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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to just leave their stuff?

152 replies

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 15:20

This is going to be massively outing, but sod it!

I live with my DP in a duplex flat. DP owns the flat, I'm not on the mortgage and I don't have a tenancy agreement (yes, I know, but I can't afford a solicitor to draw up an equity agreement and work part-time, still a student) At Christmas, DP's mate was planning to split up with his girlfriend and at my suggestion (to save him continuing to live with her to save money in spite of wanting to break up with her!) I said this mate should come and stay with us. In January, he split and moved in. In late February, DP asked whether I wanted to make it a longer-term thing. The mate (FM, flatmate!) started paying us rent and moved upstairs. He also doesn't have an official agreement.

I like FM. We've been friends for as long as I've known DP. We get on well, and back in January I was working really long hours and DP was studying so it was nice to have company and have someone to go to the pub with. He moans about DP a lot (they moan about each other) and because DP and I weren't getting along, it was nice to have someone who kind of knew where I was coming from. FM can be a bit sexist and direct, and he likes to explain things to me at length like my job but apart from that he's an alright guy.

And now he's been living here for months. We share cooking, shopping and bills between the three of us. FM and DP used to live together for a few years when I was at uni, and apparently have similar high standards for flat cleanliness. They expect the surfaces in the kitchen clean, cooker clean, all things put away and no 'clutter' at any time. FIY their old flat was a shithole and hardly ever met this standard.

FM doesn't like my cooking. He complains to DP all the time that I'm messy, or leave my stuff in the kitchen (laptop and shoes and things) or don't clean the cooker every night. DP agrees. FM is aggressive and mean to me one minute and then sweet as fuck the other times. He correct me during conversations, or argues with me about politics or whatever endlessly. He does the same to DP who will have 'a chat' about how I'm spoken to, yet simultaneously agree with him.

Last week, I'd gone out to a class, then come back and was sat working in the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't clean, granted, and I was making stuff for lunches for the week. FM came in from the gym, stood there with his arms folded for about five minutes then demanded that I clean the kitchen because he can't cook. I (probably badly) responded "don't cook then". He went for a shower, I cleaned the kitchen. He came back, started telling me I was rude, arrogant and disrespectful and should apologise for my comment. Then said that I didn't understand shared space, that I am messy, leave my stuff everywhere, and I'm childish. I left and went to work in a cafe. DP comes home, FM has told him that I stropped for half an hour because he'd reasonably asked me to clean up, and started being a bitch about it. DP came to the cafe and asked me to make peace and apologise! Later he said that he's often told me to clean up, and that I generally tend to throw a massive stop and pointedly don't clean just to piss him off. That I act like a twelve year old, moan about FM all the time and if I was just cleaner, neither of them would have a go at me.

I do the majority of the cleaning. I clean the bathroom and the kitchen and do the dishwasher and hoover and dust and shop... for the last two weeks I've been making sure absolutely none of my stuff is left anywhere (I've done this experiment a couple of times to "keep peace") and all the dishes, shoes, coats etc are FM's. He's left dishes out. Nobody's hoovered. I've cooked and nobody's been in to eat it. FM shaves in his bathroom and leaves hairs on the floor. I had to ask him three times to clean the bathroom because it hadn't been done for two months. DP hasn't cleaned anything apart from wiping the kitchen/cooker for three weeks and counting.

AIBU to just leave all the stuff to prove a point? DP thinks I'm being childish but it's his stuff left out too. They're as bad as each other and I'm fucking sick of being painted out to be the messy one!

OP posts:
Slightlyperturbedowlagain · 11/05/2018 15:22

Just move out and leave the pair of them, unless you enjoy being an unpaid housekeeper?

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 15:24

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... I've been with DP nearly a decade, lived together for four years. We've been in this flat for two years, viewed flats/furnished/decorated it together. DP has said from the start that even though I don't technically own it, we've bought it together.

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 11/05/2018 15:25

I couldn't live with either of those two. They sound like misogynistic pricks.

DalmatianDots · 11/05/2018 15:26

even though I don't technically own it, we've bought it together

Err, yes that's right. You do realise that isn't a good thing, don't you?

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 11/05/2018 15:27

Fuck that shit. I think your DP has shown his true colours and FM sounds like a tossed and you all sound like teenagers.
I wouldn't be wasting any more time in this situation and would be looking for somewhere else to live.

