What movie were you watching? And why didn't your girlfriend pause it when you left the room?
My advice: Keep the bike, dump the girl.
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My Roommate Disappeared 2+ Months Ago! Can I Keep His Stuff?
- Thread starter HappyDude20
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What movie were you watching? And why didn't your girlfriend pause it when you left the room?
My advice: Keep the bike, dump the girl.
It just sounds sketchy that after all this time suddenly these guys act all concerned.
When the doorbell rang I told her to stay in my room. The only people within the past 90 days that have rung the doorbell are usually friends of any of ours, usually from a nearby frat or the dorm rooms; depending on who is expecting company so I opened the door.
The altercation at the front door lasted for perhaps between 5-7 minutes before my GF could heard my voice getting louder and wanting to be in control of the situation so she came out of my bedroom and stood nearby inside where only I saw her. She whispered if everything was okay, to which I told her it was. It was then when one of the guys approached a bit closer to talk.. but naturally I believed he was eyeing the door and seeing if he could force his way in. Which is when I told him to "not break my balls tonight" and closed the door... and then the whole them knocking on the 2nd door...
..Shaun of the Dead.
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My opinion, I believe that the roommate sent his buddies over to verify his belongings are still there. I told them it was all here, but after they left I re-considered just telling them that everything was moved to a storage unit, just so they don't randomly come back... if these shady guys are friends of this guy, then that means they know this apartment... how to get in, and including the balcony entrances I mentioned earlier.
I'm really surprised you haven't called the police yet, especially now that two guys drugged out of their minds try to barge into your apartment.
Anyhow, this might sound obvious, but have you tried looking through his stuff for some identifying information? Bills, letters, envelopes, etc., something that might have his home address on it? But again, this is information the school would have for sure, so I don't know why you haven't told them so the guy's parents can be contacted.
Anyhow, this might sound obvious, but have you tried looking through his stuff for some identifying information? Bills, letters, envelopes, etc., something that might have his home address on it? But again, this is information the school would have for sure, so I don't know why you haven't told them so the guy's parents can be contacted.
If this is bothering you so much, why don't you google him or something? I'd hope you would know his first and last name is you were living with him- even if you only saw him once. If you know he only lives 20 mins away, maybe you could find/contact his family or something. Maybe he's on Facebook - there are so many ways to find people thanks to the internet.
Or like many others have said, call the police!
Or like many others have said, call the police!
Look. Three points occur.
The first is is matter of time, the currency of time. You have spent a considerable amount of time on MR discussing this. Some - a very tiny amount, a microscopic amount - of that same time could well have been expended in going to the college authorities and letting them know that this guy has apparently vanished. I am at a loss as to why you have not done this.
Secondly, the title of your thread - and the tone of your original post (and several subsequent posts) give the lie to your statement in this particular post "this isn't about his possessions...." when the whole thread, from title, to original post, to much of the subsequent discussion was about little else.
Thirdly, while still posting, you have done nothing to alert the relevant authorities to the situation. The vast majority of the posts in reply to your OP have suggested that you notify the authorities. If there is a word of truth (as opposed to creative dissimulation) in your update, then, you could well cover your sorry posterior when you finally visit the relevant authorities by saying that you hoped the guy would eventually turn up to reclaim his stuff (and perhaps pay his share of the overdue rent), but that now, with the visit of these disturbing sleazy dope-heads, you feel you may have cause to worry.
Again, I fail to see why - despite several incredibly detailed (and doubtless time-consuming) posts, you could not spend a portion of that time paying a visit to a college office, or a local police station to appraise them of what has happened.
I couldn't agree more.
As always, Moyank gets straight to the key issues worth discussing and exploring.
I'm not sure many people in this thread read the entire OP...
He didn't contact the LAPD, and that is probably a failing. But I'm not sure he even knows the missing roommate's name.
Have you never been through this process in college? I haven't but at least I know it. In college areas, it is very common for someone to sign a lease in a multi-room apartment directly with the landlord, and not know who the other roommates are. Hell, even when moving into a college dorm, you may have no idea who your roommate will be. I knew a guy in college who lived in a house with seven other guys. He didn't know them beforehand.
