Friendship and money are two things that shouldn’t be mixed. The entire relationship can sour if someone refuses to return borrowed money or if they misuse the funds given to them. Why would you want to bring these kinds of problems into your friendship in the first place? 

Unfortunately, this is the situation a person found themselves in after generously helping their friend out with a place to stay. The woman took advantage of this kindness and later tried leaving without paying the money she owed her friend.

More info: Reddit

Money can ruin even the best friendships, not to mention the already rocky ones

Image credits: Ron Lach / Pexels (not the actual photo)

The poster had helped out a friend by letting her and her partner stay in their house and pay rent fortnightly, but the woman kept making late payments and even missed a few

Image credits: Alexander Grey / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Eventually, the woman racked up a debt of $1100, and instead of paying it back, she and her girlfriend moved to another rental and left without saying a word to her friend

Image credits: Tech Daily / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

After a couple of months of trying to get their money back, the poster suddenly received an accidental payment of $600 from the woman

Image credits: u/EclipticWinter

The author decided to keep the money because it was half of what the woman actually owed, and even if she decided to take any legal action, it would end up affecting her more 

The Original Poster (OP) found themselves in a fix after trying to help out a friend. The woman in question had missed many rent payments while staying at OP’s house. She kept avoiding the issue and making excuses until one day when she and her partner simply decided to leave and take all their stuff. The only thing they left behind was a debt of $1100.

In serious cases like this, there is one useful legal step a person can take to recover what they’re owed. They can send a demand letter, which is a formal request to get the money back. It helps clarify the situation and also serves as a paper trail. This is helpful in case you later want to take the matter to a small claims court.

As you can probably glean from this situation, money can complicate friendships. A survey found that around 43% of Americans would be willing to end their bond with a friend over a debt. It’s no wonder why most people think twice before loaning money to even their closest friends.

The poster was put in a tough spot because of the woman’s sneaky behavior. OP shared that the unpaid debt forced them to redo their entire budget and get extra financial help to pay off their car and other bills. They probably never expected a friend to act like this and leave them in the lurch.  

Image credits: Ivan Samkov / Pexels (not the actual photo)

After a few months, the woman accidentally sent the OP $600. Even though she had been avoiding repaying her debt for months, she immediately texted them to try and recover what she had sent. But the poster didn’t want to give the cash back because they knew what a struggle it had been to keep following up with her.

Some netizens also cautioned the OP against returning the money. Apparently, there has been a similar scam going around where fraudsters try and cheat folks by sending them money from stolen credit cards and then trying to recover the “accidentally” sent cash. Even if the victim repays the money, they will end up being on the hook for the same amount after the card gets reported as stolen.

Despite initially worrying about the legal aspects of keeping the cash, the OP eventually decided that it was all right to do so. The woman still owes $500, but at least this twist of fate helped the poster recover some of the money that was rightfully theirs. They also learned a valuable lesson in the process.

What do you think about this situation? What would do have done if you were in the OP’s shoes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

People encouraged the author to keep the money and were glad that at least some of the debt had been repaid, even if it was an accident

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