Considering A Roommate? Here Is Why You Shouldn’t

Two focuses of my blog are Health/Wellness and Home/Living Discussions. There are numerous advantages to having a roommate. On the flipside, there can also be several disadvantages. Either way you should weigh things before taking one on. The following contributed post is entitled, Considering A Roommate? Here Is Why You Shouldn’t.

* * *

When you are considering renting an apartment you may have already thought about the fact that you might not be able to manage the whole rent by yourself. Most people don’t, which is why they choose to get a roommate. There are plenty of pros and cons to living with somebody else, and usually people choose a close friend, a sibling, a family member or even a partner to live with rather than choosing a total stranger. A roommate is supposed to be somebody who occupies the same room as another person, but it’s an evolved word now and it now means somebody who shares a home or an apartment. The problem is that having a roommate can be the best part of apartment living, but it can also be a nightmare.

If you have chosen to get a joint tenancy with a friend or family member you won’t need to worry about this too much but having a roommate can be a complete nightmare if you two are complete strangers. There are plenty of pros to having a roommate such as sharing the rent and saving money on utilities, you also could have somebody there who could end up being a wonderful friend. The cons are what we’re going to focus on in this article so here is why you shouldn’t have a roommate.

Image source: Pexels

● They could miss their rent. When you split the rental payment with a roommate, they are responsible for their share and you are responsible for yours however, you are not able to force them to pay their share of the rent which means that if they miss their payment, you are on the hook for it. When this happens, you might find that you are unable to keep up with their payments and you could lose your home as a result.
● They make a mess. If you are rooming with a stranger, you don’t know their living habits until you live with them. So if they are messy human beings you’re not going to find out until after you’ve moved in. If this is the case, living together maybe untenable for you because there’s nothing worse than trying to clean up your mess and having somebody else dumping even more on top. If you know your roommate before you move in and they are a messy person at least you can come to an agreement, but you can’t really do that with a stranger that you don’t know.
● You may not get along. You can’t live a life of misery, and that’s the result if you let move in together with somebody you don’t know. There’s a good chance that you may not get along, and that can make for a very uncomfortable living situation. You must be careful whom you choose as your roommate, and if you are romantically attracted to them, you shouldn’t be moving in with them.
● You lose privacy. The last reason to say no to having a roommate who you don’t know is that you will lose your privacy. Your bedroom may end up being the only place that you can go to alone, and if there are boundary issues that can even be a factor to consider. it may be worth you researching to see if any of your friends require a roommate, or if they need housing. This way, you can feel safer.