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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:
Jaxhog · 11/05/2018 17:16

Seems pretty simple. Either FM goes, or you do.

Berthatydfil · 11/05/2018 17:22

Stop paying rent- in fact I’d invoice them both for your time spent cleaning for them
Tell your dp it’s you or Fm and he has to chose.
If it’s you - he signs over some of the flat to you in a way that protects his deposit but you get some security. You stay and he waves bye to Fm asap.
If it’s fm then move out and leave the two of them to enjoy their relationship.

2andcountingtodate · 11/05/2018 17:24

You need to take a stand. FM sounds like a dick and a user. Do you think, if you dp has said he will pick you, that he's just a wuss and wanting you to be the bad guy rather then he has to be assertive?

KTheGrey · 11/05/2018 17:26

Ask for your DP to calculate your financial stake in the flat and hand it over so you can get a new flat for you and your furniture. If nothing else it is a conversation that will clarify things.

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 17:27

2andcounting I think exactly that. I think if I moved out even for half the week he'd get the message that I'm serious. Right now he thinks if the two of us (me and FM) can grow up and learn to be friends, it'll all be okay until FM decides to move out of his own accord. Which DP seems to think will be before the summer Hmm

OP posts:
IIIustriousIyIllogical · 11/05/2018 17:28

He won't shop, plan meals, adhere to any kind of cleaning rota whatsoever or entertain any discussion that means he's living in "some stupid student flat share"

But he is living in some stupid student flat share.

He needs to pick a side here & stick with it, whether that's you or FM - he then gets to live with the consequences....

Willow2017 · 11/05/2018 17:28

He showed you both what a tosser he was but you invited him to stay with you so he could treat you both like shit instead of his gf?
Noble if foolish gesture. Bet his ex loves you though.

PercyPigAddict · 11/05/2018 17:29

Another poster alluded to this, but why would breaking up be horrible for you but not DP? Obviously it would be awful for you from a practical standpoint, but would he not be upset if you left him?

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 17:31

Percy I meant from a practical standpoint. He'd be gutter if I left (and he's told me numerous times that if it came to it, he'd 100% kick FM out...) but he wouldn't be the one looking for a new flat, moving stuff, having to pack, pay deposits etc

OP posts:
Willow2017 · 11/05/2018 17:32

Right now he thinks if the two of us (me and FM) can grow up and learn to be friends there's only 2 people who need to grow up and neither of them is you op.
Why the freak would you want tp be friends with someone who treats you like something he scraped off his shoe and why would your dp want that?
Tell him to stick up for himself and you and throw the tosser out. Christ alive its his house!!! Nobody should put up with someone taking over and talking to them like shit in thier own house!

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 11/05/2018 17:33

Do you really not have any friends with whom you could stay for a few weeks?

AndroidsConundrum · 11/05/2018 17:34

Thumb not going to lie, since FM moved in I've had nothing but invites...

OP posts:
Juells · 11/05/2018 17:36

Ten years together, not married, no stake in the home...he doesn't see this as a permanent arrangement so you'd be better off accepting that and moving on rather than investing any more of your time in this arrangement. I feel so sorry for the shit situation you're in.

Gemini69 · 11/05/2018 17:40

You lost your Home the day you suggested this Creep move in lovely... sorry Flowers

rookiemere · 11/05/2018 17:42

It sounds like a not particularly funny episode of "Men Behaving Badly" for those who remember the series.

OP you need to move out and not just for half a week. Move out properly and tell your DP that you're not moving back until FM is gone.

CheesyWeez · 11/05/2018 17:45

Students don't pay council tax, just in case you need that in a future argument.

"disregarded people" for council tax purposes are:
a full-time student in higher or further education studying for more than 21 hours a week and more than 24 weeks a year. The course must last for at least one academic or calendar year at a prescribed educational establishment

So DP should have applied for his rebate as a single person in a home, (because you are disregarded) except he can't because of FM.

so you were right to not pay any tax.

However I wouldn't want a DP who put his friend above me in this way and didn't make sure I had equity in my own home.

Mxyzptlk · 11/05/2018 17:50

I keep threatening to move out.

So do it. There's no other way you'll be taken seriously.

GorgonLondon · 11/05/2018 17:52

didn't make sure I had equity in my own home.

TBF he can't 'make sure she has equity' in it, as she didn't contribute any of the deposit.

But it's definitely not her home, and the flipside of her having no rights (as a tenant) is that she also has no obligations. She's lived there for a while, presumably at a reasonable rate, and now she can move out whenever the fuck she wants.

Barbie222 · 11/05/2018 17:52

YY to Men Behaving Badly. It is an unpleasant flatshare. Your DP is pretending it's not, but he's the only one gaining anything financially here.

I'd move out, preferably without splitting up, and find my own flatshare - you could take your furniture but would need to look at the money you paid so far as wasted rent.

If I then moved back in, it would be either when he married me or when I was 50-50 on the deeds.

Atthebottomofthegarden · 11/05/2018 18:01

I don’t understand why you don’t just kick the FM out? Your DP said he wouldn’t do it himself, but would support you if you did, am I right?

So just do it!

carefreeeee · 11/05/2018 18:07

Think you need to man up and kick out the FM. Three's a crowd. This was never going to work.

The sooner the better, otherwise both the friendship and your relationship will be ruined. If you do it now you might manage to save them.

elisenbrunnen · 11/05/2018 18:10

I reckon that if you move out, OP, within a week FM will also have fallen out with your DP. Then Your DP has lost you both.

The only way to salvage both relationships (with DP) is for him to tell FM to go, and the he has both you and a friendship with FM.

Don't you do a thing.

HighwayDragon1 · 11/05/2018 18:16

OP you have left yourself vulnerable here.

You're not married
You're not on the deeds

Pack your bags up and leave, rent your own place, get some proper headspace to think.

Mxyzptlk · 11/05/2018 18:28

Don't make any move to kick FM out. You'd then have both of them pissed off with you.
Take action for yourself and move out, initially to one of the friends who has invited you. Then find your own place, unless DP mans up and sorts things out.

boomboom1234 · 11/05/2018 18:42

You have lots of options but its clear you won't ask FM to move out or move out yourself. With that in mind I would stop all this bitching about one to the other, all sit down as a three and have a proper conversation about making it work.