I wonder if others were fearful that they'd see themselves ( explicitly or implicitly referred ) in these comments :-)

My worst experience is not for explicit reference though it ended up needing a plumber to resolve the issue.

Another, ( after living in shared houses in 3 countries ) was one of the sharers having the temerity to invite others in as replacements without consensus ( or at least a majority agreement ).

This sadly led to a number of strained friendships and the eventual disintegration of the shared house.

As the only girl living in a house of boys I was always the housekeeper. Nothing was cleaned or tidied unless it was me that did it.
Even if their girlfriends would stay the night, they would never take the initiative to clean either. After 8 months of being treated like a space essentially I moved out by myself even though it was a bit more rent.
I don't mind cleaning after myself, but I'm not their mother!!

One of the people I shared with used to pick their nose and stick it to the wall, that was a lovely surprise when they moved out, as was the raw steak that they had left behind on top of the wardrobe!

I once loved in a home where another resident had an argument with the nextdoor neighbour over a noisy rooster that was waking us all up. I didn't mind it but it was making some people's life quite difficult.

After their shouting match didn't change anything, my housemate decided to throw some food over the fence that could make the rooster sick. Not good. The next day, neighbour then set fire to our bin right outside our front door - it could have burned the whole house down!

A person I shared a house with used to go get blind drunk, come home and cook up random things. One night she served up herself a bowl of pasta and icecream together. Later that night I awoke to her throwing up in my washing machine. Thinking she could 'wash' away the chunks of pasta and vomit she put the washing machine through a cycle. After it was finished I opened the lid to find chunks of vomit stuck in all the little holes of the drum. Feeling she'd done enough damage, I opted to clean the vomit out the washing machine myself.....still makes me shudder

I used to share with quite a few people ( many many years ago ) One of our flat mates was a South African guy who decided to make biltong (like beef jerky) in our very small kitchen. He bought half a cow and cut it up in the kitchen ( think slaughter house ) he then proceeded to cut up strips and hang them on lines ( like washing lines ) he had hung up in the kitchen. He salted these beef strips and left them to dry hanging all through the kitchen ( luckily we lived on takeaways in those days and only made cups of tea in the kitchen) .. the biltong was really quite nice but we weren't allowed to have any ! He measured and counted it every day to make sure we didn't cut any bits off or eat a whole strip.. He sold it to mates at the pub and didn't give his flat mates who he inconvenienced, any !! Luckily the next time he went to make it, the power went off for a couple of days ( Qld power outages in the 80's) and the cow in the freezer died a second death ( but omg - the smell and the flies in a Qld summer ) ... worst flat mate ever !!!

One person in our sharehouse kept the rent for a period instead of handing it over to the landlord.

Hmmmmm........what interesting and funny stories! I've never lived in a share house before, but if I did, I guarantee you, everyone else sharing a house with me would be dead!

Out of sheer annoyance and frustration!

Eeewwwww....some of these stories need: CAUTION: GRAPHIC DETAILS written before them!!!

Yikes! I hope I never have to take on a room mate ever again!!

Circa 1990 ... Dear Ted said.... "I have a spare room in my new (old) house..." I moved in. Ted decided to start a renovation, pulling up skirting boards from the timber floor in my bedroom. It was winter... freezing cold air circulated every night! I slept with a feather quilt, sleeping bag and my large white leather jacket over my bed. Ted's big dog decided to tear by leather jacket apart while I was at work. I was there a week before I realised there was a 'sunroom verandah' at the back of the house and Ted's mate (Nick -the cave man) had moved in too. He stole my Video player and after heating up a take-away dinner, sat it on top of the Video player which melted a big hole in the top of it. I 'stole' it back from his stinky room which was filled with beer cans and a certain type of magazine!! I cleaned up the whole house on Saturday morning so I could invite Mum over for a cup of tea. When I returned at 11am with Mum, Nick the Cave Man had moved into the lounge with 2 of his mates and were drinking vodka and smoking drugs!....... My mum wasn't impressed - I was furious and moved out that afternoon! Thanks for the experience Ted!

Loving these hilarious stories ... makes mine seem tame.
My flatmate and I had a spare room and kindly offered it to a friend. She moved in and all was going quite well (except the cartoons every morning, the late night fry ups and the various articles of clothing left lying ALL over the house). One evening when 'friend' was out, we two had a few friends over for drinks and a movie. Everyone was being polite and trying not to mention the smell that became increasingly offensive as the night wore on. Half way through the movie it was no longer tolerable ... "What the hell is that smell .. sorry girls, but I think you have a dead animal in here somewhere". So six of us went searching for about half an hour ... it was a pair of 'friends' shoes left pushed under the couch. The smell, up close, was worse than BAD ... no words!
I decided to just throw the shoes into 'friends' bedroom but .. when I opened the bedroom door .. the full force of her many pairs of smelly shoes hit me and I almost passed out.
The smell lingered in the living room for days later.
We confronted 'friend' about the shoe problem and from that point her shoes had to be stored outside on the veranda, away from all doors or windows so the smell could never be allowed to permiate the indoors again.
'Friends' response was "how dare you open my bedroom door".
All this led to us lying ... told her the lease was up, planned moving day, she moved, we stayed, and for the remainder of the lease we lied about where we lived. All that deceipt over smelly shoes.

The same flatmate I mentioned before also left fishfingers in the pantry not the fridge. Maggots were the result. Same flatmate (male) wouldn't clean up. Said he had his aunt coming over. I didn't clean up the dishes from the night before. Sat down with his relatives at the dining table with all the dirty dishes but was so embarrassed started to clean them away in front of them. This coupled with not handing the rent over and having the landlord come over for the rent ended a not so enjoyable share house. Also found out later he was keeping Marijuana in the house which meant, in those days, dismissal from my job as a teacher.

However the vomit in the washing machine tops this.