Helping family members is just a fun thing to do. It’s good when family members are there for each other, especially in times of financial stress. But what happens when those times pass and things start to look better?
When a man needed help, his brother quickly intervened. But as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. The man with little money had something of a windfall, but his brother barely received a thank you.
A man took advantage of his brother’s hospitality after making some money.
A man shared on Reddit the story of what he went through with his brother, who has been living with him for about a year now.
“He lost his job during the pandemic and couldn’t pay the 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 made money and refused to contribute to his livelihood.
Unfortunately, helping his sibling when he fell on hard times was not repaid as 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 household expenses.”
Somehow this man’s brother ended up with quite a bit of money during this time.
“About a month ago he got a $20,000 windfall. I thought this would be the turning point where he would start helping, or at least offer to pay me back some of the bills,” he explained.
It turned out that his brother didn’t have that in mind at all.
He continued, “But when I brought it up he told me the money was his and his I wanted to save it for more important things.”
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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 when it was done for him?
“I was quite shocked,” he admitted. “I told him it wasn’t fair for him to live rent-free with so much money, especially since I paid all the bills and rent without ever asking for a cent.”
The brother felt it was time for his sibling to get his due, so he gave him an ultimatum.
“I asked him to start paying a reasonable amount of rentand he blew up and said I was being 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 had to move.”
“After a few days of arguing, I finally gave him a deadline to leave,” the man said. “Now he’s calling me a name-caller because I choose money over family, and some family members are saying I should just let him stay a little longer.”
Failure to pay 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 legal precedent for doing so.
This is reported by the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law SchoolThere are three main reasons why a landlord may evict a tenant. The first and most obvious is non-payment of rent.
It makes sense that a tenant not paying their rent would lead to deportation. That is one of the most fundamental parts of an agreement between landlord and tenant.
Although one brother could be considered a landlord and the other a tenant, there was no mention of any official agreement requiring them to do so. Instead of making this situation more difficult, this can actually make it easier.
The Martínez Law Center said this“If they don’t pay rent and don’t have a formal agreement, they can be considered a licensee and the eviction process can be easier.”
A tenant can certainly be evicted for not paying the rent, but there is a lot of legal hassle involved. That’s not the case for this pair of brothers, where one could probably force the other to leave quite easily.
Hopefully, the brothers can reconcile once the dust settles and the unemployed sibling realizes how selfish his actions are.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango covering entertainment, news and human interest topics.