm sorry.

It sucks, but what can I say further?"