2nd Year of Uni - The Hassle of sorting out bills (ADVICE NEEDED)

life_nit

Moving into a 2nd year house with people i don't know so well. One of the girls who has elected to move in before others has been asking me to sort out the internet provider, so i thought i would do some roaming for a good deal. Done that.

Now... bearing in mind she's the only one to have moved in, surely we can't actually sort out the bill handling and stuff until we are all there in the house right, and discuss how we are going to do it?

She said to me you normally have a 'lead' in the house, who has the bills debited to their account, and they manage it. Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems unfair on 1 person having to do all this them-self and having to chase up other people in the house on additional bill charges for ringing their family on a non weekend or something silly like that.

I then said "i doubt anyone is going to volunteer to have a few hundred quid swiped out of their account each month".

She then said her parents would not allow her to manage any bills and that she would not be willing to do it, after my suggestion of putting names in a hat for each provider.

Maybe im getting a bit ahead of myself trying to be organised 2 weeks in advance, but i feel there is a lot to be done, and the sooner we talk about the better it will be when we start lectures.

I really would like to know of peoples' experiences with living with others in 2nd/3rd year houses, and how they came to some kind of formal arrangement of managing bills please.

much appreciated,
D

Lokolo

I was incharge of all the bills in my house only because I know it will be paid. And I can cut people off from the internet and withhold their deposit if they decide to try and get away with not paying.

Most people take charge of one bill each; water, gas, elec, broadband. Then get money from people when need be.

However if the person has already moved in she should have taken meter readings already.... Has she done this?

bestpud

This is a bit of a minefield and all I can say is don't be the mug who agrees to have it all in their name - my cousin did this and was left up the proverbial creek!

The uni would do nothing to help either so there is no back up if you find yourself in that situation.

The fairest option is for everyone to have one bill imo and nobody gets away with it. Stand your ground, although I know it can be easier said than done.

Oh, and you shouldn't be paying utility bills for the person who is living there now - read all the meters when you move in and pay from that point on.

divastrop

Do the bills have to be paid by direct debit or can you get budgeting cards for them whereby you pay the amount agreed with the provider at whatever intervals you choose? I don't know if those schemes are only available to people on certain benefits or if they are available to everyone, but I would think everybody getting their share of the cash together then going and paying the bill in advance would be fairer than one person possibly having problems with direct debits.

Mankysteve

There always a mug usually me.

who ever takes bills just make it clear any no payment will mean a PAG will be installed dont mess around just do it if anyone f's about.

Who ever had the internet ask for the term in advance, again that person the only one who know the router logins and use a router that can MAC address filter, no payment no internet.

Try and spread as much as possible

Water rates and tv licence pay up front.

Oh yeah and as above poster say take a meter reading the day you move in.

melancholly

if she's a second year student then she should act like an adult, take responsibility for a bill herself and try to manage her finances without needing her parents to take every decision! (well that's the polite version of 'needs a slap for trying to palm everything off on other people and using bad excuses')

everyone should have a bill each - it is a very bad idea for one person to have them all, especially if you don't know each other!

devildog

bestpud Read your bit re you shouldn't be paying for utilities for person who is there now and to do a meter reading when you move in-fair point I thought(dd and 1 other moving into their accom 2 weeks before other 2 houseshare mates) So I did mention this to her however (as she pointed out) do you then do a meter reading everytime one of the students goes away for the weekend or home for a 'reading week' or whatever?

LittleMrsThrifty

I lived with two other girls in my second year. I wasn't actually using my student bank account or 0% overdraft (I went with HSBC for the free railcard, but had banked with the Halifax for years so stuck with them) so I had all the bills in my name debited out of that account. It started on £0 and we all put in £100/month (I think) to cover water, gas, electricity, tv licence, bt phone line and broadband. If we had extra in the account we all missed a month and at the end of the contract we split the account credit 3 ways.

HOWEVER, this only worked because I'm very organised and I trusted the other two girls I lived with. If I had any doubts I wouldn't have done it. The options are basically to either each take on one or two bills (and that means everyone) or all have your names on all the bills so that way you are all responsible. I'm not sure how practical this is though and there are some that do have to be paid by direct debit (like broadband I think).

How long has the girl been in the house already? If it's just a couple of weeks I would let it go as she'll not have had the heating on and unless you think she'll have the lights on all day and water running through the night then it's probably not enough money to worry about - it could be a bargaining tool to get her name on a bill.

nimbo

if she says she won't take responsibility for any of the bills do the same - she'll soon change her mind when she has no internet as she seems so eager to get it sorted.

taking a fair share each seems to be the fairest option.

she will have to take responsibility for something, it's unfair on the rest of you if she doesn't - i'd also be wary incase she knows that she will be the one that's always 'short' of cash on bill day. each house tends to have one - we were a housefull of 10, and one girl would be hell.

i'll never forget the day the letting agents turned up to see her for rent, and she told someone to lie, and say she wasn't in, when they could obvously hear her, the second girl went downstairs, and said i presume you heard her. fancy a cup of tea while you wait?

echelon101

LittleMrsThrifty wrote: »

It started on £0 and we all put in £100/month (I think) to cover water, gas, electricity, tv licence, bt phone line and broadband. If we had extra in the account we all missed a month and at the end of the contract we split the account credit 3 ways.

HOWEVER, this only worked because I'm very organised and I trusted the other two girls I lived with. If I had any doubts I wouldn't have done it.

I did this, it worked well. I split the account when we finished we our house. We were all friends and trusted each other (me). Set up a standing order each month of £45, had about £100 each to split at the end of 3 years.

Indie_Kid

life_nit wrote: »

She then said her parents would not allow her to manage any bills.

Why? isn't this part of going to uni? Becoming a responsible young adult and learning to budget and pya your way.