Do I Need To Pay? Advice Please

mu7861

Hi,
Moved into a rented house for the first time with two other students. We have an agreement on a A4 paper that we made, saying 'that any electricty and gas bills we all would share equally' and we all signed and dated. Over the christmas period, any bills that come on the address for electricty and gas, would i need to pay? as i would be home with family. Does the paper i signed, make me in a contract? if i refuse to pay, could it stand in court assuming providers take it that far?
thank you

Magentasue

I think the relevant thing is whose name is on the account. The contract is with the account holder.

Your agreement on A4 is with your housemates.

You agreed to pay equally though, not just for the periods you are there - why not just negotiate with your housemates and redraft your agreement if it's that important to you? Then everybody will know where they stand. Any bills over the Christmas period will be for a quarter. To be fair, you need to meter read before you go away and when you get back, calculate the cost and deduct that from the total bill before you divide three ways. The balance would then be paid by whoever occupied the house at the time you were away.

Quentin

mu7861 wrote: »

Does the paper i signed, make me in a contract? if i refuse to pay, could it stand in court assuming providers take it that far?

Yes to both questions.

Wasn't the idea to make things simple?

If you went home for a weekend during the term would you now say the bills should be recalculated as you used nothing during that weekend?

If you come up with this objection about your christmas absence, then in fairness to your mates they should also be allowed to recalculate for any nights away they have!

WhistleBlower

From a suppliers point of view:

The person named on the account is responsible, if all of you are on there, you are all equally responsible.

Regarding your signed agreement with your housemates, this is a 3rd party dispute. The supplier wouldn't get involved.

Cardew

I am assuming that you are just referring to the agreement with your flatmates(housemates)?

IMO of course you should pay!

You simply can't try to work out costs on a 'who used what' basis'.

Do you spend 1 minute longer in the shower? who has a bath 1 inch deeper than the other. Who watches TV longest? etc etc

If you are referring to the gas/electricity suppliers, of course the bill has to be paid. It is of no concern to the supplier if the house is empty or you have 20 people staying there - you pay for what you have used.

lea2012

When I was a student I lived firstly in a house with 7 others and then later with 5 others and we all just always paid equal. I was there most weekends where as others were away at weekends going home. Most of us went hom for christmas and holidays but we all just shared the bills. The only time we didn't pay equally was when we all went home for 2 months in summer and only one flatmate stayed so he paid for those two months as he was the only one there. I think you should be paying it over christmas as otherwise it gets far too complicated.

Incisor

mu7861 wrote: »

Hi,
Moved into a rented house for the first time with two other students. We have an agreement on a A4 paper that we made, saying 'that any electricty and gas bills we all would share equally' and we all signed and dated. Over the christmas period, any bills that come on the address for electricty and gas, would i need to pay? as i would be home with family. Does the paper i signed, make me in a contract? if i refuse to pay, could it stand in court assuming providers take it that far?
thank you

If the paper was foolscap, it would definitely be a contract. Your mates could take you to court where you could try wriggling out of it on the basis that it was A4. But why cause grief with your mates, one of whom will have to pay up your share or face being sued by the providers.

Quentin

Incisor wrote: »

If the paper was foolscap, it would definitely be a contract.

If it was toilet paper it would be a contract (just as it would have been even if it wasn't written down at all - just verbally agreed between the 3 of them).

Cardew

I think the 'Fool' in Foolscap was irony!!