Advice for how to divide the utilities bill in a student property

Arcan

Hey all,

I am sharing with four other students, and one of our group agreed to take on the management of the bills. I then heard from the landlord a few days ago that she'd asked him instead to manage them. This would mean that we'd pay an equal share in four quarterly bills. We'd agreed to deduct for holidays since two of my housemates will be there all year round, but I and the other housemate will be home each holiday and so only there for half of the year.

The landlord gave us the option of taking of the management of the bills I rather not, but nobody else will and I am not comfortable paying all year round when we agreed that I and the other housemate wouldn't have to.

So if I do take on the bills is it possible to have the bill in four of our names? So I am not left stuck with the bill if someone refuses to pay. And is it possible to deduct months from the bill so when I go home for a month at Christmas I don't pay and the remaining two housemates pay half?

Also if anyone has any advice how to deal with or is in or has been in a similar situation this it'd be much appreciated.

Arcan

Arcan wrote: »

Hey all,

I am sharing with four other students, and one of our group agreed to take on the management of the bills. I then heard from the landlord a few days ago that she'd asked him instead to manage them. This would mean that we'd pay an equal share in four quarterly bills. We'd agreed to deduct for holidays since two of my housemates will be there all year round, but I and the other housemate will be home each holiday and so only there for half of the year.

The landlord gave us the option of taking of the management of the bills I rather not, but nobody else will and I am not comfortable paying all year round when we agreed that I and the other housemate wouldn't have to.

So if I do take on the bills is it possible to have the bill in four of our names? So I am not left stuck with the bill if someone refuses to pay. And is it possible to deduct months from the bill so when I go home for a month at Christmas I don't pay and the remaining two housemates pay half?

Also if anyone has any advice how to deal with or is in or has been in a similar situation this it'd be much appreciated.

Sorry just to add the only utility bills we need to pay our electricity and gas everything else is included.

MrsNoonar

I think you can add more than one name to the bill, certainly could with the water company. I think what I did was register myself as billpayer and then say also X and X are living here, the bill is shared between three of us.

I was in charge of bills last year in my student house (three of us sharing).

If you have all already agreed to divide the bills in that way then it shouldn't be a problem to continue that arrangement, surely. You could perhaps pay the landlord different amounts as long as it came to the correct total?

I agreed to manage the bills as I am quite organised and I also had an almost empty bank account already set up that we could use to avoid confusion. I didn't have any problems with non-payment, and I made sure to give plenty of notice when a bill was coming up so that everyone could transfer the money on time. I also made sure I told both housemates at the same time so that we all knew what was going on, then neither could say I hadn't told them/they hadn't agreed etc.

If your housemates are quite reliable then it really shouldn't be a problem to manage them yourself, but if you think they are likely to leave you with a big bill then perhaps it would be worth paying the little bit extra and sharing the bills equally managed by the landlord.

I would say it will probably all even out roughly anyway - someone will have longer showers, someone will keep putting the heating on instead of a jumper, someone will leave their light on even when not in their room... so even if you're not in the house as much, you may end up using more energy in other ways! Personally I ended up funding my housemates' 20 minute showers and refusal to switch the heating off for most of the period November-March, but there wasn't really anything to be done about it so I just took it as part of the housesharing experience.

MrsNoonar

Sorry I went off on a bit of a tangent there, looking back at your post. I was just trying to reassure you that it should work out alright

Terrylw1

You should never only put your name on the bill. If anything goes wrong, the supplier will be chasing you. However, the tenancy agreement would prove the joint liability hence would add all your names and hold you all liable.

That's easy, tell them and they will do it. At most they may ask for a copy of the tenancy agreement.

The hard part is the payments. You owe the whole value, its not the suppliers problem if one of the tenants doesn't pay. You need to minimize the risk to yourself.

dogshome

Utility Bill management in a Student House? - It's only for the brave or foolish.

1)So the Qtly bill comes in and it's split 5 ways - What happens if one or more simply doesn't have the money ? Best to collect a monthly contribution from all - That way you have early warning of problems

2) Two residing all year round? - Gas & Elec bills have service charges that run all year round, which means that the three 'Gone Homers' must still pay something for the time they are away, and the bill dates will not co-incide with Term dates so someone has to read the meters and do the maths to fairly apportion the bills for vacation periods.

To do this job you need to be a Control Freak with a strong personality

HappyMJ

Agree so far with the comments.

Having more than one name on the bill doesn't make much difference as you are all equally liable for the bill. If someone refuses to pay they can ask any of the persons named for the money including you who has already paid.

DO NOT collect the money in arrears collect it in advance and send it to the suppliers then when the bill does come in do a balancing amount to even it out and make the balance zero.

Don't deduct for holidays. The usage will be much lower anyway during that period anyway so unless you read the meter weekly then it's difficult to work out. They would effectively get the rest of the year cheaper than others in the house.

If you really don't mind the admin then read the meter weekly and figure out what the bill would be on a weekly basis and divide it out by who is occupying the property and bill your housemates weekly.