An NYC house stands divided after the inhabitants had a falling out that spilled onto social media. The argument between sub-letter Emily Dukes and lease-holder Marlyn Rodriguez went viral after the former posted a multi-part video series to TikTok detailing her alleged side of the story.
Dukes took to TikTok, where she posted multiple videos, mostly recorded from the fire escape of the apartment. In her videos, she claimed that her roommate had told her she was “getting kicked out at the end of June even though I moved in a month ago.” The video was posted at the end of May, meaning she had presumably been given a month’s notice.
Although she was sub-letting, she claimed that she had a “verbal agreement” with Rodriguez, her roommate, that they would be re-signing the lease in July. As far as she was aware, she had a stable home, but to her surprise, Rodriguez had apparently changed her mind, deciding not to renew the lease and leaving Dukes without a home come July.
The New York Post reports that Dukes, who is soon to be 30, claims she was “blindsided” by Rodriguez’s, who is in her mid-twenties, decision. She claimed to be in a “horribly traumatizing situation” and even quoted NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s speech after the New York Knicks NBA championship win this year.
Dukes saw a fair amount of support from people sympathetic toward her situation, even raising $5,000 in financial support from crowdfunding.
The roommate’s response flipped the narrative
Of course, there are two sides to every story, and soon enough, Rodriguez clapped back with a response to the accusations made by Dukes. In her own TikTok video, she claimed that she had given Duke “plenty of time and notice to make arrangements,” adding, “A sub-lease is temporary by definition, meaning I don’t owe you s–t.”
Rodriguez claimed that the real issue was that the rent had increased, meaning Dukes wouldn’t qualify for the lease, “and that is not my problem.” Her friend and new roommate also took to social media to call out Dukes as she laid out the alleged real events and told her to go back home if she couldn’t afford to live in NYC.
The friend’s solution was for Dukes to get a job, telling her, “You don’t represent Mamdani’s words or New York at all. In New York City we work; we are dreamers.”
The internet debates
Of course, people online were loving the drama, with there being tons of debate over who was in the right. A post directed at Dukes reads, “babe I don’t think Zohran was talking abt you in the Knicks speech, he might be speaking against you bc you’re evil.” Another person responded claiming that it “kind of seems like [Rodriguez] screwed over the subletter” by bringing Dukes in 2 months before the lease was due to end.
The arguing between netizens continued, with some claiming that Rodriguez had indeed blindsided Dukes while others thought that Dukes should have known this was coming. “All subletters know that you are only guaranteed a place until the end of the lease. They are always temporary.” Argued one, only for another person to counter, “okay but even with that there’s 6 months temporary and there’s “move out around when you finish unpacking” temporary.”
Ultimately, Dukes was able to use the money from her GoFundMe to come to an agreement with the landlord and secure the property. She also publicly apologized for oversharing online and vowed to donate a portion of the GoFundMe money to local charities.
Published: Jul 14, 2026 11:41 am