Moving out, how to settle bills

nikotime

Hi, I'm a student moving out a shared 3 bedroom house where both my housemates are staying on. I need to settle up gas and electric but we don't have a meter (apparently) and my housemate whose registered wants to wait until the next bill which will come after I move out. Obviously I don't want to pay more than I have to and would like to settle up before I leave. Problem is the guy whose name everything is in is in Germany and is unable to phone anyone up /scared to and I don't know when he is coming back (we had a frosty relationship at the end), what can I do?

Cheers!

HappyMJ

Nikotime wrote: »

Hi, I'm a student moving out a shared 3 bedroom house where both my housemates are staying on. I need to settle up gas and electric but we don't have a meter (apparently) and my housemate whose registered wants to wait until the next bill which will come after I move out. Obviously I don't want to pay more than I have to and would like to settle up before I leave. Problem is the guy whose name everything is in is in Germany and is unable to phone anyone up /scared to and I don't know when he is coming back (we had a frosty relationship at the end), what can I do?

Cheers!

Run...and change your number. Payments for bills like this should have been collected in advance. It's not your problem if they haven't done that.

nikotime

I don't particularly want to do that, still good friends with one of them! I don't really want to be a !!!!!! about it

Werdnal

I assume you are each paying an equal share? Take the last 12 month's bills, add them up and divide by 12 to get the average monthly usage. Then mutiply by the number of months since the last bill. Might not be spot on accurate, but will give you a general idea. If they want to be really pendantic about it, you can even divide the annual total by 52 to give a weekly average!

If you wait until after you've gone, that bill will have usage on it that is not down to you anyway, so work it out now and pay to the day you move out.

When you do, get a written receipt (you can prepare something for your housemate to sign), stating that you are paying £xx amount in settlement of your average utility usage up to DATE (your move out), and this settles your responsibility for any utilities used at PROPERTY (address) to the end of your tenancy. Keep a copy of this, just in case they suddenly get a huge bill and come chasing you for anything else!

Angry_Bear

Work out a pro-rata payment based on the bill when it comes.

So if the bill is for £X for the 31-day period 18th May - 18th June (say) and you move out on 6th June (19 days since 18th May) you would pay your share of (X / 31) * 19.

It's not perfect but it would be pretty reasonable imo.

nikotime

Thanks, that is some pretty good advice, will try and give that a go. Is there no way to check the balance online or something?

dancingfairy

There must be a meter somewhere otherwise how would the gas/electric people know how much to charge you? You could ask the other (friendlier housemate) where it is and take a picture of it on the day you leave so when the bill comes in you can work out how much of the usage can reasonably be attributed to you.
Also what sort of tenancy are you on? Are you all on seperate contracts - ie per room or is it per house? You need to make sure you have served the correct notice in writing as you don't want to be liable for rent/council tax after you've moved out, especially if the house is in all 3 names and the other 2 dissapear /stop paying then you could be liable for the lot depending on the type of contract.
Make sure you get hold of the council and write to them (keep a copy) to state that you have moved out as well.
df

DVardysShadow

dancingfairy wrote: »

There must be a meter somewhere otherwise how would the gas/electric people know how much to charge you? You could ask the other (friendlier housemate) where it is and take a picture of it on the day you leave so when the bill comes in you can work out how much of the usage can reasonably be attributed to you.
df

I agree. Words of advice for future.

• Never ever move into a property, buy or accept a tenancy without seeing the meters and being sure that you have unfettered access to them. Don't accept any property where you are dependent upon some 'key holder' to let you see the meters.
• Always confirm which meters are yours if it is a shared building by physically testing
• Always take opening readings immediately and closing readings just before locking the door for the last time. And keep those readings safe.