My question involves a roommate in the State of: California.
Hello,
I am currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate and I have constant issues with collecting the utilities bill off him. We are both currently on a one year lease and thank god it will be ending very soon. I originally was living at the apartment and he moved in after my previous roommate moved out. The utilities bills are under my name and there was a verbal agreement that he would pay for half the utilities. I now know that I made a huge mistake by not having him sign a roommate contract regarding utilities and such before he moved in, but something like this has never ever been a problem so I am kind of in a bind.
Before he moved in a credit check was run by the apartment management company, which he passed according to their standards, but from what he tells me and what I see I suspect that he filed for bankruptcy a month or two after he moved in. My roommate is always late with paying me the utilities bills and now I am worried that he is going to move out without paying me. After the first three utilities bill were paid late in cash, I began to worry and I delicately asked if he could pay me in check so I could have a personal record in my bank account. This angered him and caused all future utilities to be paid even later than his usual tardiness and still in cash. His response to not paying by check for the utilities was that he doesn't have a bank account anymore. I was very worried now so I began to write down the date and method of payment for the utilities bills that he did pay me for.
Regarding the current late utilities bills he stated that he would get it to me within a week which he failed to comply to. I have now been asking him at least twice a week that I would like for him to pay for his part of the utilities bills and when exactly he could get it to me. He avoids the conversation and his response when I do get one is one of anger ending with "I'll get it to you." I have been patient and given him more than sufficient extra time to get me the his part of the bills. To make this worse his drinking has progressed more and more and he physically shoved me in a conversation twice now along with his foul language in every instance he speaks with me.
I do not want problems. I am just utterly glad he is going to be moving out soon and I just want his part of the utilities payments and for us to part without any instances. What can I do or what do I need to do? Can I record a verbal agreement by him to pay the utilities? I think having him sign anything in writing would be very difficult. Any advice will help and thank you in advance.

