If all roommates were like the cast of ‘Friends’ or ‘Seinfeld,’ the world would be a much better place. Witty, generous, and kind, these people would have your back no matter what arguments you get into. Alas! Real life isn’t like our fave TV shows. And some roommates are the stuff of nightmares that we wouldn’t wish even on our very worst frenemies.
Redditor u/Jman1994678 asked the internet to spill the tea about their very worst roommate experiences, and the stories are as captivating as they are atrocious. Seriously, it’s the kind of stuff that makes you consider living alone in a fairytale cabin in the middle of the woods, away from society. Grab your Unsee Juice™ and check out the most horrible roommate stories below, Pandas.
We got in touch with the author of the thread, u/Jman1994678, and they were happy to share their thoughts on dealing with awful roommates. You’ll find Bored Panda’s full interview with them below.
#1
Dude killed my pet rabbit because he was jealous of the time I spent with it. Needless to say he stopped being my roommate that day.
Image credits: huiscloslaqueue
The author of the viral thread, redditor u/Jman1994678, opened up about what inspired them to ask the question on the internet in the first place. According to them, they remembered their own college days.
“I was meeting up with my college roommate and we were reminiscing about the good old days with our other roommate,” they shared with Bored Panda.
According to the OP, one of the best things anyone can do before moving in together is to explain where their boundaries lie so that everyone’s on the same page.
“Mention your boundaries before you sign the lease. And be very clear on them,” u/Jman1994678 stressed the importance of open, honest, and upfront communication.
#2
She poisoned my food. She started out with “harmless” pranks like putting salt in my jello before it set. Then she put bleach in my pasta water like I wouldn’t f*****g smell bleach noodles. She would steal my underwear, wear them during that time of the month, and put them back in my underwear drawer unwashed.
I spent YEARS f****d up. Being afraid of food and people. I already had a bad relationship with food because of my mom. This made it so I wouldn’t eat at restaurants, or my friends’ food they cooked to share, or eat anything that wasn’t in a tightly sealed package.
Image credits: Nuttonbutton
#3
I lived in a house with a guy who let his friend hide from the cops in our basement. The friend had shot and killed 2 people in a robbery.
Image credits: MikeNoble91
“People think that roommates can be fun, they definitely can be, but you really don’t know who someone is until you live with them even if it’s your best friend,” u/Jman1994678 warned that nobody should be romanticizing life with a roommate before they’ve actually moved in together.
“If your roommate is out of control, tell your landlord immediately and get some authority involved,” they suggested how someone might want to handle tougher situations.
“If that landlord doesn’t care, try finding a sub-leaser immediately. Know your laws as a lessee.”
#4
Shared a quad in college with a girl named Monica. She was fine in the beginning but then began doing things like hiding the toilet paper, trying to limit how much time we spent in the shared living room, allowed a homeless man to sleep on the sofa and hoarded cutlery. She decided she wanted to be a vampire and had her teeth filed into points.. at the end of the year we started referring to her as “Demonica “.
Image credits: goodgirlgonebad75
#5
Dude told me my majesty palm tree was fine in the apartment common area after I asked him if it was cool. I was rinsing my dishes in the sink later that same night, and he barreled out of his room in full, unhinged temper tantrum mode, screaming I WANT ALL YOUR PLANTS OUT OF HERE TOMORROW YOU NASTY B***H, started kicking/hitting my plants and threatening to throw them off the balcony. I was legit worried he’d try to throw me off the balcony next. This was a grown a*s man in his thirties. Yeah I was outta there after that night. I live alone in peace with my plants now where they don’t get kicked
Image credits: dumpsterbaby_666
#6
I called to ask if he had his half of the rent and he informed me that he was on I95, headed back to his hometown of Virginia. Dude cleared his s**t out of the apartment and dipped with no warning.
Image credits: Mindofmierda90
We were curious to get the OP’s thoughts on the signs that someone might be great or a total nightmare to live with.
“How they live at home can be a really good indicator how they’ll be as a roommate,” they shared some advice with Bored Panda.
“When looking for a roommate watch for things like hygiene, drug usage, and overall mental health. And do NOT be afraid to say no and speak up. If erratic behavior continues without consequences they’ll just keep doing it.”
