In a flatshare legally who has to pay the bills?

Plushchris

basmic wrote: »

I'd work it out as follows.

You live there 3 days out of 7 - so you should only have to 3/7 of the £190. That's £81.43 so far.

Three people live there - therefore you should only pay 1/3 of the £81.43, which comes to £27.15.

See how they like your calculations, but £27.15 is the most they'd see from my pockets towards the bill.

(((190/7)*3)*(1/3))

I would be happy with that if you shared a flat with me, as long as you made sure every electrical item in your room was unplugged at the mains, you were out of the house for exactly 72 hours and didnt leave a single item of food in the fridge or freezer.

Perelandra

basmic wrote: »

I'd work it out as follows.

You live there 3 days out of 7 - so you should only have to 3/7 of the £190. That's £81.43 so far.

Three people live there - therefore you should only pay 1/3 of the £81.43, which comes to £27.15.

See how they like your calculations, but £27.15 is the most they'd see from my pockets towards the bill.

(((190/7)*3)*(1/3))

I'm not sure if this calculation really works- by the same reasoning, the two people who are there for 7 days of the month would pay:

They live there 7 days out of 7 - so they should only have to 7/7 of the £190. That's £190.

Three people live there - therefore they should (each) only pay 1/3 of the £190. That's £63.33

So the total of the bill that would be paid until this method would be 63.33, + 63.33, + £27.15= £153.82 i.e. the full bill wouldn't be paid.


An alternative "fair" apportionment if the costs is to count the total number of days that people live in the property (7+7+3 = 17) and divide the bill on this basis. (So you'd pay 3/17 of the bill of £190). You'd pay £33.53, they'd pay £78.24 each, and the full bill would be paid.

Cardew

You really can't have a flat share and try to apportion costs on a 'who uses what' basis.

The OP might have a longer shower or deeper bath(think of the extra water used as well);)

What about cooking costs - the others have a sandwich, the OP boils an egg;)

Premier_2

Perelandra wrote: »

...An alternative "fair" apportionment if the costs is to count the total number of days that people live in the property (7+7+3 = 17) and divide the bill on this basis. (So you'd pay 3/17 of the bill of £190). You'd pay £33.53, they'd pay £78.24 each, and the full bill would be paid.

That's certainly a fairer way to calculate costs, but still doesn't take account of things that use electricity continuously e.g. fridge, freezer, clock on the microwave, phone/answermachine, etc. What if the bill includes a standing charge?
Does the OP really turn off everything she owns when not at the property e.g. router, electric clock, etc. My computer still burns over 20w when turned off; I can only stop it's consumption by switching off at the wall or pulling the plug out.

Also what if the 3 days the OP is at the flat are the 3 days that typically involve heavier usage? e.g. Sunday night might be bath night, Monday might be laundry day (ok, showing my age there I suppose!)

What about the 4 days the OP is not at the flat? Are the other flat sharers hermits? Or do they both go out on a Friday night and not use any electricity themselves?

This type of thread always reminds me of the Ben Elton "it was only a sausage" rant typical of so many house sharing situations. (Definitely worth finding and listening to if you haven't heard it - it is very funny but so true at the same time in many cases)
You either need to share in a house share or not go into a house share in the first place.

Perelandra

Sorry Premier and Cardew- you're absolutely right- I'd meant to add at the bottom of my post that whilst I think this is a (mathematically) better way than the original suggestion, it's still not very practical, and won't represent real usage properly!

muffintop

Pee wrote: »

You are all jointly and severally liable if your name is on the bill.

Only if there's an enforceable contract between the flatmates, which it doesn't sound to me that there is. The electric company will pursue the bill holder for unpaid bills (which was mentioned earlier) as the contract with the electricity company is with the named person on the bill.

You need a happy compromise, which will be a matter for you. If you refuse point blank to pay anything more than one third of three days' usage then that might make for a very unhappy household (but it might not - they might be happy to pay for the extra bill cost). If the housemates are not happy, they might take steps to sue you, but I think you would have a good argument for stating that there is no enforceable contract between you and, even if there is, you should pay a reduced sum.

Roses83

Thanks everyone for replying. It's a really messy situation and normally I'd be more than happy to pay a third of the bill and I always set out to pay a third of all bills. It's just the fact they are refusing to cut down on any of the unnecessary usage, the bills are ridiculously high and it now feels like I'm paying for them to live at the flat. I came home the other week to find all the downstairs electric heaters had been left on full for at least 14 hours with no one in the flat. Speaking to our electricity supplier and a number of electricians our immersion heater is effectively on "boost" when its switched on which uses premium cost electricity which explains why are bills are on so high.

In the small period of time I persuaded them to only switch it on when needed their showers were so long that I went for 3 weeks with cold showers. I don't use my electric heater as it's not needed now it's getting warmer, I switch everything off in my room at the plug when I'm not there and only switch things on for the period in which I need them and I don't keep anything in the fridge..then at the end of the quarter I'm presented with a £200 bill!

Roses83

I contacted the electricity supplier yesterday and they told me that the account holder is responsible for paying the bill. In that case I can phone them and have it removed as it wasn't done with my permission. However if she sent the tenancy agreement in which has my name on all our names would be added and we would all be liable for paying it.

It just seems there is a gap in the law to protect flatsharers. I effectively don't know these people but I'm expected to contribute towards their electricity usage

Cardew

Roses83 wrote: »

Speaking to our electricity supplier and a number of electricians our immersion heater is effectively on "boost" when its switched on which uses premium cost electricity which explains why are bills are on so high.

Just one point.

Your immersion heater is not the cause of your high bills.

An immersion heater has a thermostat so switches off when the water has reached the set temperature. If it didn't, like a kettle, the water would boil.

As said above, the difference between leaving it switched on 24/7 and timed is probably £1 a week and in any case the heat lost from the Hot water tank warms the house,(think of it as a small radiator) so the net cost in an all electric house is tiny.

Leaving the downstairs electric heaters on is another matter entirely - that seriously wastes electricity.