AITA for Making My Brother Sign a Rental Agreeent
I (53F) purchased a house back in 2022. My brother (41M) had some legal issues and was finally getting his life back on track. During that time he was living in a roach infested apartment and I felt bad for both him and his puppy.
For context, I am a huge animal lover and have 3 of my own. I knew his dog would get along great with mine and be better not having to spend entire days in his crate while my brother worked. If I could have, I would just have brought the dog in but they are a package deal.
Because of my brother’s past, his ability to find work was, and still is, limited. He was working a full time job, and had a legal side hustle for supplemental income.
For the past 6 months, for health reasons, he has not been able to do his side hustle, which also was what he was using to pay rent and his cell bill. He would give me some money but was not able to pay the full amount. He is 5 months behind in rent and 6 on his cell. To make matters worse, about a month ago he lost his job. He has food benefits coming in and is waiting in the unemployment (UI) to start. For an even worse outcome, shortly after he lost his job, I lost mine. Now we are both waiting on UI.
Once he gets back on his feet, and I on mine, I am going to set up my multi-line cell bill to individually bill to the person who belongs to the line so they are responsible to pay their own bill. My question is, would I be the AH if I also made him sign a rental agreement basically stating he needs to keep up on his rent or he can and will be evicted?
TIA!
Posted Oct 22, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC