Man Who Suddenly Gained $20K Calls Brother ‘Greedy’ For Requesting He Pay Him Back After Living With Him Rent-Free For A Year
Shouldn't he repay his brother's kindness ... literally?
Andrey_Popov | Shutterstock Helping family members out is just a nice thing to do. It’s good for relatives to be there for each other, especially during times of financial stress. But what happens when those times pass and things start looking up?
When one man needed help, his brother was quick to step in. But as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. The cash-strapped man had a windfall of sorts, but his brother barely got a thank you.
A man took advantage of his brother’s hospitality after he came into some money.
A man on Reddit shared the story of what he was going through with his brother, who has been living with him for about a year.
“He lost his job during the pandemic and couldn’t afford rent, so I let him stay with me rent-free until he got back on his feet,” he said.
The brother's kindness was not repaid after his sibling came into money and refused to contribute to his living expenses.
Unfortunately, helping his sibling out when he fell on hard times was not repaid the way it should have been.
“At first, I didn’t mind because he was really struggling, but over time, it became clear that he wasn’t really trying to get another job,” the man wrote. “He just stayed home, played video games and didn’t contribute to any household expenses.”
Somehow, during this time, this man’s brother got quite a bit of money.
“About a month ago, he got a windfall of $20,000. I thought this would be the turning point where he’d start helping out, or at least offer to pay me back for some of the bills,” he explained.
As it turned out, that wasn’t what his brother had in mind at all.
He continued, “But, when I brought it up, he told me that the money was his and he wanted to save it for more important things.”
Tima Miroshnichenko | Canva Pro
This was a confusing answer for the man. After all, what could be more important than repaying his brother’s generosity and doing a good deed where one was done for him?
“I was pretty shocked,” he admitted. “I told him that it wasn’t fair for him to live rent-free sitting on that much cash, especially since I’ve been covering all the bills and rent without ever asking for a dime.”
The brother felt like it was time for his sibling to start pulling his weight, so he gave him an ultimatum.
“I asked him to start paying a reasonable amount of rent, and he blew up, saying I was greedy and trying to take advantage of him,” he said.
He gave his brother an ultimatum: “I told him if he couldn’t contribute anything, he’d need to move out.”
“After a few days of arguing, I finally gave him a deadline to leave,” the man said. “Now, he’s calling me an [expletive] for choosing money over family, and a few relatives are saying I should just let him stay a little longer.”
Not paying rent is a perfectly valid reason to evict someone.
Ultimately, this man wanted to know if he was wrong for kicking his brother out. He’s not wrong at all. In fact, he has a legal precedent to do so.
According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, there are three primary reasons why a landlord could evict a tenant. The first and most obvious is for failure to pay rent.
It makes sense that a tenant not paying their rent would lead to eviction. That’s one of the most basic parts of an agreement between a landlord and tenant.
While one brother could be considered the landlord and the other the tenant, there was no mention of any official agreement making them such. Rather than making this situation more difficult, this may actually make it easier.
The Martinez Law Center said, “If they are not paying rent and have no formal agreement, they may be considered a licensee, and the eviction process may be simpler.”
A tenant can certainly be evicted for not paying rent, but there is a lot of legal red tape to deal with. That’s not the case for this pair of brothers, where one can likely force the other to leave pretty easily.
Hopefully, the brothers can reconcile once the dust settles and the unemployed sibling realizes the selfishness of his actions.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.