When Your Friend Becomes Your Landlord

"What that became, in practice, was closer to psychic warfare. "We both tried to leverage the fact that we're supposed to be friends," Henry said. "I'd use it against him all the time: 'Come on, dude, what are you talking about?' And he'd do the same thing to me." Take, for example, the time Henry and his fiancé fostered a dog without asking Reid first: "I was like, 'He is not going to evict us for having a dog.'""

"Since there was dog-related damage, Reid announced he was keeping the entire security deposit. Henry haggled him down. (They agreed to $900 over claw marks on a door.) "We both got away with taking advantage of the situation," said Henry, who was still surprised at his friend's reaction when he broke the news that he was leaving New York. "I felt bad telling him," Henry said. "But he was like, 'Nice. That sounds great. I'm going to charge someone else way more for this.'""

A Bushwick one-bedroom rented for $3,000 with no broker fee and no competing bidders. The unit belonged to a friend who requested a month's rent as a deposit and declined to formalize a lease to avoid notifying the building. The informal arrangement eroded into repeated leverage and petty conflicts between landlord and tenants. The tenants fostered a dog without permission, causing damage that led the owner to retain most of the security deposit, later reduced after negotiation. The owner planned to raise the rent substantially when re-renting. Renting from friends can deliver convenience but creates ambiguity over expectations, rules, and financial responsibility.

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