TikTok Roommate Stories Wild Enough To Make You Break Your Lease

Living with roommates in your twenties — and given the bananas cost of living crisis, I’ll go ahead and give a grace period that extends to your thirties — is a necessary rite of passage. Living with bonkers roommates who make you question your sanity/what you’ve done in a past life to deserve such cruel torment is a whole other ball game. After one bad roommate, you chalk it up to a mismatch. After two, it’s fair to assume you might have a little bit of bad luck. After three, you do have to ask yourself if you’re the problem, but sometimes you’re not the problem, you’re just a really strong magnet for them. I thought I had experienced the most unhinged vibes out there until TikTok showed me it could have been a LOT worse. After reading about the worst roommate stories ever from TikTok, you’re going to be signing a lease for that studio apartment for one in no time.

“The Roommate From Hell” NYC edition

I consider this wild tale thee OG TikTok roommate drama. The original explanation was a multi-part saga but this creator thankfully also created a shorter recap. Annelisa started school in Manhattan during the fall of 2021. After deciding the program wasn’t for her, she was given a week to find new housing. She joined a Facebook group for women and stumbled upon a dream situation with a woman named “Sharon” (a fake name). Sure, Sharon was 56, but she was offering up her spare room in her spacious, luxury, UWS apartment for only $1100 including utilities.

Annelisa was busy with travel and nannying the first few weeks after moving in, but once she started spending time at home Sharon would become visibly irritated. Whenever Annelisa dared leave her room, Sharon would find a reason to “yell” and “point” at the mess she made (even if it was as small as “a drop of water” or hair on the bathroom sink). Annelisa says Sharon banned her from making calls in the common space, hid the TV remote, covered furniture in blankets and sheets so she couldn’t sit down, and banned her from throwing out “stinky” trash inside.

Sharon also refused to let Annelisa have a lock on her door, and would enter without her permission to find supposed damage. She couldn’t show Annelisa where the damage exactly was but still asked for $800 dollars to fix it. On rare occasions, a switch would flip, and Sharon would express how great of a roommate Annelisa was and that she should never move out.

Obvi, staying here wasn’t an option. When Annelisa’s sister flew from Oregon to help her move, Sharon suddenly implemented a no-guest policy. The videos Annelisa filmed of Sharon (with her face hidden) stomping around on move-out day will haunt me for a lifetime. And if you think Annelisa got her security deposit back after her month of hell, think again.

“I Heard Meowing…”

Cora said she “should have known from day one” something was way off but TBF, if true, this is one of the rare original experiences left. One night Cora had a vivid dream a cat was meowing in her face. When she opened her eyes, she claimed that she found her roommate there making the noise. According to Cora, her roommate apologetically explained she was a sleepwalker and left.

Cora was willing to move past it but couldn’t help but notice a weird smell over the next two weeks when her roommate would cook breakfast. She looked in the trash and alleges she saw a wet cat food can. After that, Cora said she started locking her door. But she couldn’t fall asleep that night because of a scratching noise. When she opened it up, Cora claimed her roommate was on her hands and knees purring like a kitty. Cora got a deadbolt and plans to move bc DUH.

“Weirdest roommate situation!!”

Three girls in their twenties were living in medical student housing when they got a notice from management they’d be getting a fourth roommate. It turns out, their new pal was actually a 48-year-old male named Sam who wasn’t even a student. They were weirded out he was double their age and not involved in the field but tried not to imagine the worst. Unfortunately for them, the worst arrived.

Their new older housemate arrived in “one of those creepy vans” with no windows. He put up a chore chart and warned them not to make any adjustments to it without his approval first. They also caught Sam “scrounging through” one of their roommate’s underwear drawer multiple times. He didn’t want the girls to have “guys over,” even their boyfriends, but expected them to be cool with his three big dogs even though the apartment had a “no pet” policy…WTF?!?

