Woman Threatens to Make Her In-Laws 'Homeless' if They Don't Pay

A woman on Reddit says she threatened to make her in-laws "homeless" if they don't agree to either pay rent or help out with her baby while crashing in her basement.

"I am the primary breadwinner for my household. My husband is semi-retired due to an injury at work," she began.

"He is a great husband and has taken over all the housework that needs to be done during the day. We share all the duties when I'm not working," the woman added.

"Recently his sister, her husband, and their two teen kids lost their home. We have a rental suite in our basement that we just use as a family area so we agreed to let them live there. Because I'm paranoid I had them sign a lease," she explained.

"A few days ago my husband had an opportunity to do some consulting at his old work ... It was short notice so we hadn't arranged babysitting. We asked his sister to watch our youngest for the day so he could go work and she agreed," the woman continued.

However, instead of watching the baby, her sister-in-law privately delegated the task to her 13-year-old son and then promptly took a nap.

"The kid didn't want to disturb his mom during her nap so he banged on my door while I was working to change a diaper. Fair enough, if I were a 13-year-old boy I might not feel comfortable changing a baby girl. I asked where his mom was and he said she was napping. I woke her up and told her that she had agreed to watch her niece and to do so," the woman explained.

When her husband returned home later, the pair decided the in-laws would need to "start paying the amount on the lease, leave, or start helping around the house."

"We took all the kids over to my mother-in-law's house, then we sat them down and had a talk. We gave them their options," she shared.

However, her mother-in-law accused her of tricking the family members into signing a lease agreement "and then not collecting it so I could evict them."

"I said that wasn't the only choice. I said that she was the one who chose to lay off a responsibility on a child. I said that I was basically the one supporting her and if she couldn't help then she had to give me money or leave," she continued.

"Neither her nor her husband have jobs right now. They are buying groceries with his unemployment benefits. I set up the lease because of horror stories I have heard about people claiming to be tenants," the woman concluded.

Users in the comments section supported the woman's decision and criticized her in-laws for taking advantage.

"There's absolutely nothing unreasonable about this. The fact that they are protesting this arrangement and demanding free lodging is a sign that you should just ask them to leave right now," one user wrote.

"You aren't 'threatening,' you are having healthy rules and boundaries. You are giving them an entirely reasonable choice: pay rent, contribute another ways, or have a different living situation. There's nothing wrong with that. And good for you for setting up that lease. That was an extremely smart move," someone else weighed in.

"You didn't trick them into doing anything. Literally all you're asking is for them to hold up their end of the bargain. You're letting them get away with living there for free in exchange for occasionally babysitting and helping around the house, and they're making all this drama over nothing," another reader commented.