Roommates are no different than all the other people in your life: you have to create and enforce boundaries in order to have healthy relationships with them. Nobody else is going to do that for you. So how much you’re willing to tolerate when it comes to inappropriate (and sometimes even frankly disgusting) behavior comes down to you.
#7
Dude kept falling asleep while smoking cigarettes. I got mad every time and woke him up. He bought me a fire extinguisher at a yard sale one day. He thought it was best joke ever. He fell asleep on night on the couch. Cigarettes rolled off on to the carpet. Carpet caught fire, couch caught fire, his shirt catches fire. He never woke up. I woke up, having smelled it. Grabbed his gag gift and put it all out. His shirt and hair were GONE. He was okay. Never even went to the hospital, but he absolutely would have died of I hadn’t been there and had that fire extinguisher beside my bed. I moved immediately.
Image credits: 1lazylady
#8
You know Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory ? Exactly like that guy but no where near as smart, but condescending, insulting, with boundary issues. Was there for two months and had to get out, or would have ended up with assault charges.
Image credits: SoloPogo
#9
My cousin and her family. They were DIRTY! Couldn’t walk in your socks on the carpet because your feet would stick to the carpet cause of all the spilled soda and beer that she never cleaned up. Her kids had lice so bad that one day I looked at the oldest girls hair and you could see the lice running around in her hair. I lived with them for three months but moved out after I saw those lice.
Image credits: m_nieto
You are, in effect, responsible for saying ‘enough is enough’ and starting those uncomfortable conversations when the trash is overflowing, when the music keeps pounding in the middle of the night, and when your roommates trample all over your dignity. In an ideal world, everyone would be self-aware and far more empathetic. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Kat Cohen, the CEO and Founder of college guidance company IvyWise, told CNBC that drafting a roommate contract can be very helpful. That way, everyone becomes aware of the house rules and responsibilities and learns about each other’s preferences. Say, how they feel about someone having unwanted visitors over. The best way to solve a problem is to preemptively avoid it altogether.
“An individual’s ability to be considerate of others and willingness to compromise are important determining factors as to whether he or she will be a good roommate or not,” Cohen explains that a person who is unwilling to relent and look for common ground may be very difficult to get along with, in all aspects of life.
#10
Came home to our power being shut off because the roommate we gave the money too wasn’t paying the bill. Thankfully her mom paid to have it turned back on for us. The roommate was spending it on drugs with her new bf.
Image credits: burrito_butt_fucker
#11
He was a big dude, 450lbs big, I lived with him for a year during college. He would sometimes have 3-4 days off from classes and weekends etc, and wouldn’t shower at all. He would sit on his computer and just stink up the whole apartment with his BO. Just absolutely awful.
Image credits: Rukawork
#12
He got drunk with the neighbors then accused them of stealing his cellphone. Then he slashed their tires. I woke up to the neighbors banging on my door with guns but the little s**t had already left. His cellphone was in between some couch cushions in my house btw.
Image credits: ATXKLIPHURD
There’s a huge difference between someone who knows that they’re acting wrong and continues to do so, consequences be damned, and a person who is simply oblivious to the negative effects their behavior has on others. In the former case, you may want to consider living separately because having someone malicious and unkind as your roommate won’t bode well. (That is, unless they have a complete change of heart and decide to change everything about themselves, but let’s get real, breakthroughs like that don’t happen this quickly.)
In the latter case, however, there’s a lot more hope for a happy compromise. However, think about how you phrase your request, whether you’re talking about chores or surprise nighttime visitors. The less you make it seem like you’re attacking your roommate and their behavior, the more likely they’ll be to hear you out.
#13
He allowed his homeless friend to move in without my permission and didn’t tell me. After several weeks it became clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. This man would be super loud on Xbox live playing video games until 4am. He would leave awful messes in the common area. I assumed that my roommate didn’t want to tell me he was gay, and I felt uncomfortable confronting the 6 foot 5 300 pound man in my apartment sleeping over every night. Eventually I said something to my roommate, and he said “what do you mean, he does pay rent!” Apparently he thought it was fine to let his friend move in and split their part of the rent 50/50 without even talking to me about it.
Then I overheard them talking, and after finding out I was trying to get this guy kicked out, he said that he was going to take care of me by “putting something in the jug of sweet tea I had in the fridge”. I moved out the same day and filed a police report.