The OP also noted that he took a tour of the apartment with the landlord and never met the other roommate at the time.
The OP stated on several occasions that he did try to contact not only the roommate, but the landlord, and the lease holder. As far as that side of the story goes, how much more can he do? If they don't even have contact info for him, then what?
Seriously, it's like people didn't read anything the OP wrote outside of "I really want his bike". You saw that and your nostrils flared up and everything else became irrelevant.
Ummm...he said pretty much exactly that....
This is an interesting conundrum. If the landlord does nothing and the lease holder does nothing, how long should the other roommates put up with this guy's stuff being there? Especially if there is a fourth roommate taking his place. If the landlord and lease holder rented out to a fourth person, then they are accepting that the previous person is not coming back. Indeed, they SHOULD be dealing with his stuff, but they aren't.
So, if the landlord and lease holder are not taking any action, what SHOULD the roommates do? They should not have to pay for a storage unit for this other guy's stuff.
Also, OP...you shouldn't have paid his portion of the rent unless the agreement is for the full rent, and not rent-by-person.
This is probably the best advice I have seen on this thread so far. If the landlord is not doing anything about it, make it monetarily inconvenient for him. That will surely shape him up real fast. The onus should not be on the other three to pay for this guy's belongings.
Points one and three are the same. So only two points occur.
He didn't contact the LAPD, and that is probably a failing. But I'm not sure he even knows the missing roommate's name.
Have you never been through this process in college? I haven't but at least I know it. In college areas, it is very common for someone to sign a lease in a multi-room apartment directly with the landlord, and not know who the other roommates are. Hell, even when moving into a college dorm, you may have no idea who your roommate will be. I knew a guy in college who lived in a house with seven other guys. He didn't know them beforehand.
The OP also noted that he took a tour of the apartment with the landlord and never met the other roommate at the time.
The OP stated on several occasions that he did try to contact not only the roommate, but the landlord, and the lease holder. As far as that side of the story goes, how much more can he do? If they don't even have contact info for him, then what?
Seriously, it's like people didn't read anything the OP wrote outside of "I really want his bike". You saw that and your nostrils flared up and everything else became irrelevant.
Ummm...he said pretty much exactly that....
This is an interesting conundrum. If the landlord does nothing and the lease holder does nothing, how long should the other roommates put up with this guy's stuff being there? Especially if there is a fourth roommate taking his place. If the landlord and lease holder rented out to a fourth person, then they are accepting that the previous person is not coming back. Indeed, they SHOULD be dealing with his stuff, but they aren't.
So, if the landlord and lease holder are not taking any action, what SHOULD the roommates do? They should not have to pay for a storage unit for this other guy's stuff.
Also, OP...you shouldn't have paid his portion of the rent unless the agreement is for the full rent, and not rent-by-person.
This is probably the best advice I have seen on this thread so far. If the landlord is not doing anything about it, make it monetarily inconvenient for him. That will surely shape him up real fast. The onus should not be on the other three to pay for this guy's belongings.
Points one and three are the same. So only two points occur.
This is among the worst advice I've seen on the this thread so far. This is a landlord-tenant legal problem and the best advice is for the tenant to read his lease and then seek legal advice from a California lawyer if he desires to take any action other than what is specified in his lease.
As most should be.
That's because you're probably not telling the story as it really has happened.
Creating a thread is basically doing nothing.
yes it was/is. If this isn't about keeping his stuff then perhaps you have some post editing to do.
I'm not surprised he hasn't called the police.
I think this is the way to go for sure but the OP has been handed some really great free advice and he has taken none of it.
Dude, don't BS us. The title of this thread is "My Roommate Disappeared 2+ Months Ago! Can I Keep His Stuff?" not "My Roommate Disappeared 2+ Months Ago! OMG What Do I Do?"
Yep. I agree completely. Completely.
