"When Rachel needed a place to live, Maya was only too happy to offer her spare room. What are friends for? Rachel had recently returned to her home town to start afresh, having been made redundant. Maya, a childhood friend, owned her three-bedroom home, having been helped to buy it by her parents. When Rachel offered to pay rent, Maya suggested a figure the market rate. Rachel agreed, recognising that she was in a bind and that Maya was helping her."
"Over time, however, she found herself increasingly at Maya's beck and call, and doing more than her share of the housework. If Maya left dirty dishes in the sink, or didn't clean the stovetop after cooking, Rachel did it for her. She even obliged with Maya's more idiosyncratic house rules, such as no laundry in the common areas, and no strong kitchen smells. Rachel hung her laundry in her room and refrained from cooking fish or curry."
"But the breaking point came when the front door lock broke. The locksmith who fixed it said it was a building fault; Maya blamed Rachel and charged her for the repair. I realised what had been obvious the whole time, Rachel says. Maya treated her like a friend only when it suited her. Otherwise, Rachel was her tenant. Rachel moved out not long afterwards. I don't think I want a friend who would do that to me or anyone else."
Rachel returned to her home town after redundancy and moved into a childhood friend's spare room, paying a suggested below-market rent. She took on extra domestic chores, complied with strict household rules, and avoided cooking strong-smelling foods. Maya gradually increased demands, questioned Rachel's work-from-home and laundry routines, and blamed Rachel for a building fault when the front-door lock broke, charging her for the repair. Rachel realised the relationship had shifted into a landlord–lodger dynamic and moved out. Rising living costs have driven more homeowners to take in lodgers, intensifying such imbalances between friends.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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