Craziest of all, one of the chores from the chore chart was watching his kids, who the TikTokers claim Sam had custody of every other weekend. For some reason, one of the students named Maddie complied with the assignment and alleged she ended up watching his kids for six hours without payment. Though the girls awkwardly laughed as they came to social media for help, comments urged them to escalate the situation.

“Klepto Roomie Chronicles”

In September 2023, TikToker Dev found out her roommate she’d been living with for “two or three months had been stealing”clothes, jewelry and edibles from her the entire time. Dev clocked her clothes on her roommate’s IG and confirmed after searching her roommate’s room. Dev was especially hurt because when this girl first moved in, Dev gave her roommate free clothes she was reselling on Depop.

In the full storytime, Dev explained the she waited for her roommate one night at the kitchen table (Big Tony Soprano Energy) and asked her roommate to sit down. She asked the girl straight up if she’d taken stuff, listing missing items like a bikini and Dev’s rings the roommate showed off on Instagram. After first denying things, Dev laid out the proof. Her roommate eventually apologized without giving a “crystal clear” answer as to why she stole.

“The Joker”

Anna and her two college besties decided to find a fourth roommate. They found a “confident,” “assertive,” socially active roommate who eventually bragged about so many accolades in the group chat (from jobs, to club titles, to sororities) that this woman seemed too good to be true. Once the three friends met the new girl IRL, something “didn’t connect.” The trio still thought she’d make a solid roommate.

Until one day the fourth roommate insisted over text someone had “drank her juice.” None of the girls admitted to it (because they all bought their own groceries) but this didn’t satisfy roomie #4. Anna claimed she responded with a meme of The Joker.

When the trio got home, a single lamp was pointed at the juice on the floor. When they flipped the rest of the lights on, they found electrical tape on the walls, painted skulls, a plate of cookies offering to “take one” and the furniture turned over. The final touch was a Joker poster on the wall. Naturally, the girls ran to the RA with the scary story. Anna alleges this led to their roommate’s dismissal from housing for “threats” and “vandalism.”

“Who TF is my roommate?”

Stanford freshman athlete JT was at an away game when her two new roommates moved in. Except, while she was gone, campus security had already removed her second roommate from the dining hall because, according to Stanford’s record, she wasn’t actually enrolled there. When JT got back from her travel trip, her first roommate explained the shocking story about what happened to the second one.

JT was grateful the whole thing was handled. Not long after, JT claims a new girl showed up to fill the open spot. JT alleges the new arrival explained she was their third roommate and a track athlete. When JT explained the drama that had happened before, her new roommate refused to believe it.

JT thought to ask the track team if they recognized her new roommate. When no one did, she got sketched out. She then claims she texted her RA, who urgently asked where this girl was. They realized she was the same fraud as before. Campus security met JT at the dorms, where the imposter was escorted off campus a second time.

“My roommate got us evicted”

Caitlyn Rae was on an influencer trip in New York when her roommate dropped the news she was moving out of their Los Angeles apartment four months before the lease ended. According to Caitlyn, her roommate claimed their brother would handle their half of the rent. But Caitlyn described the four months as a “battle” to collect “any amount of money,” so she took what she could get, “even a hundred dollars.”

By the last month, her roommate broke the news her brother couldn’t pay anymore. Her roomie promised she’d work out a forgiveness deal with the leasing office. Eventually, they decided Caitlyn’s portion was good enough. They texted, as seen in a screenshot Caitlyn shared, “You’re not going to get evicted, it’s not going to hurt your credit — it literally has ZERO effect on you or me.” Wrong!

Caitlin was on a work trip but decided to fly home early. She was greeted by a three-day eviction letter which demanded payment in 72 hours. Caitlin arrived two hours before the grace period ended when the locks would’ve been changed and her belongings would have been trashed. Later, Caitlyn said she learned from her ex-roommate’s grandparents that the family was unaware of the mess this time. But they had helped this person out of similar jams one too many times before.