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 11/05/2018 15:27

*tosser

PorkyPortia · 11/05/2018 15:27

I think FM has outstayed his welcome

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 11/05/2018 15:29

Just seen your update. It's a hard lesson to learn but that's exactly why you should have had paperwork about ownership/equality from the start.

AskMeHow · 11/05/2018 15:29

I'd move out. Leave them to it. Forget the money you've put into the flat and just fuck the pair of them off. I wouldn't be spoken to like that and I wouldn't have a DP who let it happen either.

ohcecelia · 11/05/2018 15:30

I don't really understand why you'd have a friend move in with you and your DP if you've been together 10 years, but hey ho.

You shouldn't be cleaning up their messes to begin with, they both sound like a pair of idiots.

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 15:31

I know the equity thing is an issue. I've been trying to get on the mortgage for a month, but without a permanent full time job it's expensive and difficult. The second I get a 'proper' job I'm going straight to a solicitor!

OP posts:
ZibbidooZibbidooZibbidoo · 11/05/2018 15:32

Urgh! Nice little gang the two have formed isn’t it? Using you as their emotional punchbag under the guise of “cleaning gripes”. It’s bollocks. It’s nothing to do with cleaning, this guy has just decided to shove a spanner between you and DP and DP is, for some mad reason, all for it. I’d be questioning my relationship. I certainly wouldn’t be living with flat mate anymore. Hateful cunt.

HollowTalk · 11/05/2018 15:33

Technically means nothing, unfortunately. You don't own it. If you leave, you leave with nothing.

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 15:35

I keep threatening to move out. DP says he'd pick me over FM, that he'd talk to FM and get him to apologise. So DP smooths it over then FM goes on a charm offensive.

OP posts:
RB68 · 11/05/2018 15:44

What you need is a grown up conversation about cleaning rotas for all spaces. You do not cook or clean for them just your share. If you are staying. I wouldn't be staying...

aaarrrggghhhh · 11/05/2018 15:48

"I do the majority of the cleaning. "

Why?

PlumsGalore · 11/05/2018 15:49

Nah, FM has to go now. He's been here three months now and slowly taken over, three's a crowd anyway.

DisturblinglyOrangeScrambleEgg · 11/05/2018 15:49

I know the equity thing is an issue. I've been trying to get on the mortgage for a month, but without a permanent full time job it's expensive and difficult. The second I get a 'proper' job I'm going straight to a solicitor!

This is a bit odd. DP and I aren't married. When we bought our house, I wasn't working (well, I'd just started freelancing, had virtually nothing coming in, and didn't have the requisite 2 years of accounts, so I counted for nothing but a drain financially) - I'm still on the mortgage and the deeds, and was from the beginning.

There's nothing technical about your situation. You have nothing. If you are financially contributing, you still have nothing - you're just paying rent, but you don't even have any protection there, because you're a lodger in his house.

Think very strongly about this. Protect yourself - because what he says, and what is the actual case are very different.

Juells · 11/05/2018 15:51

Move out and leave them to be happy together. They've ganged up on you, and are bonding by assuring each other that you're trouble.

Who needs that kind of shit in their lives? You want to be able to relax in your own home, not be an unpaid (and abused) skivvy.

Fuck 'em.

kaitlinktm · 11/05/2018 15:53

Why do either of them have the right to "tell you" to clean up? Who put them in charge?

GorgonLondon · 11/05/2018 15:54

When you say 'we both own it' but you can't even afford a solicitor to draw up 'an equity agreement' - what do you mean?

Who paid the deposit?

How much equity does he have in the flat, and how much do you have?

Who pays the mortgage?

'Having your name on the mortgage' means absolutely nothing at all. It's the title deeds that matter, and also having legal documentation that shows that you paid your part of the equity - if you did?

Did you?

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/05/2018 15:54

You sound like a complete doormat.

HeebieJeebies456 · 11/05/2018 15:59

have you actually paid money towards the purchase of this flat?
if you have then you've been incredibly naive and stupid if there's nothing legal reflecting this.

FM needs to get his own place - three's a crowd....and stop cleaning up their shit, dump/shove all their crap onto their beds/corner

NightAndShiningArmour · 11/05/2018 15:59

I like your plan :)

I often dream of doing similar - but I'm too lazy. I fantasise about eating every single meal out for a few weeks, so then people notice there's no food/can't scowl at me for not wiping every square inch of the kitchen/I can't drop a single hellish crumb on the kitchen floor/the stack next to the sink is not my problem.

Quartz2208 · 11/05/2018 16:01

How can you like them?