Great 'Flatmate MoneySaving' Hunt

hbk619

One golden rule:

NEVER get a joint contract with someone you don't know, or friend-of-a-friend.

I did this and he decided he couldn't be bothered to work or fill in housing benefits forms, stopped paying rent to the tune of £1500. My dad got contacted as he's my guarrantor (which technically makes him liable, NOT what our estate agents told us) and ruined any relationship I was building with him. After 3 months he finally told his mum and she paid up.

The waste of space I lived with left lights/ovens/tvs on and managed to increase our summer electricity bill by at least £60 (yes summer, when you're supposed to use LESS electric), and didn't have any money to pay it! The friend we shared has had to cover him on it and we're still owed over £200 altogether. This is our last month and we're 99% sure he isn't going to pay, leaving us with more late payment charges and no chance of getting any deposit back.

This happened to our landlady and a few other people I've spoken to so NEVER get a joint contract with someone you don't know! Also we shared food at the start but it was costing us like £20 a week because the waste of oxygen eats about 6 meals a day (proper meals as well). When we stopped my food bill went down to around £8 a week. Much better. He also never contributed to toilet roll, cleaning or anything. We had no legal way to kick him out, asked him to leave but he wouldn't.

Also if you're paying by DD for water, regulary check you're not over paying, we got a letter 6 months in saying we were £134 in credit and they were going to raise our DD. Quick phone call later that they knocked £20 a month off it.

Get a pre-pay meter for gas... we'd probably be about £1000 in debt from gas alone without that. Made us realise how much it costs and as everyone was broke we went without heating for the winter. (Yup, 6 inches of snow and we had no heating). Then Mr. No money got an electric heater, which I went crazy about. His response? "give a sh**?"

Contents insurance is only valid if there's a lock on the your bedroom door, which conveniently also means you need a seperate TV license (if you have a tv in your room of course).

Be VERY careful about what you leave in shared spaces (kitchen, living room). Someone's eaten my cutlery (well its vanished at least), almost pulled the hat off my Dopey dwarf (which is very special to me and luckily I could sow it back on). DVD's have been scratched and various other things just "stop working".

Respond to baliff letters for previous tenants. We've had one knock on our door and made about 6 phone calls, all for different things, but ringing them saves you (and them) time and hassle.

In summary: always ask for a room let if the person/people you're moving in with aren't long term friends who have shown they can budget and work hard. DONT move in with people you don't know. DONT share food if one of you eats more/is overweight. Only leave things you don't mind being broken in the living room, it is amazing how little respect supposed friends have for your stuff. Report every tiny fault to the person doing the inspection/estate agent. Stops you getting ripped off at the end of your contract.

System

I got lucky this year, bills and internet included in rent! In previous years we've each taken a bill in our name then split it when it came, that always worked for us. Would never get a joint account. Next year only have one flatmate but we'll just split things 50/50. Think i'm taking internet(phone/tv) and water and he's taking gas and electricty.

We have a jar that everyone chucks spare change in and this usually goes towards toilet rolls etc

One of my housemates got royally screwed over by someone he shared with/the letting company as he was thousands of pounds in arrears and none of them got their deposit back till he paid up.

zebra0

If there is any damage to the property when you move in, or if it has been left in a bad state, make a list of all of the damage and give this to the letting agent / landlord. You could also e-mail them so there is a record of it, and taking photos with a digital camera or mobile phone is a good idea. In one flat I shared with 3 others, we were charged £40 at the end of the tenancy for a stain on the carpet which was there when we moved in! This was after we spent a long time making sure the place was clean.

I've noticed that some letting agencies / landlords charge a fee for "cleaning" at the end of tenancies, if a house is not clean enough. But they don't always actually pay for a cleaner, and may leave the cleaning to the next people who move in. The "cleaning" charge is really a penalty charge, as they know you will not be there to see whether they send in a cleaner.

In my last flat the agency gave me a list of things that had to be cleaned, and I cleaned all of them before moving out (except for maybe the skirting boards). It is harder when there is lots of mess which was not caused by you, as you are less motivated to clean up after other people.

Taking photographs of any damage when you move in is a good idea. If there is a dispute later, e.g. about how much of the bond should be returned, photographs are useful evidence. They can be used at the small claims court, or uploaded if you use an online dispute resolution service. Also keep all documents, contracts, all letters from landlords, and agencies, in a safe place so you can refer to them easily.