Image credits: mcnuggets0069
#14
He got a cat from a friend. Never spayed the cat. Cat got pregnant and had two kittens. Then he got a big dog. Still hadn’t gotten the cat spayed. Cat had three more kittens. When the kittens were still nursing, he packed up his stuff to move up north and left all seven animals behind.
Image credits: eightdollarbeer
#15
I had one that would just straight up steal my stuff.
One that brought home 2 rats as pets, and we ended up with 29 rats in what felt like no time at all.
Image credits: Ok-Cheetah-9125
Remember that your goal is to solve the problem, not rage at your God-awful roommate. You want (and need!) them to compromise, so you need to be willing to hear out their side of things and be somewhat flexible to accommodate their wishes. Be friendly but firm, direct but diplomatic. Nobody’s perfect and there’s bound to be friction when living with someone else, after all—but common sense rules still need to be followed.
Obviously, in some cases, you simply won’t find a compromise. Or there’s just too much miscommunication going on. You should definitely consider asking a mediator to step in. If you’re living in a college dorm, for instance, you could ask one of the uni’s reps to help solve the issue. Meanwhile, if you’re renting a proper house or apartment, you may want to ask a third roommate to mediate, before you ask your landlord to step in.
#16
First night in the new shared apartment I was renting, my landlord slept on the floor in my living room on a rug. I thought that was weird but I was not in a position to argue, as I really needed a place to live. Then, over the next couple of months, my landlord moved in and brought over 8 family members from Turkmenistan, including a newborn baby, and they all lived in 2 bedrooms (and by bedrooms I mean one was the living room!!). When I complained, they locked me out of the apartment. I called the police who let me in and scolded the family. It was a nightmare. I finally got out of there and never looked back.
Image credits: LauraPa1mer
#17
She would constantly bring strange men over. Like strangers/literally strange men. Weekly to almost daily. I asked her to either stop or at least vet a few of them beforehand because I didn’t like all these weirdos parading through our house past our expensive electronics and the hefty amounts of pot I used to keep on hand. I recall an argument I had with her about not being selective with the company she kept, and I screamed at her “Do you want me to have to call your mother to tell her you were murdered by some psycho?!” She calmed down a little after that, and soon after I moved out she did finally find a nice man to settle down with.
Oh and for some reason whenever she did the dishes they always felt greasy after??
Image credits: bananicoot
#18
My roommate in the barracks in the army was disgusting. He would sleep in his Physical Training (PT) uniform (the uniform we exercise in). Then, when he woke up, he would go to PT and exercise and sweat. After that, he would not shower, he would put on his daily uniform and leave his PT shorts on as underwear. At the end of the day he would get back down to his PTs for the evening and eventually going to bed. The only difference on non-workdays was that he wore his civilian clothes over his PTs as underwear. He also would not brush his teeth because he believed that if you brush your teeth you destroyed their protective coating (plaque) which is what forced you to continue brushing your teeth, the rest of your life.
Image credits: hawkmech67
#19
I roomed with a couple that hid their pregnancy from me until I signed the lease.
They knew they were expecting but also knew that nobody wanted to live with an infant. It was another 5 months of living there after it was born.
They were the worst f*****g roommates beyond that, too. That was just their biggest offense.
Image credits: faceboobs701
#20
I lived with a girl in college who let her dad pay for everything. He was putting thousands down on her tuition and she never went to class, was failing and had to change her major like 4 times, and to this day I don’t really think she managed to graduate.
So she decided to get a puppy without asking, didn’t train him, had her bf and dad send her money for him. The dog ruined so much furniture and was just a general nuisance. I liked going for walks so I took him out more than she did.
She eventually got engaged to her boyfriend, who was in the process of becoming a marine and on the other side of the country. When we turned 21, we’d go to bars and she’d ask me to hold her engagement ring so she could try and get free drinks or because she “didn’t want to lose it”. Sometimes I put it on hoping men would avoid me lol.
Ended up in a huge fight between her, our other roomate, and myself over petty drama. Last I heard her wedding was cancelled because she cheated on her marine boyfriend and got pregnant with a guy who already had a kid. Still don’t think she got her *COMPLETELY FREE* degree either.
Image credits: sadsporkyy
#21
I have a few but one really stands out. I was living with 7 guys in a 4 bedroom house in SF, 1 bathroom. Worst place I ever lived, covered in mold, rats everywhere, etc (was cheap and we were broke). Was actually super fun until “Jason” moved in. Jason must have been on the spectrum which I was sympathetic to, but it didn’t make living with him any easier.
