Advice needed for moving into a new student house!

andyuk2005

Hi All!

Like many other students I'm going to be moving into a new house this year for Uni. My contract starts this July and I plan to moving in then as its somewhere to stay during the summer. But I have a few questions about moving in including bills and other stuff:

1. Should I conduct an inspection report so the landlord can't charge us for items which were damaged before we moved in?

2. Previous 12month contracts for services such as gas/electricity etc probebly run over into the time that I'll be living there. I might wish to change providers so what options do I have to cancelling these contracts or making the previous owners pay them off?

3. Because no individual wants the whole burden of a bill on them to pay, is there a way a bill can be spread between tenants such as a multiple named bill, or a joint bank account for the tenants? What are the advantages/disadvantages etc.

Erm thats all the questions I can think of at the moment. Ofcourse Ill be updating answers if I find any out aswell! :j

Thanks,

Andy

StudentSaver_2

Hi

I'm in exactly the same position. We're moving into our new house in September.

The first 2 questions...I don't know. I'll be watching this thread for the answers too!

As for the 3rd question - that's something we've looked into. We went into several banks and asked if there was an account that allowed all of us to be the account holders, as none of us wants to get lower credit ratings due to a bill not clearing properly or something. What all the banks said was to open a club account. However, when I looked into this, one person is named as the club treasurer, which leads me to believe that this person will be in trouble if something isn't paid on time/there isn't enough money in the account.

I know it's a case of making sure the money's there and that the bill is paid on time, but this can sometimes be easier said than done.

flossy_splodge

Q1) you should get an inventory from your landlord and this should include damage reports. PLEASE do not assume because landlords are sweety sweety at point of getting you to sign up to THEIR property that they are nice people and all will be well. The best way is to require a printed copy of the inventory and go through it WITH the landlord on the DAY you move in. If agreed you both sign and both have a copy. (Used to be called 'marching in' in the forces!).
Q2)YOU may not be free to change suppliers for services. Need to check with landlord. Is most likely that he effectively re bills you but he stays as the named account holder. Might be able to negotiate otherwise but don't assume it is the same as if you had bought the house, it isn't.
Q3) A really bad idea in my opinion. You could consider working on the basis of a little trust. Set up one of your housemates as the 'financier' (that's why I said you need trust!) and all house mates need to pay to the financier a pre agreed amount to cover bills. This can be invested to generate some excess for party time at end of lease BUT sorry to say, personally I WOULDN'T hand over my money to ANYONE on trust! Amazing how easily friends become not friends when you're at UNi and then what! Better to forgo a bit of interest and all stay in touch with the money. Sorry to be negative but a bit late if the one chosen drinks the electricity money!!!! :eek: Good luck

jr666

andyuk2005 wrote:

Hi All!

Like many other students I'm going to be moving into a new house this year for Uni. My contract starts this July and I plan to moving in then as its somewhere to stay during the summer. But I have a few questions about moving in including bills and other stuff:

1. Should I conduct an inspection report so the landlord can't charge us for items which were damaged before we moved in?

2. Previous 12month contracts for services such as gas/electricity etc probebly run over into the time that I'll be living there. I might wish to change providers so what options do I have to cancelling these contracts or making the previous owners pay them off?

3. Because no individual wants the whole burden of a bill on them to pay, is there a way a bill can be spread between tenants such as a multiple named bill, or a joint bank account for the tenants? What are the advantages/disadvantages etc.

Erm thats all the questions I can think of at the moment. Ofcourse Ill be updating answers if I find any out aswell! :j

Thanks,

Andy

1. Yes defo.

2. if u switch contractors then they will very likely pay off the old companies for your business. investigate.

3. Set up a jointy account. It will have to be a "clubs adnd societies account" as there will be more than 2 people (5- 6 ppl maybe??) we've done this and it worked great for bills and food.

We set up our account with natwest "clubs and soc's account" go 4 that. very easy. tell all your gas/elec/water/telewest that thats the account and all house mates put in about £50 p/m

happy 2 answer more questions

ask away

J

Ryan.Maloney

andyuk2005 wrote:

Hi All!

Like many other students I'm going to be moving into a new house this year for Uni. My contract starts this July and I plan to moving in then as its somewhere to stay during the summer. But I have a few questions about moving in including bills and other stuff:

1. Should I conduct an inspection report so the landlord can't charge us for items which were damaged before we moved in?

2. Previous 12month contracts for services such as gas/electricity etc probebly run over into the time that I'll be living there. I might wish to change providers so what options do I have to cancelling these contracts or making the previous owners pay them off?

3. Because no individual wants the whole burden of a bill on them to pay, is there a way a bill can be spread between tenants such as a multiple named bill, or a joint bank account for the tenants? What are the advantages/disadvantages etc.

Erm thats all the questions I can think of at the moment. Ofcourse Ill be updating answers if I find any out aswell! :j

Thanks,

Andy

From experience I know there are always big arguments about who's name should be on the bill

This is what you could do, but it's immoral and wrong

when you move in, ring up all the utilities with a made up name - Daniel Smith

Every month pay the bills as normal.

If there are arguments about the very last bill when you all move out, they will send out legal threats, court papers etc. for someone who doesn't even exist. :rotfl:

I suppose that's consumer revenge. But it's wrong - so don't do it.


I used to work for BT - it's so easy to get your name PUT ON A BILL - but for it to be removed they DEMAND you send in loads of official paperwork to prove you no longer live there!

holstar

what we did was, put different peoples names on different bills. out of the 9 of us in the house, persons 1 & 2 were named on electricity, persons 3 &4 on gas etc. For bank account, we had a club/society one as mentioned previously, which gave us a cheque book but no card, and cheques needed 2 signatures...so would be difficult to spend any money without other people knowing about it.
Also, we arranged to all pay into the account over the first summer of the rental period, ie, when we were at home and earning money in summer jobs, so when we got back in september, there would (theoretically) be enough money in there to last the whole year....we worked out approx how much the bills would be, added some extra money as leeway and divided it by 9. Any left over was either split equally between the group at the end of the year or we'd have a house party at end of year.

sophlowe45

We had different people put their names on the account for different bills, someone signed up for gas and electricity and someone else for internet, TV license.

Its best to cover your back as i've heard of so many people having problems getting money from their housemates i was shocked!!! We left the bills on the living room table and gave each other cheques ASAP when bills came through with no problem! I couldn't believe other people didn't do that but that's life i guess!

andyuk2005

Thanks for the replies everyone, I think it would be an idea for us to set up the club account sounds like a good idea. As for the landlord being the only person who can change providers I will investigate and post back here asap!

Looking forward to the end of year house party everyone is talking about!!

flossy_splodge

If you go the 'club account' route check how many signatories are allowed or else you could still be looking at a problem if only say 2 are set up and they disagree that any bill should be split evenly. (know of circumstances where in a house, just ONE person perpetually left the heating on and lights switched on etc etc and in the end the other housemates did not feel it was fair that they had to share this persons poor moneysaving skills!!). Good luck.:T

lolly-i-pop

I am also moving into a house next year and hadn't considered any of this stuff.
It sounds like a great idea to save up during the summer, but roughly how much would the bills be, bearing in mind that there are 6 of us l;iving in the house?
cheers

melancholly

this club account thing sounds great - i'm (still) living in a shared house and we'd like to get a better deal by using direct debits - thank you!