Roomate My partner and I have been forced out of our home by violent roommate

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aleksandr

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My partner and I began renting a bedroom in a two-bedroom house one year ago. A few months later, the man renting the 2nd bedroom moved out and the landlord asked us to meet with a new roommate who was seeking to rent the vacant room. We all had dinner together and we approved of the new roommate. He moved in and we all got along for several months. In the beginning of June, the new roommate began to exhibit disrespectful behavior, leaving the kitchen a mess, allowing his dogs to urinate and defecate in common areas of the house, stomping around and slamming doors and shouting nonsense - including doing damage to the front door frame so it no longer locks, leaving the bathtub drain clogged and the tub dull of grey dirty and smelly water, among other things. One day he got sick and left a mess of his feces covering the toilet seat and bathroom floor. Instead of cleaning it up, he left it and went to work. When he returned, my partner and the landlord confronted him and asked that he clean up his mess and to stop leaving such messes in the common areas of the house. He reacted violently, throwing a beer can at my partner's head and leaving a welt, and calling him a "faggot." Since then he began harassing us constantly, and it reached a level where we were afraid to leave our bedroom even to use the bathroom. This man is a tall and muscular former marine who often threatens to "take care of" us or "get his gun". He has begun playing homophobic radio talk shows and songs loudly so the entire house can hear it in the middle of the night when we are trying to sleep, or while I am getting ready for work. We live in Los Angeles and the police here do not want to be bothered with this. We have called them multiple times when both he and his girlfriend were threatening violence, and they finally told us if we called one more time and bothered them they would arrest US!! The roommate has convinced the police that he rents the entire house and is now demanding that we pay rent to him! At this point we have been forced to leave the home and stay with friends. We do not have enough money to find an apartment of our own and are afraid to go back to the house because we have no way to protect ourselves from violence. Our landlord is on our side (he has also been assaulted and threatened) but the roommate has lied to the police to obtain a restraining order and now our landlord cannot come to the property, so we are left on our own to deal with this. I have reached out to community organizations and lawyer referrals but they have ignored our requests for help. I am posting here in utter desperation hoping someone can offer advice or point us in the right direction. We are 5 days away from becoming homeless. Please help!
 
You say you've tried everything.
It isn't working. It hasn't worked. If what you say is true, I'd move. Your life versus your junk. I'd choose my life.
And, live in your own apartment. You're adults. You don't need roommates.
 
What you describe is not a matter for police... other than the assault with the can.
You have likely been told multiple times to either put up with it or move out. Those are your options.
Your landlord has the option of evicting the roommate. Maybe you can persuade him to get that going.
 
Yeah I figured posting here I'd get these kind of negative replies. So here's my response to you..

#### YOU.

"Just deal with it" "You're adults"

#### YOU

Last night a psycho just like this walked into a movie theatre with a bunch of guns and killed twelve people. No doubt all of the people who complained about this guy were told to just "put up with it"

so I say again

#### YOU

GO TO HELL

I HAVE ANOTHER OPTION ###### - I CAN BURN DOWN THE HOUSE, OR THE ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD.... MAYBE I CAN EVEN BURN DOWN THE ####### CITY
 
aleksandr said:
Yeah I figured posting here I'd get these kind of negative replies. So here's my response to you..
#### YOU.
"Just deal with it" "You're adults"
......
I HAVE ANOTHER OPTION ###### - I CAN BURN DOWN THE HOUSE, OR THE ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD.... MAYBE I CAN EVEN BURN DOWN THE ####### CITY
Click to expand...
Have you ever considered that you are part of the problem? Do you even realize how disrespectful you are of people you don't know who told you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear. Now here are the facts:

1. If your landlord is supposedly on your side, then why isn't your landlord calling the police and moving to evict this unruly co-tenant? Now if you're subleasing the room since you've rented the house, why aren't you evicting the tenant?

2. So you have a lease but you're expecting us to believe that this subtenant has convinced the police you should pay him rent - based upon what? Why would the police get involved? What have they done to get involved? What are you worried about if you're the one with a lease AND you have a landlord willing to testify that this subtenant is a problem?

3. The landlord owns the property. How can he be precluded from going near the property? There is something you're not telling us, especially since now there's a restraining order been filed against someone and we haven't heard about this either.

Here's another option - you can get mad, yell, scream and threaten to burn down the neighborhood. You will be arrested. You will have an even bigger problem than you have right now. You've got someone disrespectful living in your home and you take it out on members here who actually told you your best options if you're not willing to do what you have to do. Nobody else is going to spend their time and money if you're not going to do the basics -- and tell us the whole story about how the above can happen.
 
No offense intended- was just repeating the same options you have certainly already been given.
You need to understand that this isn't a matter of the police refusing to help you. This simply isn't a matter in which police have authority to act (other than the can incident).
Your landlord is the one with control over the situation. Convince your landlord to take action. You either live with the way things are or go somewhere that you are more comfortable.
 
One of the things you should have learned somewhere between kindergarten and getting ripped off on your first car was that you need to pick and choose your battles. Lets analyze this one. 1. Your co-renter hates you. 2. Your landlord is weak, scared and apathetic. 3. The police are apathetic. 4. You have anger issues. 5. You are not forced due some long term contract or legal requirement to stay in this home. Hmmmm, Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
 
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