Moving into a house- what about bills?

TheDot

Hi guys, ive found a house that me and two other mates are considering renting out. It works out at £57 a week, obviosuly not including any bills.

As students we dont pay council tax but what I want to know is, what bills will we have to pay? I really dont have a clue about these things and just want to get a rough idea.

If anyone could give me a rough idea of how much bills will work out at (and i know it will have to be pretty rough) that would be great? Is it quaterly you have to pay them?

Any advice at all would be great, thanks everyone!

Davidboy

Hi, my daughter is just going through all this and she found the "old" tennants to be a useful source of in formation.

What she has found out is, Telephone + tv + broadband via NTL £30/m
Electric via meter "Key" apprx £15/m, gas £25/m as you say council no charge. Insurance up to you. TV Licence.

So 30 +15 + 25 = £70 / 3 = 23.33 each per month

So add your rent you will have something to go on. Of course plus food and a bit of booze!!

Of course you will have to be careful, no excess use of gas CH, wash loads together etc.

My daughter will be paying £42 per week rental, so all in all she will paying a lot less than she currently is in Halls.

Hope that helps.

D

hattie_pea

hey

when I first moved into a house after the first year in halls we agreed to set up a joint back account for the house. In actual fact 2 of the girls ran it as there were 6 of us.

We all agreed to pay £60 quid into the kitty at the beginning of term as at that point everyone had their loan and could just forget about bills then for the rest of term. WHen a bill came there was a healthy pot to pay it out from and I think that we only topped the kitty up once, and that was when we moved out. THink we ended up contributing an extra £10. You may even be able to cut the bills further by having paperless billing by managing accounts online. MOnthly direct debits are cheaper still! For your house of 3 I reckon £60 per term would be ample.

Would really recommend it as it saves all the i owe x £7 but he owes me £13 hoopla which is just a nightmare and can cause ill feeling. We also had a little housekeeping pot for toilet roll/bin bags/foil/light bulbs/w up liquid etc

Make sure you put the heating on when you need it not when you want it and run it at a sensbile temp - about 18 degrees; look at the temp on your water tank if you have one and make sure thats not running too high - if you have to add loads of cold water to your bath then its def too high! Make sure that everyone turns of lights and appliances that they are not using when they leave a room and never leave anything on standby - they reckon that 10% of a households annual electricty expenditure is for unproductive enery use such as the little LEDs that show the applaicne is on standby - amazing!

Hope this reminiscing has been helpful! Best of luck in your new home!!!!! x

TheDot

Thats some great advice, thankyou very much.

A kitty at the start of term seems like a great idea and I shall certainly be asking the current/soon to leave housemates for some info!

Thanks again and if anyone else has any advice, I would be very grateful!

Emmzi

Put one bill in each name so each of you has responsibility and is not tempted to shaft the others (as can happen with bills in ALL names-one can run out and others carry the can)

I know it seems like you'll all get along NOW....

Davidboy

Good point - My daughter is thinking about this now, and I am hoping that each will take resposibility for a bill, ie sign the contrat. Also a joint bank account as Hattie suggested is good idea.

D

freebie_junkie

you need one tv lisence between you (thsi can be paid off weekly with a card or bought all at once)

you will nedd to pay for gas (if you use it- is it a gas cooker or fire?), water and electricity (you can get a card that you pay a bit on each week for these its a lot easier than getting a big bill you all cant afford and it stops one person trying to back out of paying teh bills!)

i also suggest you take out personal posession insurance, this can be done individually, a specialist student insurance

nikkif_3

ive just moved out of hall and will be in a house, i thought if you were registered as a student with your landlord you have to have a TV license each. does anyone know anymore about this?

lavenderblue_3

nikkif wrote:

ive just moved out of hall and will be in a house, i thought if you were registered as a student with your landlord you have to have a TV license each. does anyone know anymore about this?

It depends on the type of contract you have. If you have a joint tenency agreement (ie you all sign on the same contract) then you only need one per house, no matter how many tellys you have. If however you have an individual contract with your landlord (ie the room number you are living in is quoted on your agreement and you each have to sign seperate contracts) then you need a seperate TV licence if you have your own TV in each bedroom PLUS a further one should you share a TV in the communual living space.

Davidboy

I also thought that if the bedrooms had "locks" that meant each had to have it's own tv licence? May be wrong!!

Also check your on the water bill...my daughters is included in the rent.


D