Seeking advice on housemate situation

BigBouncyBall

yeh i think thats the simple solution. Lock your door and work in the library until 9pm then when you come home you can go straight to bed. I'm in a not so dissimilar position; this is what i do.

Only 3 months to go!!

C_Ronaldo

as long as the OP pays for the extra leccy used by the freezer and any other electrical items he has then i cant see what the ousemates problem is, would student services help,

Rosie75

I sympathise with you as I have lived with oddballs before. However, did you ask the others if they wanted to chip in together and get another freezer before you bought your own? I'm thinking of a situation where a girl I shared with bought her own washing machine. She would remove the dispenser drawer so no one else could use it, but it wasn't like the rest of us could get our own washing machine as she had taken up the only slot in the kitchen where it could go! She also bought a towel rail and put it on the radiator in the bath room. No one else could therefore dry their towels as it would involve using "her" towel rail!

cupid_s

Maybe you could stick a sticker on the plug saying 'don't unplug me please' and just say to your housemates that someone must have accidentally unplugged your freezer could they be a bit more careful. No point in getting annoyed as you do have to put up with them for a long time yet.

And maybe it was an accident?

chocolateypie

Rosie75 wrote:

However, did you ask the others if they wanted to chip in together and get another freezer before you bought your own?

Given how tight they are, I seriously doubt they would have been willing to contribute anything towards it. Once I even found myself and little sh*t arguing over paying £2 more on the bills...and in the end I just gave up to make her shut it already.

During the winter months there was even a note on the central heating switch with "do not leave switched on for more than two hours per day as we can't afford to pay heating bills". Um...two hours a day? In winter? Please tell me I'm not insane for thinking this unreasonable. It wouldn't be as bad if the house had decent insulation, but the fact we don't have double glazing might be an ever so slight problem...

In the case of the freezer, it could well have been an accident, however it's not the first time it's happened - although I noticed it early the first time and plugged the freezer back in before the food in there started properly defrosting.

I'm not sure what student services can do in this case; I don't live in university owned accommodation. There is nothing stopping me moving out a month before the contract ends, however my next housing contract (with people I definitely do like) doesn't begin till July so I'm a bit stuck. Also, if there's anything wrong with the house, such as damage etc, it would be taken from my deposit and I wouldn't know about it.

Also I have a question about bills. Even though the bills aren't in his name, could the landlord deduct any outstanding monies from our deposit if the bills aren't paid on time? Surely it's the responsibility of the person named on the bills to pay it?

kittiwoz

Blacksheep1979 wrote:

holstar wrote:

you need to check your contract...this will say whether the house is let as a house (as a whole) to the 4 of you, or whether it is let to you personally as a room and use of shared areas. If its the first one, the tv license applies to entire house, if its let as seperate rooms you need seperate licences.

actually its more just down to if you have locks on your bedroom doors and TV's in your bedroom. If there are no locks, then no need for everyone to have a license (only the one communal one) but if there are locks on each bedroom then you will be deemed as renting seperately and need a license each.

Nope. Holstar is right. See:

Do I need my own licence if I live in shared accommodation?

If you are going to be sharing a house, a separate tenancy agreement would normally mean your room is classified a separately occupied place. In this case, if you have a TV in your room, you will need your own TV Licence.

However, if there is only one TV in a communal area, then only one TV Licence is required. Similarly, if your house can be treated as one place shared by all, then only one TV Licence is required - a joint tenancy agreement would normally indicate that there is only one separately occupied place.

But to return to the original problem. If it is a shared house then enetering your room without your permission is not an offence. If each room is rented seperately then it is possibly trespass but you can only prosecute for trespass if it is accompanied but criminal damage or if you have a sign stating "no public access". Seriously though, if it was an offence what would you do about it anyway? Prosecute your housemates for going in your room without asking? Or threaten to? I can understand your being peed off at them going in your room without asking when you don't have a good relationship with them but this is seriously petty. I think your allowing this situation to wind you up to the point where you are not thinking straight.

I would say whether two hours a day heating in winter is reasonable depends on how well insulated the house is. If there is cavity wall insulation, good loft insulation, well fitting windows and doors with draught excluders then I would say one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening is OK. Double glazing is not such a big deal, better to have thick curtains. We have had the heating on two hours morning and evening and a bit more on a few very cold days this winter but we are in an Edwardian house with high ceilings, solid walls, big windows and badly fitting doors. We do not keep the house warm though, just take the chill off. We wrap up warm rather than use the heating more.

Sorry if I sound unsympathetic. I did live with someone who insisted on only having the heating on for 18 mins at a time as that is how long it took for the radiator furthest from the boiler to get hot. Clearly the time take to warm the house is much greater and this actually meant we were never allowing the boiler to reach the state where it was maintaining the temperature, rather than increasing it, i.e. much more efficient, but he would have none of it. It got so cold you could see your breath regularly. If it gets that cold now we put the heating on.

I don't think it is sensible to be antagonistic. Lock your door. Put a note on the plug of the freezer. Stay out as much as possible. Work in the library or computer clusters. Have a few regular R&R sessions a week to help you cope, e.g. go to a friends house or join a club. Again, I've been there myself and I know this isn't what you want to hear but it is the best advice I can offer.

The landlord can only make deductions for bills if you bunk off at the end of the year a leave him or the new tenants to deal with it. Otherwise it is the responsibility of the person named on the bills.

DrFluffy

Is the contents of the freezer covered by your possessions insurance?

Blacksheep1979

kittiwoz wrote:

actually its more just down to if you have locks on your bedroom doors and TV's in your bedroom. If there are no locks, then no need for everyone to have a license (only the one communal one) but if there are locks on each bedroom then you will be deemed as renting seperately and need a license each.

Nope. Holstar is right. See:

Do I need my own licence if I live in shared accommodation?

If you are going to be sharing a house, a separate tenancy agreement would normally mean your room is classified a separately occupied place. In this case, if you have a TV in your room, you will need your own TV Licence.

However, if there is only one TV in a communal area, then only one TV Licence is required. Similarly, if your house can be treated as one place shared by all, then only one TV Licence is required - a joint tenancy agreement would normally indicate that there is only one separately occupied place.

Nope, if you look at the text you are quoting, it states the property has to be open and shared by all. If there are locks on doors which only certain people have keys to then the property is deemed as being divided and seperate accomodations.

thriftymiss_2

move out. there must be other places to live. try easyroommate.com or flatmate.click or local papershop window. most people are not like this.

kittiwoz

Blacksheep1979 wrote:

Nope, if you look at the text you are quoting, it states the property has to be open and shared by all. If there are locks on doors which only certain people have keys to then the property is deemed as being divided and seperate accomodations.

I see what you mean but I'd say it is open to interpretation. In other respects shared houses where there is a single contract are "treated as one place shared by all". For example, utility bills are levied on the whole house and if one person is not a student they are liable for council tax on the whole house, not just their own room. I take the statement "treated as one place shared by all" to mean treated in that manner from a legal standpoint, rather then by the tenants. Plus the statement "a joint tenancy would normally indicate there is only one separately occupied place" strongly implies that it is the contract rather than locks, which aren't mentioned, which is the key thing. However the word normally does suggest there are circumstances in which this might not be the case but also suggests they are unusual which individually locked bedrooms aren't nowadays.