Best Friend Wants Her Stepson to Live in My Condo – AITA?

This is a throwaway account. My best friend Diane and I have known each other since elementary school. Diane is dating Roy, he has two teens who stay with him half of the time. I’ll refer to them as Diane’s step kids. Now on to the issue.

I’m getting married in six months. My fiance lives in another state and I’ll be moving to live with him. I own a condo, fully paid off, and I’m keeping it so I have a place to stay when I come back for work meetings and visiting family. My fiance also has family here, so I estimate we will be back here every other month, more or less. Diane agreed to hold an emergency key, in case maintenance needs to access my condo. I thought I had everything settled until two weeks ago.

Diane and I met for lunch and she says she has a proposal for me. Her stepson goes to college near my condo. She says it would be good if stepson condo-sat for me. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about the place when I’m not there. He would pay me a small stipend each month to cover any wear or tear. He will stay with his father whenever I’m in town. She says it will be a win-win situation as I will be making a little bit of income on an apartment that would otherwise be empty.

In a split second, I imagined all the liabilities I’d be exposed to by having a very social college kid living unsupervised in my home. Coming home and having to clean up behind him, complaints from neighbors, and my poor bed. Nope. Honestly, just the idea of anyone living in my home when I’m not there is unappealing.

So I thanked my friend for the idea and told her I just didn’t want anyone living in my condo. I wanted to be able to come and go as I pleased without worrying about it.

She kept pushing the issue, telling me why it is a great idea, with me telling her no and reasons why. Finally, she said that on the basis of our friendship would I at least think about it overnight. I told her that she was basically asking me to take on a tenant and all the financial and legal responsibilities that come with it. So if she truly believed this was a good idea, she and her boyfriend will have to sign a contract making them financially responsible for any and all liabilities. She asked why did she have to be on the contract. I said I was only asking of her what she was asking of me. She got quiet. I told her to think about it and get back to me.

Roy later called me and said he would be willing to sign the contract. I said Diane would have to sign it too, as she is the only reason why I am considering it. I then explained to him why I wanted to keep the apartment empty. He told me Diane came to him with the idea and said she would talk to me about it, he wouldn’t have bothered with it if he knew the full story.  It was a pleasant conversation.

The next day Diane called and said that I embarrassed her to her boyfriend. I told her if she had just respected that I was not interested in her proposal, we would not have had this problem.  AITA in how I handled this?

EDIT: To be clear, I did not give her the key yet. I was going to give it to her closer to when I was going to move. I do not plan on giving her the key anymore.