Are we assholes for kicking out or housemate?

Your friends don't always make good housemates.
Your mutual friend is a fucking idiot.
Good decision to not give him the ultimatum straight up but rather watch if he actually improves from you yelling at him. He would've shaped up for a month and gone right fucking back to it.

>>17971472
My friend that confided in the mutual friend really doesn't want to HAVE to kick him out, but he's also the one that said he will leave if he doesn't shape up.

He kinda hinted at it, but it's obvious, because he bottles up his emotions instead of confronting people about his issues, that he really doesn't want to be the one to tell him he's gotta go.

I told him I'll do it by myself if I have to. We're only going to tell him to be out by the time we need to renew the lease when we find a replacement (A good friend, who is revered for being extremely clean and respectful is really interested in taking his place if he can get it cleared with his parents, he'll be a freshman this fall.)

I don't think you're assholes for kicking him out, but I do think you're assholes for doing it with no warning. I hope you're not hoping to stay friends with him (and probably a lot of mutual friends) after this either.

>>17971500
We know he is the type of guy to improve until we sign the lease, then he will go right back to normal. He's used a similar method in other situations.

>No warning
We will give him at least two months. That is enough time to find a place. Or he can just stay in the dorms again.

>>17971531
I'm not saying you have to sign the lease with him, I'm saying that you should tell him that you won't be signing the lease with him now, instead of when it comes to signing it.

>There's no way there's any validity to his argument right? We've given him talks about it before, but his behavior only stagnates or gets worse.

Correct. Your mutual friend is not the one that has to live with him. You are completely justified in kicking the troublemaking friend out, and will find ~80% of people will agree with you. The other 20% are likely to be the kind of people that are shitty flatmates themselves.

I'm inclined to agree with >>17971591 in that you should: 1. Resolve to kick him out now come lease-resigning time, no matter how he acts in the meantime (good or bad); 2. Tell him about it now.

That said, he sounds like the kind of person to emotionally blackmail you in the 2 months leading to the resigning time, or in general doing something to screw you guys over. He is living in your house - there is a lot if things he can do (for example, damaging the property and making it look like it was one of you, so that you don't get your bond back). So you need to consider this sort of thing as well. Your original plan could indeed be best..