Shelter-in-place can be difficult. For the most part, everyone had a routine. They got up, they went to work and they came back home to their roommate or significant other.
Work can give roommates an opportunity to spend maybe ten hours a day away from each other. Now, roommates are locked into leases and they have no place to run. It’s natural for tempers to flare and arguments to spark.
Many, are looking for a way to escape.
Some are in a situation where they can get their roommate to leave legally, but is it ethical?
One person asked the New York Times whether it was morally right to ask her roommate to find a new place during this dangerous time. This person is the sole leaseholder of the apartment but has been renting out a room on a month-to-month basis. She would like to find a new home, but she does not know if it is ethically correct to tell the roommate that she needs to find a new place.
According to Ronda Kaysen of the New York Times, “the current situation in New York City is not just unusual, it is dangerous. Asking your roommate to move in the midst of a pandemic means asking her to take an unnecessary personal risk.”
Although the leaseholder may be willing to take that risk, it is hard to force someone else to make that same risk.
“The bottom line, it’s unethical,” said Julie Gottman, a psychologist of the Gottman Institute.
Kaysen even believes it is difficult to do it legally. She says that leaseholders can only surrender an apartment if it is vacant. If the roommate refuses to leave, the leaseholder will be responsible for paying the rent.
Here is my suggestion — just deal with it. We’ll be out of this soon.
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