Student house - bills

TheEffect

Me and some friends have just paid the deposit on a 8 bedroom house for September.

To be honest, they're very laid back and didn't put hardly any effort into house hunting, so I did most of it.

Now I'm thinking of the bills and how we should go about this. I can see us going without electric and hot water if any of them are left to sort the bills out, so it looks like I'm doing it.

I suggested to them that I'll open a bank account, they can all setup a monthly standing order for £40 each into the bank account, and all the bills will come out of that. Whatever is left in the bank account at the end of the year, we'll split 8 ways.

The only concern I have is, if all the bills are in my name, am I left with debt collectors after me if say they run up a £500 electric bill and don't pay it?

Any advice on this would be helpful! 8 students who have never lived away from home together is recipe for disaster when it comes to bills.

Lokolo

If you are incharge of gas and electric and internet and TV.

If they don't pay, change the password on the router and therefore they get no internet. When they've paid they will get internet back.

Works a treat

TheEffect

Lokolo wrote: »

If you are incharge of gas and electric and internet and TV.

If they don't pay, change the password on the router and therefore they get no internet. When they've paid they will get internet back.

Works a treat

This is a great idea.

They're actually all getting free broadband as it is, because DSA are paying for all of my broadband while at university, so they wont have to pay anything.

melancholly

even if you organise paying the bills, put different bills in different names (and preferably in more than one name!). spread the responsibility. taking it all on yourself is a bad bad bad bad bad idea!

bloss0m

If you dont get who pays what sorted out and you are the bill payer the companies will pursue you for any money due so make sure everyone pays there fair share

marywooyeah

your worries are very valid and you are right to be concerned that you will be liable if they dont pay their share - cos you will liable!
I have lived in shared houses before where two people opened a joined account which all the bills came out of and everyone paid a set amount in each month and that worked well, until one person "forgot to pay" or another paid in late etc and we started getting bank charges for returned direct debits.
It sounds like you will be doing most of the work but its a lot of debt to take on if they don't pay so I would ask another housemate or 2 (not sure how many people you can have on one account) to set up a joint one with you

HappyMJ

I'd get them to set up a £10 weekly standing order rather than monthly with maybe £40 to start for the connection charges and initial deposits on the utilities such as the TV Licence it's either due all at once or a bigger amount for the first 6 months then free for the last 6 months. It's easier to chase up £10 late payments rather than £40. It won't be so bad if they are late paying. Are you sure that £80 a week will cover all the bills? The winter will be much bigger than Spring and Autumn so maybe charge more for Dec, Jan and Feb. Will you be providing the basics such as toilet paper and cleaning stuff too? £15 per week per person sounds better to me. You could reduce it around April-May if there is some room to reduce it. Keep all the receipts account for it properly and no one should complain.

xrjtg

Here's a standard warning about something that occasionally confuses.

If you have a joint bank account then the money isn't owned equally by all the account holders, they all have the right to withdraw the lot at any time.

If you have multiple names on bills then every person named can be chased for the full value of any debts.

The safest method might be to put one thing in each person's name, then settle up monthly.

ultimatedingbat

Me and my house mate have a joint. We were told by the bank up to 3 names on the account but it could be set so that there was no card with the account, and no access without all signatories. Split the bills in terms of names.

TheEffect

Thanks for all the responses. I'm not happy about having a joint bank account with any of them, as we'd be financially. I'm happy to sort the bank account out, however I'll suggest that all of us pick a bill to have in our own names and just give the same bank details.

archersluck

I have a bills account and we all pay in £100 when loan comes in. Has worked well for 3 years now. Either ask for a lump sum or get monthly/weekly standing orders set up as others suggested, don't rely on people handing over cash!

Spread the bills around, though some companies will only let the bank account holder be named. If that happens you can still often get another person named as well so you're jointly liable. So if Fred Bloggs has the bank account you could get Fred Bloggs and Jane Brown listed on the electricity bill.

Hope it all goes well, I'm the bill organiser in my house and it can be a pain but I'd rather know we were on top of things. Plus if you go through a cashback site to get your gas&electricity etc you can earn about £50. I see that as my reward for being the organised one!