Nemesis201077

I have owned and let room in my property for about the past 7 years and have had few problems.
As the owner I have always had all the bills going from my account via direct debit each month as this is mostly the cheapest method and ensures they are always paid up to date. The tennants all pay me via direct debit to avoid late payments, and I often arrange the first months rental pro-rata to ensure all subsequent payments are made at the end of the month before the bills go out.
We also have a £5 per person kitty which goes towards cleaning products, toilet roll etc as it's best I take responsibility for doing this, we tried doing it in turns initially, but fond the tennants would buy 2 rolls of 'happy shopper' toilet paper that were gone with one wipe and think that was sufficient.
I set the rent I charge based on the local average for similar properties and areas and always have full occupancy, perhaps with just an odd month each year. You should try to save some money as a contingency fund in case you do have a period where some of the rooms are un-occupied, but if you're in the right area and advertise correctly this shouldn't be a major issue.
As a live-in landlord it's easy to keep an eye on the way people treat the place, even though I am a very friendly chap I always have the respect and authority over my tenants. Ensure you document ground rules, tems of notice and useful info on how to use the dishwasher etc and get them to sign it, then there can be no arguments. We also have a section for them to complete regarding next of kin, in case something should happen to them we'd need to know who to contact.
We have a policy of 2 weeks notice, so if someone does something so bad we have to get rid of them it's documented and we make sue to enforce it. I usually am able to fill a vacant room within 2-3 weeks.
Most people do use a mobiles these days, so the phone has never been an issue, but I do check the bills regularly.
I did find that getting the right insurance that covered shared houses actually worked out cheaper (by about £7 a month) than my original B&C insurance through Direct line and it also provided the cover I needed.
I've made sure I have energy efficient light bulbs/boilers/washing machines/ fridges etc to help keep the bills lower and always shop around when contracts expire to find a better deal.
I also stopped advertising rooms in the local paper as I was seeing increasingly poor responses. I now just advertise for free on Gumtree. To make this as effective as possible you need to register your advert once per day to keep it at the top of the list. Aim to pu it on each day at 11-11:30am as it will still be high in the listings at lunch time (when people check it at work) you may alo want to try re-posting the advert at say 5pm when people are going to see it from home.
We do not let to students/DSS and never decide whether to accept someone as a tenant without discussing them and have a couple of people view. we want to ensure they are trustworthy and will fit in with the age range and dynamic of the house. Don't rush and take the first person that views, make sure you check them out including references if needs be. Quite often we will ask for references, and if they are happy to provide them, great, if they cannot prouce them, there may ba a problem.

Talent

mozzawatt wrote: »

Hi
I share with four other adults - we have a list of communal items that we all contribute to and share and it is posted on the fridge.
List (Milk, butter, bread, olive oil, loo roll, cleaning products). Every month everyone puts in £15 and that goes toward having a cleaner once a week and paying for shared items.

What? £75 a MONTH pays for all that for 5 people PLUS a cleaner once a week. You're having us on. The cleaner would want that after 'doing' for 5 once a week.

natzsav

Help advice needed please,
I rent out my spare room to a friend and the last 3 months she has had her girlfriend staying approximately 5/6 nights a week and they are always together at my house.
she has occassionally done some gardening and has cleaned the house once ( this is the girlfriend) the housemate does none.
I am a very soft homeowner who needs the extra income per month as i charge £340 per month for a double furnished room everything included.
I have noticed a rise in my bills, I was hoping for opinions on what i should ask the girlfriend to contribute for her staying so often, if any?
Hope you can help, very new only just joined, this is my first post!

LadyV1983

Hi Natzsav,

I would suggest firstly having a word with your housemate and politely point out that her staying over pretty much every night isn't really fair and if she is going to be there most of the time she should contribute towards bills (how much is really up to you). He will then either have the choice of seeing her less/going to hers or paying up. Seems fair to me.

I had a pretty similar problem, my ex flatmate moved her boyfriend in because he was going through a divorce and he didn't contribute anything except shaving hair in the sink. I have my boyfriend over about 4 times a week, but we always hang-out in my room, and he rarely uses the facilities (shower, washing machine etc) and always helps out with odd jobs, whereas my ex house mates boyfriend was showering a couple of times a day and doing all his washing in my house and generally making a mess (walked dog poo through the house once). Nightmare! Eventually they moved out and got a place together alone. Phew!

