‘No Cheap Rent Is Worth It’: Woman Rents Apartment From ‘Boomer.’ She Ends Up Regretting It 2 Weeks In

If you’ve ever been looking for a cheap place to stay, you may have seen an offer to rent a room in someone else’s home.

While this may seem appealing on the surface, a user on TikTok has gone viral for advising against it. Specifically, they say that if your prospective roommate is a baby boomer, you should avoid renting that room at all costs.

In a video with over 195,000 views, TikTok user Nats (@ayitsnats) shares her current experiences living with a boomer—and why she thinks she’s not going to make it another month.

Why Shouldn’t You Live With A Baby Boomer?

Nats starts her video by saying that she’s been living on her own for the past five years. However, she recently decided to save money by moving in with a friend of her mom’s friend.

Problems arose almost immediately.

“She’s insanely nosy,” Nats starts. “When I was shipping out an eBay package, she was like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ And she was looking in the box, and I’m like, ‘Oh, nothing. Just shoes.’ She physically rips open the box and then opens the lid on the shoes to see what it is.”

“I’m like, ‘When I signed up to rent this room, I didn’t sign up for you going through my shit,’” she continues.

This isn’t the only problem. According to Nats, the roommate asks many personal questions, ignores attempts at privacy, makes commentary about the food she’s eating, and does things like let her dog eat off of the pots and pans before washing them.

“I’m not white enough for that, I’m sorry. I can’t do it,” she says. “I scrub down my dishes, pots, pans, whatever, put them in the dishwasher after. Doggy is not getting to lick the pan.”

Even Nats’ own room is not immune from these issues. Nats says that in her room, she’ll have personal conversations with people over the phone. Then, later, her roommate will reference details from those conversations—seemingly indicating that she had been eavesdropping.

“I’m like, ‘That’s [expletive] weird,’” she states. “‘Why are you saying [expletive] that I never told you directly, but stuff that you heard me say in my room?’”

“Do not rent a room from a boomer, period,” Nats summarizes. “They’re also just stuck in their own way. So insanely judgy, and it’s not worth it.”

Things Get Worse

In a follow-up video, Nats shares further problems with her current living situation.

To start, she says that her boomer roommate/landlord eats her food. Making matters worse is that the fridge Nats was provided is quite small, meaning that she only has a little food to begin with. While the boomer’s fridge is larger, Nats says much of the space is occupied by expired food.

Next, she says that the boomer has a dog. While Nats doesn’t have a problem with this, she says that her landlord/roommate has pushed some of the responsibilities of raising the dog onto her.

“When she’s out of the house and I’m at home, I take dog out, I feed dog, I give dog treat,” she says. “It’s not that much, and I don’t mind doing it—but respectfully, it’s also not my dog.”

Finally, Nats says her roommate makes frequent “hints” about things that she wants Nats to do.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, the trash is looking very full’—which in my mind is like, OK, I’ll take out the trash,’” Nats explains.

Although Nats says this is occasionally fine, there are some situations where she pushes things too far.

“Then she said, ‘If you ever feel like you want to shovel, the shovel is right there,’” Nats recalls. “So in my mind, it’s like, ‘OK, you’re telling me to shovel the driveway?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, I have a list of things that need to be got from the grocery store’—subtly hinting that I should get those for her.”

“No, ma’am, it’s just not gonna happen,” Nats counters.

In an additional update video, Nats says she’s buying a security camera for her room. If she catches the roommate/landlord entering her room or going through her items, Nats says she will confront her.

Is This Normal?

It should be noted that many of the behaviors described by Nats are not unique to baby boomers. In fact, internet users have reported these behaviors from roommates across a wide spectrum of age groups.

For example, users on Reddit’s r/BadRoommates have shared a host of similar stories. Some of these include roommates stealing food, refusing to clean, and making inappropriate comments.

In Nats’ specific case, while she may think of the arrangement as informal, her boomer roommate is technically her landlord, provided Nats is renting the room from her directly. This means that, as her landlord, she is required to follow certain laws that it seems she may not be fully considering.

To start, if she has, in fact, been entering Nats’ room without notice or permission, she is likely in violation of local laws. Depending on the state, landlords are generally required to respect a tenant’s privacy, even if that tenant is simply renting a room. Consequently, they are required to give notice before entering your room. Generally, 24 hours is an acceptable amount of notice, though exceptions can be made in cases of emergency.

Additionally, many states have an “implied covenant of quiet enjoyment.” In simple terms, this means that, when you rent a space, you have the right to live peacefully within it. If a landlord is harassing you or making your residency unpleasant through their actions, they could be violating this right.

Unfortunately, seeking a resolution to these issues can be a long process. In Nats’ case, it is likely more expedient to simply move if possible. For those in similar situations, they may want to consider legal avenues for their issue.

Commenters Offer Their Own Thoughts On Boomers

In the comments sections, users recounted their own experience living with people from the baby boomer generation.

“They’re always weird about food. Always,” said a user.

“I was renting a room & my brother shipped me a power puff girls plush doll and the lady opened my package before she gave it to me,” added another.

“She is assuming the role of your mother with you as her minor child. Absolutely not!” exclaimed a third.

“I think part of it is boredom. When I lived with my parents as an adult, my dad would interrogate me when I would be in the common areas. Needed to know anything and everything. Drove me nuts,” shared a further TikToker.

BroBible reached out to Nats via email.