When do houseguests become another roommate?

We don’t have any agreements about this.. so I can only speak from my own experience on when it feels that way for me. One of my roommates’ sister is in the hospital for something fairly serious, she was in the ICU on a ventilator and all of that. So my roommate’s parents were living with us for like 2 weeks because they live about an hour away and were going to the hospital daily.

Sweet people, and of course I’m not complaining because obviously I want them to be with their daughter, but it was a long 2 weeks.. I know my other roommate and I were a bit relieved when they got a room and “moved out”. Our place isn’t that big, so I’d say after about a week, it felt like we had new roommates.

of they start using your washing machine or putting food in your fridge then they are a room-mate….moochers suck! where as friends staying all the time is good so long as they contribute something to bills and stuff….after much moving about living in almost communes and then living alone….alone is defo better…i have people round all the time but its my house and there’s never any squabbles about money

Mark Twain said, “Houseguests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” or at least it’s generally attributed to him.

Fish and visitors stink after three days.

Ben Franklin

House guests may begin to stink after three days, but it seems to me that there is still more time before they become another roommate. I think that time comes when it becomes apparent that they are not about to leave any time soon. That could be different depending on the circumstances of their arrival. I generally think that it is important to discuss this issue as soon as it becomes apparent that the length of a stay is indeterminate or when the house guest starts to become annoying.

Once I had a couple of housemates; one of whom had been my lover. We broke up, but we thought we could continue to live in the same house because our breakup was kind of mutually agreed-on. However, later on, she took up with a gay guy, who she let stay in her room. I’m not sure how long this went on for, but it wasn’t long before he started acting like he lived there. He’d play my records over and over, filling them with scratches and ruining them.

One day, he decided that it would be a good idea if he added some pine scent to the house (who knows what he had been doing to make that necessary). He thought and thought and then decided it would be best if he put some fresh pine boughs in the oven to release the scent. They released a scent all right, but it wasn’t pine!

Soon after that, my other roommate and his macho boyfriend got together with me to read the riot act to my former girlfriend and her gay friend. Things did not get violent, as we thought they might, and within a day or two, they both left for a basement apartment in a large rambling house in a rather dicey neighborhood.

Eventually, I think she got tired of her friend’s antics, and got married to someone, had a couple kids, and then divorced. I haven’t heard from her in years, now. I left for grad school not too long after that incident. I don’t know what happened to our third room mate. I think he survived the time of AIDs. I hope so. He wasn’t the type to go to the baths, as far as I know.

Two week.

Getting mail there, hanging their clothes in the closet, leaving their toothbrush in the bathroom, putting their food/dishes in the refrigerator/cupboard, living a mess for others to clean up. Anytime any of this happens, they start owing rent.

Anywhere from two weeks to a month depending on the state. Also, what @yarnlady said.