To the OP:
1) Stop wasting our time and your time; in the time you have wasted seeking permission to help yourself to your missing roommate's stuff, you could have actually done other things, such as.....
2).....contacting the authorities, college authorities or police. Why have you not done this to date?
3) And, yes, some editing may be in order. Of yours posts, and of the unattractive thread title......or maybe not. After all, the thread title really does say it all, doesn't it?
When the old roommate moved in, who set this up? Did he sign a lease with the landlord? Did you guys just have an unofficial agreement? There are things like emergency contacts that would normally be taken by a landlord. You would also normally report this to a landlord, then the police if they don't do anything. Does the old roommate still have a key? It's not a great idea to ignore this.
So then your only option if a guy has abandoned his stuff in an apartment for several months, and the landlord won't do anything about it, is to end up going to court over it?
I don't see why putting the stuff in storage would be illegal. The original tenant is no longer paying rent and hasn't for several months. Get his crap out of there...he's no longer a tenant.
And also, note that the advice said "tell the landlord that you are going to...". Why not? See what he says.
The OP stated in his third post that the roommate in question had lived in the apartment for two years before he disappeared and in his second post that the owner of the unit had not been able to get in touch with him (and presumably did not have emergency contact info or didn't call it).
Sounds like a slum-lord situation to me.
That isn't actually legal on the landlord's part. That kind of sublet may also not be legal in California. I haven't looked at the laws on it in a while. If no one is helpful, it would be appropriate to talk to the authorities on this one. I'm not sure how such a thing would be handled given the combination of abandonment through a sublet of questionable legality. I know the lack of appropriate information definitely isn't legal, but the OP really should contact authorities on this one, especially if random jerks are showing up at his place while claiming to lack contact information. The only thing he handled really well was not allowing random filth to enter his apartment.
Do you need to troll everything? That's not legal. You could do it, but it's still considered stealing. This would be regarded as tenant abandonment. Typically you'd exhaust all possible contacts first. Otherwise the landlord would hold it for however many days prior to turning it over to the authorities.
It's fully possible that this situation isn't even legal. You guys should at least be able to start the process of getting rid of the old roommate and his stuff. You really don't want him trying to move back in simply because he has a key.
Excellent idea.
But... this really isn't the place to get legal advice, y'know.
Having said that:
- Also check with the school's registrar's office to see if they have a contact number for him, or for an emergency contact.
- The guy might be sick in the hospital or something. Exhaust every last possibility for tracking him down before you do anything you might have to apologize for (or worse) down the road.
I think the OP is looking for the green light to steal the guy's stuff. Barring that, I wonder why he hasn't contacted the police (either on campus or off campus) and informed them of a missing person. This whole story sounds either A) improbable, fake or incomplete; or B) sick for not contacting the authorities when it was clear there was a missing person.
And then two drugged out people try to barge into the apartment while OP's girlfriend is there to see if the missing person's stuff is there and you still don't contact the authorities. If this is a case of a missing person, OP and his roommates were *******s for this whole thing getting to this point. OP's missing roommate could be dead.
And then two drugged out people try to barge into the apartment while OP's girlfriend is there to see if the missing person's stuff is there and you still don't contact the authorities. If this is a case of a missing person, OP and his roommates were *******s for this whole thing getting to this point. OP's missing roommate could be dead.
That could still cause the landlord (not the guy in Africa) to terminate the lease if someone doesn't pay. I'm not going to dig up tenants' rights on the subject.
I'm willing to quote civil codes regarding abandonment.
There's more to it given the weirdness and potential lack of a written agreement, but the steps are still basically the same. If he can't be reached, someone should have filed a missing person report, but the first contact would be the landlord, whether he wants to deal with it or not (legally he has no choice).
Since this thread is going in circles, I'm closing it.
OP, you should file a missing persons report with the police, as has been stated many, many times.
Once you have done so, and have new, concrete information to share, you can report this post using the
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report post button below to request that it be reopened.
OP, you should file a missing persons report with the police, as has been stated many, many times.
Once you have done so, and have new, concrete information to share, you can report this post using the
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