* First night he came into the kitchen from a run wearing nothing but short shorts, grabbed my milk from the fridge, must have been 1/2 galloon in there, chugged the whole thing straight to the dome. Then put the milk back in the fridge and asked “is there any more milk”
* Used other people’s towels. When we told him “this isn’t an airbnb, we each have our own towel” he stopped using a towel at all and just walked around buck naked dripping shower water
* Ranted for hours, alternating between extreme delusions of grandeur (I am the greatest financier to ever live) and extreme self loathing (I am worth less than a cockroach)
* Got kicked out of his coding bootcamp, presumably for behavioral reasons, so started walking around the house all day. When we would come home from work everything would be moved around, including in our rooms. Nothing ever went missing, it was just like he’s been in our rooms and tried to make us not notice. To this day I shudder to think what he was doing in there
In the end we took the coward’s way out. The rest of us just moved together to a new house and told him the lease was ending. He was only there for a month. He moved in on the first, and moved out on the last day of the month. He argued that – since he didn’t *sleep* in the apartment the last day of the month he was owed rent back for that last day. We tried to explain that when you rent an apartment you pay the entire month, and when you leave you move out on the last day of the month. I was the master tenant at the time and wanted to just give him the $30 and be done with it, but another roommate insisted I shouldn’t do that. He continued to email me for *months* calling me all kinds of horrible things.
Image credits: Whatever801
#22
F*****g *Em* (not her real name)*.* The most aggressive “zen” hippy you ever met. She was all sunshine and flowers until you dared to, I dunno, asked her to do her goddamn dishes or pay rent on time. Then she would be screaming in your face. And it was never *her* fault, oh no; her energy was too *good,* it was *your* negative energy making her act this way, how dare you do this to her.
We were all relieved when she lost her job and announced she was moving back home…but apparently she didn’t understand how a lease works until the landlord let her know she was still on the hook for rent if we couldn’t find a replacement. So she started inviting creepy random guys into our home without letting the rest of us (all twenty-something girls), know what was going on or who they were (at the same time were actively searching for a replacement). She was apoplectic when we put a stop to *that* plan.
You were the f*****g worst, Em.
Image credits: alliegata
#23
She never cleaned dishes and would leave them until they get REALLY moldy like multi color colonies that are 4 inches tall. Everybody used to do her dishes but then we stopped and kept putting them on her bed. To which she put the f*****g dishes on the ground of her bed. She was a proud alcoholic and would constantly cause issues around the house as well as lock other roommates out and barricade doors if someone made her upset. Baby s**t. AND another different one the year after was some kid who was generally a nuisance but one night he got kicked out of a party and drove his car into a few other cars in the lot, a couple people, and drove right into an apartment complex busting the gas pipes so they had to literally move people out into hotels for a while. He turned himself in the next day.
Image credits: MobiusAzarath
#24
Freshman year of college- she came back drunk night 5 and p***ed on our carpet and some of my clothes. Then in the morning she denied all of it despite the room smelling like p**s. She would have random guys over constantly and f**k them with me in the room (even though she had a bf). She ended up getting arrested twice during the first semester (she had painkillers that were not hers and she got a marijuana charge lmao). She was pure chaos and ended up in academic poor standing since she literally never went to class. The second semester her parents required her to come home every single weekend so it made things much nicer lol.
Image credits: Clementinequeen95
#25
College roommate- we were in the same room (2 beds) for the first year.
She was extremely insecure and needed to have freshly washed and blow dried hair for every class.
So for her 8am class she was blow drying her hair in our room at 5am waking me up every week.
I tried to have a talk with her saying hey it’s a loud blow dryer you’re waking me up and I’m tired all day because 5am is too early for me. Can you please blow dry your hair in the bathroom atleast?
“No!! The mirror isn’t big enough!!!”
What about using my blow dryer? It’s quieter
“No!! Mine is ionic and cuts down on frizz!!”
How about doing your hair the night before so you don’t do it at 5AM?
“NO! My hair gets RUINED in my sleep!!!”
Well you know no one is going to notice your hair that much for an 8am class
“NO!! I notice my hair!!!”
Her solution was for me to wear earplugs in my sleep. I said no ear plugs will be able to drown out her loud blow dryer and besides they will just fall out in my sleep…
Anyway she cried. She cried to everyone. I was evil.
