Thanks to everyone who commented on the last entry. It seems clear that Ray should indeed foot the entire bill for refinishing the room.
So I had a painter in for an estimate today. The verdict: $200. Coincidentally, the exact amount of Ray’s deposit. How serendipitous. The painter didn’t even know beforehand!
So now Ray is FREAK! ING! OUT!
He just came into the living room to yell at me. Literally, yelling: “This is Bullshit!” and “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?” (you being me, of course).
Because Ray really needs that damage deposit back you know! He’s a student! He has financial difficulties! I mean, he lived for four whole months without a car before his parents bought him a new one! And the fact that I made him leave in December rather than May means that his parents didn’t have time to flip one of their properties and buy a new house in Burnaby so he’d have somewhere to live on his own, instead of renting with another roommate (seriously, that was the plan). OH THE SAD, SAD TRAGEDY!
Unfortunately, I am an unreasonable bitch who is totally unsympathetic to his plight.
You better believe I’m gonna ensure his entire deposit is taken up with refinishing that room. That, and changing the locks, because his outburst has frightened me enough that I don’t know what he may do… (UPDATE: not actually frightened for my physical safety, but I wouldn’t put it beyond him to wreck some stuff or be generally careless when he’s moving out.)
It can’t be healthy to feel this much rage toward someone. I don’t really wanna leave him here alone (see the aforementioned paragraph), but I’m also SEETHING. Anyone wanna come visit and distract me for a while in the next night or two? I promise I won’t take any of it out on you…
Err, if you need any heavies, to, you know, embed some sense in Ray,my friends and I, well…we could probably call some on your behalf.
I don’t know you that well and stuff, but I volunteer to visit if you need it 🙂
Seriously…I would tell him that the next outburst will warrant a call to the cops, the locks being immediately changed and he can pick up his stuff when you have backup there.
I’m with dearheart – is he insane? For your own safety, I’d make sure you have company over when it’s time for him to leave – and tell him any other freakouts like that will result in police intervention. I’m close by too, and while I’m not very threatening-looking, I do like to aim for the nuts ..
you know my number. I can be there in 5 minutes.
Sounds like you have reason to be “unreasonable” so screw his need for the cash.
I havent been following along, but I would assume the only other option is for him to spend 4 hours patching and repainting…. might have been covered before…. apologies if so.
Java: he asked if he could try to do it himself, and if it didn’t turn out, then I could get someone in to fix it. Considering he couldn’t fry an egg, read a bus schedule, or operate the cap to the dishwasher detergent while he lived here, I told him I didn’t feel comfortable with him taking “interior renovation” as a next step.