I would also draw up a cleaning rota, for yourself and your housemate (not the girlfriend as technically she doesn't live there) if he choses to let her do his share instead of him I would say thats fine so long as the cleaning duties are shared equally and you're not doing more than your fair share.

I have a rota of areas (bathroom/kitchen/living area) and we all do one a week.

We also have a list of all communal things to buy (toilet roll, cleaning products, light bulbs, handwash, washing-up liquid and sponges/dusters, bin bags etc) and we make a note of who bought it last, so we know who's turn it is the buy it next. We also have a list for things like gardening or cleaning floors and who did them last.

All my bills except gas/electric are included in my rent, and this is split equally between the three of us every quarter, but will shortly be every month.

I hope this helps a little. Vx

Kaos_2

Wow, I think I'm very lucky. I have lived with friends for a total of 12 years now. We've been in the same house now for 9 years. There are 5 of us, me (female) and 4 blokes (one of which is my partner). Old housemartes have moved out and new ones moved in over the 9 years but we are all friends and all from the same group of friends, if that makes sense.
We all get along really well. I happened to have a spare current account when we moved into this house and was happy to take on the financial responsibility as I knew I could make the most savings and get the cheapest goods etc. Everyone pays a certain amount into my spare account at the beginning of each month which covers rent, all services (Gas, Electric, Water, TV Licence, Council Tax, Broadband, Phone inc 24/7 free calls (makes life so much easier!), contents insurance, cleaning materials etc) and appliances such as washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, kettle etc are also bought from that account.
We leave a healthy balance in the account (more than the monthly rent, just in case!), although if it gets too high by Christmas I tell everyone to pay less that month! Equally, if something comes up and we need a little extra in the account, everyone is happy to pay a little extra one month.
I'm obviously very lucky that the housemates all trust me to do the right thing with their money, and where I'm the one who has to keep an eye on things and do any purchasing, at least it leaves me in charge so that I can always go to local discount shops and buy in bulk for things like toilet paper (I buy 120 rolls at a time, lol!)
We buy all our own food and laundry items etc as there is no way we could share food, we are all so different... we have different lives and different tastes.

I suspect we have a slightly different situation to many on here as we rent the house as a house, not on a room by room basis. We are all liable for all of the rent. If someone leaves, it is our responsibility to find another person or each pay a little more rent (although we have a queue of people who would like to move in so we have no problems finding replacements).

We have a rotating cleaning rota and we each tend to clean on a Sunday, although it can be done any day of the week. This week I am on bathrooms (yuck) then next week I'll be on kitchen (including emptying the dishwasher for the week), then hoovering, then gardening. We have the rota on the fridge door and tick off when we've done our cleaning. Once a month we each have to do something "extra" cleaning wise such as wash the windows or clean out the fridge or something like that. If someone doesn't do their cleaning one week, they have to do it the following week in addition to whatever cleaning they are on that week. The housemate who follows them on the rota gets a week off! That is generally incentive enough for everyone to do their cleaning on time as no-one wants anyone else to get a week off! LOL!

All in all, I love sharing a house with friends. I would hate the thought of sharing with someone I didn't know previously though. I love the fact that at any time of the day there is someone around if you fancy a chinwag and there is always a strong bloke around to help out poor little me, lol. If we run out of something, someone will be happy to lend you it, if something breaks, someone has the expertise to fix it, and above all else, we pay a tiny amount of rent compared to other people in the area! Because the house is rented as a "family" house (yes they know and are happy with there being 5 adults), the rent is reasonable for a "family" to pay, which, when split between 5, is a fraction of what it would cost to rent a room in this
student town.

Not sure what else to say, apart from I would like to ask where other sharers get their contents insurance from? We're lucky that we found an insurer willing to cover the 5 of us (with no locks on our bedroom doors) and although they no longer offer that service to new customers, we are able to renew it for as long as we like. Of course I panic every year that that might change and have never been able to find a viable alternative. I never want to use Endsleigh as I am a previous very unsatisfied customer and it would cost more per person for individual cover than we currently pay for the whole house!

Long post over... if anyone wants to ask any questions about how we all manage to live harmoniously, feel free

:beer:

harryhound

Presumably it is not a 3 story building?

Kaos_2

harryhound wrote: »

Presumably it is not a 3 story building?

Ours?
Nope, standard detached with ground floor and 1st floor.