I tried to switch rooms saying it’s affecting my academic performance (it was). They refused saying we need to work together. The floor don talked to her and later told me she’s so insecure about her hair probably because she is not healthy (she was alluding to her weight/obesity)..
Anyway let’s just say I was excited to move out at the end of the year
Image credits: ApricotWeekly7946
#26
One of my roommates worked for trugreen Lawn care and signed me up for service without my knowledge. We lived in a house and their was 4 of us. Somehow he got the bright idea to steal some of my information and sign me up. I owed hundreds of dollars to trugreen and they sent me to collections.
I was pissed. I called trugreen and told them what happened after weeks of trying to get the problem solved and talking to multiple people they finnaly closed my account. And fired my roommate.
Well then he lived there free loading for months. I finally moved out of that place and never had a roommate again.
Image credits: junctionalMustard
#27
I was in college. Was sleeping and heard a banging on the door. I had just woken up and hadn’t heard anything said, just heard the banging and figured my idiot roommate locked himself out or something. I dunno. I was woken up by banging. I got up and unlocked the door and opened it a bit before walking away without looking at all. I was groggy and young and had it in my head that it was just him. Suddenly there’s a flashlight on me and I put my hands up. It was the cops. Apparently, my roommate was shooting bottle rockets at the neighbor’s house with his friends and came back into the apartment to hide in his room while I was sleeping. F****n idiot. At some point later on after we weren’t roommates anymore I found out he had been charged with a hit and run and sexual assault. Not sure the specifics and I doubt they were at the same time. He was that kind of guy. I spent most of my time out of the apartment when possible.
Image credits: leonprimrose
#28
Asked if I could switch dorms so his brother can be his mate, checked out the other room and it was so dirty you couldn’t see the floor and it stunk like a generic boys locker room. Poor guy was stuck with 2 offensive linemen.
Told the dude no thanks and they spent the semester threatening me and always waking me up in the middle of the night with keys or turning on the lights, playing music etc. At like 12-2am when I had 5am practices every morning.
They apparently talked about jumping me to their group of friends who happened to include a mutual friend on my friend and they let me know. I was able to switch dorms to another building and the RD made sure they couldn’t move in together. They both lost their scholarships the next semester for bad grades.
Image credits: EthiopianObesity
#29
This crazy, entitled, hypocritical spoiled brat of a person I was assigned in a college apartment. Everything was fine until I offered to buy a wireless router for all three of us to share. She agreed to split the cost, but then when it came out to $20 each she threw a huge fit. She refused to pay, so I refused to give her the password. She got in my face and screamed at me, but I didn’t flinch (I’m a foot taller than her and I had just gotten out of the Army lol). Then she took all of her stuff out of the common areas. Whatever.
One day I needed to do dishes and her stuff had been in the dishwasher for days, so I finally just took it all out and put my stuff in instead. I came home to find all of my dishes in the sink again, covered in maple syrup. So petty and gross.
Another time, I accidentally threw a single can in her trash can instead of mine. She came out on the balcony screaming at me and threw it off the third floor, where it hit my car and dented it.
The final straw that caused me to move out early: we all smoked weed, including her and her boyfriend, but one day she called the cops on me for it. Thankfully I heard her on the phone with them, so I took anything incriminating and left before they got there. Most of it was my boyfriend’s anyway, but until then my place was cooler than his. I just left it all there until I was able to move.
She also got in huge screaming fights with her boyfriend and smashed his laptop and phone, so I guess I should’ve expected the worst from her.
Image credits: dibbiluncan
#30
Lived in a house share for 7 years so have a few stories.
2 that are tied for the worst.
First was a guy who had skin issues, refused to get help, shed flakes everywhere, shower, sink, toilet.
Ended up in the washing machine too when he did his washing, which ultimately ended up in everyone else’s clothes when they did washing.
I felt sorry for the dude, super intelligent, kind, happy and friendly. Just didn’t look after himself.
Second was a guy who lied about his job, never went to whatever it was, and regularly got up during the early hours to randomly scream at the top of his lungs and bang all the walls, the floor and ceiling in his room to ensure it woke everyone up.
Hated the dude for this, and hated the fact he used my car as a bench when he went out to smoke. Would roll his eyes at me when I politely asked him to not sit on my car.
Image credits: DarkGinnel