5 ways to tell your friend you can no longer live with them

Adult living situations can be very complicated. Typically, most people put a lot of thought into whether or not they should move in with a romantic partner.

However when it comes to housemates, most people will settle for anyone who will pay half the rent.

In times of high stress and desperation lots of people have said yes to living with someone they really like, without really giving it much thought. It makes perfect sense – if you love hanging out with someone, living with them should be awesome.

Unfortunately this is not always the case. When the dust settles you might find that your best friend isn’t the greatest housemate.  Now you have to tell them you don’t want to live with them anymore.

Here are a few lines we’ve prepared to make this unpleasant task a little bit easier.

1. ‘The office has moved and I need to live closer to work’

Presenting your decision as circumstantial is an excellent way to get out of hurting someone’s feelings. If you act as if the move is out of your hands, you can pretend to be sad about it and and still remain friends.

Living close to work is important.

Sometimes to maintain a friendship you might need to pretend you have to move out, rather than saying you want to move out.

2. ‘I accepted a pay cut for less hours so I can’t afford to live here anymore’

Present your decision as financial. Few will argue with money troubles. However, you do run the risk of your housemate offering to move with you to a cheaper place. In these circumstances it’s much easier to say you’ve already found a new house.

It’s important to keep in mind that your housemate might really like living with you and might want to try to keep living you.

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3. ‘I love your rock band SO MUCH, but I just can’t sleep when you’re practicing at 2am’

Be clear about the noise being a problem for you.

Sometimes the truth really is best. The important thing when using this method is to make sure what you’re saying is factual.

Your housemate will be okay with the fact that you can’t handle their guitar practice. But they’ll be offended if you say you hate their annoying voice and you think they’re “a bit weird”.

Using the truth method is great, but you need to be non-emotional and factual in your approach.

4. ‘I’ve just been staying at my partner/parents’/mate’s house so often it makes sense to move in there’

It can be a little cowardly but sometimes a slow fade can be really effective. If you have been staying elsewhere quite frequently over the past few months, it’s pretty easy to take it one step further and solidify the arrangement.

If you have the time to play your cards this way, do it. A slow fade is the least painful and shocking to someone you love, even if it is taking the easy way out.

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Slow fades can happen naturally but there’s no reason why you can’t orchestrate one, you just need to plan ahead and start being regularly absent a few weeks before you want to move out.

5. ‘My doctor says I’m allergic cats so I can’t live here anymore’

Make sure if you fib about being allergic to cats that you don’t get caught.

Using white lies can be a genius move but you must use them wisely. For instance if you tell your housemate you can’t live with his cat, you can’t really move into another house that has a cat.

However, if you’re sure your next house is cat-free, go for it.

If you blame the place where you live, rather than the person you’re living with, you should be able to keep your friendship in tact.

You can also try to blame the building – too many stairs, not enough parking, not close enough to public transport.

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If you blame the place where you live, rather than the person you’re living with, you should be able to keep your friendship in tact.