[bosphil]

I am a townhouse owner in Massachusetts and I rent two rooms in the house out to two roommates. I do not have a written lease with them but they agreed to pay the rent and split all utility bills.

One of the roommates started paying the rent and the utilities late (she now owes me over a year and a half in back utility bills). We were good friends before and she lost her job for a while. During the time she was out of a job, I let her delay rent and utility payments to help her out and she promised me to pay back immediately.

She got her job back, caught up with the rent payments but has not paid me the back any of the utility bills. She also now pays the rent very late every month and skips out of paying any utility bills. I have asked her several times to pay me the back utility bills and to pay the rent on time (so that I can make my mortgage payments) several times over
The past several months. However, even though she now has good income and plenty of disposable income, she always makes excuses but has not followed through on her promise. This situation has now become a nightmare for my financial situation and for our friendship and I have decided to evict her.

Could someone shed some light on what I should do to evict a roommate that I actually live with in this kind of situation? Thank you very much in advance!

The important facts of the situation:
I don't have lease with her. She pays the rent now - although she normally doesn't do it until the last day of the month and rent is due at the beginning of the month. She owes me over a year of past utility bills and the utility bills are under my name. I have all her rent and utility checks copied.
And unfortunately, I live with her :(((

Thanks for your help!

[Fr_Chuck]

A couple problems,

First you don't have anything in writing with her, ( not a big issue but it can be a problem about the utilities)

Here comes the issue, since you have not inforced a rule about utilities for over a year, it could be considered by the court that they were not really required to be paid. ( custom and past practice showed by you allowing her to stay for such a long time)

But if they are renting from you on a month to month basis, just give them a 30 day notice to move out.