Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Before you read too much into this, yes, this really is a friend (and not me), as will become apparent from the story. That is, unless you believe I can't come up with $1500 to pay a lost bet.
The situation:
"Craig" works at a low-wage, crappy job, and unfortunately his co-workers are not the best quality people. Some of them have violent criminal backgrounds. It's a small company, so we're not talking about a low-wage job at a place like WalMart, where there is a big corporate structure over your head.
Anyway, Craig's boss "Mark" is pretty much one of those thugs, though I'm not particularly sure of his exact history.
Craig made various stupid prop bets with Mark, and got in the hole $1500. This added up quickly because he kept doing "double or nothing" and losing. Typically, Craig does not have a gambling problem, so this was surprising, but indeed that's what occurred. The bets themselves were legitimate. Craig was not tricked or scammed. He was just stupid and kept betting the losing side of things, and got way in the hole.
Craig was paying off something laughable like $30/week. After about 7 weeks of this, Mark grew frustrated and said that he wanted a quicker payoff, and came up with an idea to do it.
Mark has a friend, who also works at the same company, named "Joe". Joe is not a thug or a past criminal, but is rather more of perpetually broke guy who is horrible with money. Joe is in his mid-40s. Unlike Mark, on the surface he does not seem unpleasant or intimidating. For whatever reason, Joe is flat broke and is getting kicked out of his apartment on February 3rd.
In mid-January, Mark approached Craig with an idea. "Let Joe move in with you for free for one month, and then he'll start paying half the rent on March 1. If you do that, I will forgive the entire rest of the $1300 debt."
Craig, thinking that this was his way out of the debt without actually parting with money, agreed.
Craig told me the whole story yesterday, just 3 days before Joe was set to move in. I explained the big problems here:
1) Joe is very likely to NEVER pay a dime of rent, as he is clearly terrible with money, and I don't have faith that he will suddenly come up with his half of the rent on March 1 (or any time after).
2) In Los Angeles, where Craig lives, it is VERY hard to evict roommates. Joe could stretch this out for 4 months, living rent-free (if he knows what tricks to pull), before Craig could get rid of him.
Craig lives in a rent-controlled apartment, and he's been there for 20 years. He is getting a great buy on the apartment, so it would suck to move out and lose it. However, I will say that the apartment has gotten run down and even has some bug problems, so it wouldn't be the worst thing to leave, even if Craig has to live in a neighborhood that isn't as good. (His current apartment is in a great neighborhood.)
This is a tough one to decide what is the best advice for Craig.
If he welches on his agreement at this point, both Mark and Joe will be FURIOUS (since Joe is counting upon moving in there in 2 days), and because Craig has already agreed to this 3 weeks ago. He's also concerned what Mark will do to him physically if he welches.
At the same time, one Joe moves in, it will become an amazing hassle to ever get a penny out of him, and will highly likely lead to a contentious and difficult eviction.
After thinking a lot about this, I gave Craig the following advice:
"Let Joe move in, but be willing to lose the apartment forever if this goes bad. Basically, keep to your end of the bargain, but if Joe doesn't pay on March 1, ask him to leave. If he won't, then don't pay the rent, and both of you will be evicted. At that point, at least you'll be able to start fresh with a new apartment without the deadbeat roommate, and you won't have welched on anything."
Craig's credit (which will be harmed by an eviction) is not an issue here, because he already has horrible credit. It's just a matter of losing his long-term apartment.
What advice would you give Craig here?
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