There are “taking advantage” stories, and then there are stories of entitlement so pure, so radioactive, that they make you want to scream. This, my friends, is one of those. It’s a story about a woman who tried to do a good deed for her boyfriend’s family, and in return, got treated like a doormat, a bank, and a “cruel landlady,” all in her own d*mn house.
Our narrator is a 33-year-old man who is, let’s just say, subsidized. He’s living with his girlfriend, who owns her own duplex. He pays her rent, but it’s “a bit below market rate” because he “can’t afford” his own place. So, let’s be clear: he’s the tenant-boyfriend, and she is his generous landlady.
But that’s not enough. His sister’s family is also struggling. So he “convinced” (read: badgered) his girlfriend to let his sister, her husband, and their kid rent out the brand-new basement suite she had just finished renovating. And, of course, they’re also paying “a bit below what she wanted” for it.
This woman is now supporting her boyfriend and his entire extended family.
The girlfriend, a saint who is clearly bad at math, wasn’t happy at first. But they made a deal. The brother-in-law would do the snow and lawn care, and in return, they got to stay longer than the three months they agreed to. A ridiculously generous offer.
And how does the sister’s family repay this kindness? By taking that “stay longer” offer and interpreting it as “we have permanent, ungoverned control of your property.” So, they did what all terrible tenants do. They got a dog. A shelter dog. And they did it without asking.
The girlfriend found out on Christmas Day. On Christmas. The family, of course, claims she “said yes verbally,” while she (the actual homeowner) says “they never asked her about it.” And the narrator says she only found out on Christmas because they had been hiding the dog from her.
The girlfriend, upon discovering an unauthorized animal has been snuck into her property, did what any homeowner would do. She told them the dog had to go, or they had to go. She gave them two months.
And our narrator? The man living upstairs on a discount? Is he horrified by his family’s disrespect? Is he apologetic? Of course not. He’s angry at her. He thinks she is being a “cruel landlady” and that she needs to “have some sympathy.”
Sympathy? For what? For them breaking the lease? For them lying?
Let’s look at the girlfriend’s “cruel” reasons. First, the dog’s breed will make her homeowner’s insurance premiums go up. This is a real, financial consequence that she has to pay for their secret. Second, she has her own dog, so this isn’t about “hating dogs.” It’s about not wanting unvetted, uninsured animals in her rental!
And her third, most important point, is the one that is just chef’s kiss: She yelled that his family was “taking advantage of her” and “never would have brought a dog without approval to any regular rental.”
She is 100 percent, absolutely, devastatingly correct. They are treating her like a pushover, not a landlady, because she is his girlfriend.
And this is where the narrator goes from “clueless boyfriend” to “King A**hole.” They had a huge fight. On Christmas. And he demanded that she let his family stay. He, the man who is also her tenant, demanded that she, the owner, just roll over and accept the new dog, the new insurance bill, and the new, blatant disrespect.
So the girlfriend, finally, did what she should have done months ago. She snapped. She told him that his family needed to be gone… and so did he.
So, AITA? YES. My god, yes. You are the ahole. You are the ahole of the year. You are a 33-year-old man being supported by your partner, and you chose to side with your equally-entitled, rule-breaking family against your partner, in her own home. You didn’t just bite the hand that feeds you; you tried to sic your sister’s secret dog on it.