off-campus finances among roommate -- suggestions?

Peachy267
Fri, 15 May 2009 16:15:13 +0000

This is a problem near and dear to my heart as my daughter just finished her first year (junior) living off campus in a rented house with 3 other girls. Girls 2 and 3 were teammates on her swim team, the 4th was on another team with girl 3. Confused yet? lol Anyway, 3 & 4 had shared this same house the previous year with 2 girls who graduated and my daughter and girl 2 moved in with them this year. Suffice it to say there were big monetary problems. Each girl was responsible for one thing… electric, cable, internet hookup and heat. My daugher got stuck with oil bills cause no one else’s parents would give their credit card to ensure the delivery. We couldn’t let our daughter go without heat so we paid for 3 oil deliveries through the winter. Girl 2 paid promptly. Girls 3 & 4 claimed financial issues… ie loan hasn’t come through yet, parents don’t have the money etc. Finally, I told my daughter to stop paying her portion of whatever they were responsible for and deduct it from what they owed for oil. My husband offered to let them pay monthly, weekly, anything to get paid. I wanted to call their parents but daughter was too embarrassed to let me do this. Finally, she told them we were so angry we were taking any money they owed out of her bank account! Must have done the trick cause they finally paid last week. I guess they didn’t mind stiffing us for the $$, but finally got a conscience cause they didn’t want their friend to suffer. Needless to say she is not living with either of those girls next year!