Friends from college can either become lifelong relationships, or a nightmare story you remember forever.
TikTok user Lee Felix (@ferlyp) went viral when she shared how one of her ex-best friends, who she rented a room from, kicked her out while they were vacationing together. Users were captivated by her tale and quickly demanded a part two.
The first video was viewed over 1.8 million times. “Let me tell you guys about how my roommate/bestie/landlord didn’t tell me and our other roommate about the fact that she was going to kick us out in 2 weeks until we were all safely away on a vacation in Colorado,” Lee begins.
Lee proceeds to give viewers the backstory before discussing the incident in Colorado. She had two roommates, who she calls “Angel” and “Assh*le,” who were both international students. Assh*le’s parents bought her a house so she had a place to live while she was studying. Although Assh*le had a brother in the country, he was in a different state and was not living with her, so the parents suggested that she rent the other rooms to friends.
“All three of us lived in perfect harmony,” Lee explains. “We were like besties. I had recently moved in just a couple months earlier, but roommate Angel, she had been with roommate Assh*le for years.”
“We were so close,” the TikToker recalls. “We would like be cooking together, we would be watching all of our same shows together, we would go out together constantly, we would talk about our toxic church together … We would trauma bond about sh*t.”
Lee continues to explain how their friendship transcended the tenant-landlord relationship: “Yeah roommate Assh*le was our landlord but it never felt that way too much … I feel like we kinda loved each other as friends.”
But the relationship took a turn when the three roommates took a trip to Colorado in early 2021.
“The trip was going swimmingly,” Lee said, but while hiking, wine tasting, and sightseeing in Denver, she and Angel noticed a change in their landlord’s demeanor. It wasn’t until the roommate’s expression grew troubled during a conversation with her parents that Lee and Angel asked what was going on.
“She hung up the phone and she just like looked really, really sad, and so I was like ‘Um hey Assh*le, what’s wrong?’”
Her landlord then responded, “Do you guys really wanna know?”
Lee says that Assh*le then told them that her brother was moving in and that the roommates had to be out of the house in two weeks. To make matters worse, Assh*ole had known this was a possibility for months. but decided not to say anything until the last minute.
Lee summed up the situation in part two of her story, which garnered over 287,000 views as of publication. “She had not told us a single word about it, even though she knew that him coming in meant we would literally be homeless.”
Most viewers were aghast at Lee’s former friend’s behavior.
“It’s one thing to tell y’all months in advance, but 2 WEEKS?!?! ThTs actually evil,” a user said.
“The roomie [bestie] landlord combo is lethalllllll. Landlords gonna landlord but it hurts so much when u thought that was ur friend!!!!!!!!” another agreed.
“If there were 3 bedrooms, why two of you couldn’t at least share one of them?? Why kicking out both if only one person moving in? That’s so stupid,” a third wondered.
Some tried to empathize with the former friend’s position.
“I kinda feel bad like it wasnt her fault her parents were making her.. but she also didn’t tell u if she already knew,” one said.
“Could it be her parents own the property and they told her what’s what and she didn’t have a choice?” a second added.
There are many pros and cons to being friends with your landlord. Pros include quick repairs, a better chance of rent stabilization, and feeling like you live with family rather than strangers. The cons, though, may outweigh the pros. A friendship with your landlord can also mean a lack of repairs because you’re pals, less concern about your complaints, and their money issues becoming your problem.
A way to mitigate the chances of a fallout between friends and an untimely eviction is to document everything. Get a detailed lease and work through some addendums so boundaries are upheld. Take pictures when you need repairs, and only make written requests so there’s a paper trail. At the very least, documenting your interactions with your landlord gives you a better chance at restitution if something goes wrong.
The Daily Dot reached out to Lee via email for further information.
