Student house - bills

jayme1

you could set up a joint bank account which they all pay into each week/month, but I would not set up a direct debit to pay the bills, esp as you would be tied into a 12 month contract with a penalty fee if you leave before the 12 months (which would happen if you move in in september and move out in june) the pay quarterly when you get the bill is a much better option with no minimum term and the prich per kwh and m3 is the same (or sometimes cheaper)
then when you get the bill you draw on the joint bank account and pay it off.
also this way you can put all 8 names on each of the bills so that will give them an incentive to never stop paying.

personally I didnt do the joint bank account bit (as it can be a pain) rung up gas/elec place up, gave them the meter reading and set up an account in all of the names, then every 3 months they sent us a bill, I checked the meter reading to make sure they got it correct (if it wasnt, or not very close) I rung them up and gave them the correct reading, they sent a new bill, at which point I divided it between everyone, they gave me the cash and I went and payed it ready for the next bill.
then when you move out ring them up with a final meter reading and they send you a bill split that and pay it done.
this was best for us (as we were students) we were free to move to better houses/switch landlords every year.

but as you say if you cannot rely on them to pay up then it is best to get some cash in advance and save it up and then any extra at the end of the year back to them, but I would still choose the quarterly payment option.

also if you set up a bank account that they pay into choose one with an interest rate (you might as well make that money work for you! :P)

rozmister

jayme1 wrote: »

you could set up a joint bank account which they all pay into each week/month, but I would not set up a direct debit to pay the bills, esp as you would be tied into a 12 month contract with a penalty fee if you leave before the 12 months (which would happen if you move in in september and move out in june) the pay quarterly when you get the bill is a much better option with no minimum term and the prich per kwh and m3 is the same (or sometimes cheaper)

That's not correct for all bill providers. In my house last year we paid everything by D/D every month and when we left we had absolutely no problem. We were only in the house Sept - July and the only thing we had to pay cancellation on was Virgin broadband which doesn't apply to OP. You don't sign any contract when you agree to pay by D/D except one authorising them to take the money and if they asked you to sign a contract I'd be very concerned who you were getting your utilities from! However I have known people be refused the D/D option due to poor credit history.

Chip_Tuesday

the way me and my housemates did it worked well for the 2 years we were sharing. There were 5 of us and each year we would each take turns in paying for different things, we brok it down in the following way:

Housemate (HM) - task

HM1 - Head tennant, deals with landlord/lettings company

HM2 - TV licence

HM3 - Gas & Electric (dual fuel was cheapest for us so all in 1 was easy)

HM4 - Water

HM5 - Broadband

This way we all had some responsibility (although in our case the TV licence was a 1 off payment, and head tennant role was easy until end of the tennancy), and the names on bills were different. As for payment we set up direct debits to each other, it was a bot of a faff setting it all up, but none of us fancied a joint account (even though we all trusted each othere we didn't want any joint liability issues).

This all worked fine for us, but I know people who did the joint account thing which worked out fine too.

Also it might be worth finding out if your new house has pay-as-you-go fuel, where you have a little stick thing that you top up at the post office (or corner shop with a Pay Point machine). This is a VERY easy way of doing student fuel as it also lets everyone know how much yyou're using how quickly. It also means you don't run up a massive deficit.

CT

ps. Have an awesome time at uni, savour every moment!

Awec

My housemate and I are joint names on the electric. When the bill comes in the post, it has both our names on it. Our gas is a top up system, and I pay the TV / internet.

Our landlord is happy enough to take a cheque from each of us for the rent so that sorts that out too.

If you are going to pay it all yourself, I recommend that you keep proper records of who has paid for what as I have done it in the past and it can be hard to keep track. At the end of every calendar month or whatever, just total it up and tell them to transfer it in. It's 2011 , they should all have internet banking and they should all be able to do it there and then.

David_Brent

TheEffect wrote: »

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.

Put each of your housemates names on the the bills so you are all liable for any costs. If it is just in your name you will be liable for any charges that your housmates rack up (dont take the risk)!!! If taking turns in paying between 8 people its to difficult to keep track of and one or two may leave etc.

Also if you were to pay gas/elec over dec/jan period you would pay more obvioulsy becasue it is a lot colder! Your flatmates may be paying over the summer where they would hardly pay much in elec etc so leaves it unfair in my opinion taking turns in paying bills. Get all your names on the bills safest way - because guaranteed there will be at least one that tries not to pay his share or runs out of money and the guy with his name on the bill takes the flack.

Chip_Tuesday

we did the bill sharing thing on an annual basis, monthly would have been disasterous!

CT

Awec

Chip_Tuesday wrote: »

we did the bill sharing thing on an annual basis, monthly would have been disasterous!

CT

This would work if you trust your housemates to have enough money to square you up at the end of the year.

jayme1

rozmister wrote: »

That's not correct for all bill providers. In my house last year we paid everything by D/D every month and when we left we had absolutely no problem. We were only in the house Sept - July and the only thing we had to pay cancellation on was Virgin broadband which doesn't apply to OP. You don't sign any contract when you agree to pay by D/D except one authorising them to take the money and if they asked you to sign a contract I'd be very concerned who you were getting your utilities from! However I have known people be refused the D/D option due to poor credit history.

true not all companies may tie you into the 12 months but for the cheapest fuel for us (per kWh and m^3) was quarterly, the only way to pay by direct debit you had to sign up for dual fuel which gave you £100 back at the end of 12 months, sounds good apart from we were only in the house from sep-june and there was an £80 fee for both gas and elec to leave before the 12 months were up.

plus I find paying quarterly so much easier, you get the bill check it and pay it, with D/D so much more can go wrong like someones D/D failed to get to the payment account then the bill D/D bounces.

even when you sign up to pay by D/D you have to check you are billed buy them reading the meter and not an average usage per year tariff which can either charge you not enough leaving you with an massive bill or you pay too much which you can find nigh on impossible to get your money back.

Chip_Tuesday wrote: »

Also it might be worth finding out if your new house has pay-as-you-go fuel, where you have a little stick thing that you top up at the post office (or corner shop with a Pay Point machine). This is a VERY easy way of doing student fuel as it also lets everyone know how much yyou're using how quickly. It also means you don't run up a massive deficit.

whereas it is true you won't run up massive debts as you can keep an eye on how much you are spending using a PAYG meter, you should be warned that prepayment meters have outragous fees and you will likely end up paying tens if not hundreds of pounds more over the course of your tennancy than paying either quarterly or by direct debit.

tinkerbel

Jut my input:
We got bills quarterly (elec and gas) and twice annually (water).
Every time we got an elec bill we checked the meter and updated it (if it was miles out i.e. ALL THE TIME!) online. Then a few days later they sent us a new bill (we'd rather pay what we owe over the year than get stuck with a huge bill!)
We'd take it in turns to pay the whole bill with everyone else sending 1/4 of the cost to the other person. this worked ok and if someone didn't pay, we just took it off what was owed to them when it was their turn to pay.
I guess you just have to trust that when people say they've paid they actually have and because I'm the organised one, to be honest I paid most of the bills and then acted as debt collector.

smeatcq

A site we used to use is called BillsAreIn. It lets you add all your flatmates to the system and will automatically email them and can handle payments. Maybe do standing orders as you suggested, but they were a great way of reminding people without saying anything!

billsarein.com