Roommate Hell·
RENT DEBT IN MEXICO
In Mexico, a worker's room-mate debt over a 4,000-peso deposit spirals into a dispute that tests trust, boundaries, and what fair repayment really means.
Fair rent math, or too far?
Be one of the first to vote.
Four months of bad sleep in Mexico ended with a roommate dispute over 4,000 pesos.
The poster had moved to Mexico for work and landed first in an apartment where the nights never really got quiet. Music drifted in, neighbors made noise, and chickens clucked outside. After about four months of that, the poster decided to move.
A coworker pointed them toward another option: share a room with Amma, a younger coworker who worked as a cleaner at the same workplace. They found a house where the owner rented rooms to several women, and the two agreed to split one room.
The rent was 8,000 pesos each per month, 16,000 total. The owner also wanted an 8,000 peso deposit from each person. The poster negotiated a different arrangement, paying that deposit in 2,000 peso installments over four months.
That's where the trouble started. Amma said she could not afford the full deposit portion right away and asked the poster to cover 1,000 pesos per month for the first four months, with a promise to repay it beginning in month five. The poster agreed.
For those four months, the payments looked simple enough. Amma sent 9,000 pesos each month, and the poster paid the landlord the full 20,000.
Then month five arrived.
When the poster asked for the usual 9,000, Amma sent only 8,000 and said she was waiting for her uncle to send the missing 1,000. The extra money never showed up. When asked again, Amma told the poster to "relax" and said, "I hate talking about money."
The next morning, Amma sent a "good morning" message with a cute sticker attached.
That was enough for the poster. Frustrated, they sent back 4,000 pesos from the 8,000 Amma had paid, kept 4,000, and said that was exactly what Amma owed them. The poster also told Amma that "from now on she can deal with the rent herself because I don't want to be involved with money between us anymore."
According to the poster, no extra money was taken, only the amount Amma still owed. The question they brought to the internet was blunt: was taking back the 4,000 pesos and telling a roommate to handle the rent alone the wrong move?