Housemates not wanting to pay bills, Myself wanting to pay my share.

Mojisola

DannyWhoWorks wrote: »

I did have this idea, I emailed my landlord but she told me that we could not get a pre-pay metre installed because council rules state that all student houses have 24 hour running fire alarms, and if we ran out of electric and then the battery's ran out .... something like that! I was gutted!

This is the law in Northern Ireland. I'm not sure about the mainland.

amiehall

Mojisola wrote: »

This is the law in Northern Ireland. I'm not sure about the mainland.

I stand corrected. It's hard to find UK information as a lot of it is NI related but it seems an HMO is supposed to have hard wired alarms NOT attached to a PPM.

YoYoY

Anyone else left thinking it's a shame these housemates are not as reluctant to pay their monthly ISP bill as they are to pay their energy bills? :cool:

[Deleted User]

If I were you I would call the company up and ask for whose bank details are being held with the account?

Also, try and find out if the bill is an "actual" bill for electricity used, or an "estimated" bill.

If the latter, submit a meter reading, and see what the actual electricity is.

And yet, if multiple people are allowed on the bill, then make sure ALL housemates are on the bill - that way, even if they won't pay, at least ALL of their credit reports will be trashed.

Keep your share of the bill separate, so that if they are prepared to pay it eventually, you have your share waiting.

Also, if you have contact details, I'd be tempted to contact their parents directly - I'm sure they'd not want to know that their little darlings are not paying their bills!

Sambucus_Nigra

DannyWhoWorks wrote: »

Thanks so much for the replies guys! Sadly, I've signed a 12 month contract and there is noway I can move out .... I have to pay rent till June 30th, so there is literally noway I can afford to move out.

Interesting about who's name is on the bill. The worst person of them all, almost the 'leader' of the other 5, seemingly, did not put his name on the bill! he put us others, but not him. What I might do, is ring the electric company tomorrow, and add his name. I am also tempted to take my name off the bill, saying they made a mistake (the names were only put on recently). Will this get me off any trouble if they refuse to pay any further bills? (I will always want to pay my share, so it's not me getting out of anything, I would always leave my share with a landlord or something), Is it that easy to take your name off the account?.

Also, Internet is Free in the house, their is no gas, and the water is a certain amount a month which I take 'control' of and they give me just under £12 a month for it which i then go and pay from our pre-paid card, this they do, but they are not happy with.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

If your name is listed and the others don't pay - then they will chase you for the money. If I were you I'd start taking readings weekly.

And if this 'leader' has not put his name on there; then it's only natural that he's not going to pay up as he doesn't have to.

Whatever you do - do not let them have your bank details!

rozmister

It will be a legal requirement to have 24 hour running fire alarms that are wired into the electrics in mainland UK, definitely in England for a HMO (which is what this student house will be classified as).

With the bills they will pursue whoever they can find and make pay who is on the bill. They don't care about being fair and not pursuing people who have paid they care about getting their money back. If all your housemates disappear off the face of the earth but they can find your up to date contact details to serve you with a CCJ they will.

When I used to live in a student house and realised all my housemates were completely useless I took all the bills on in my name but insisted that when student loans came through (Oct, Jan and April) I made them pay a set amount per month up front. So I set up DD for everything and it was £50 each a month for bills. When student loans came in October I insisted I got 4 months (Oct, Nov, Dec & Jan) worth of bill money per person and then put it in a separate account I'd set up specifically for bills (only money that came out was DD and went in was bills money).

macman

OP, I think you need to read and understand the concept of 'jointly and severally liable'. You are not each responsible for one fifth of the bill, you are each responsible for all of it. The utility co do not get involved in 3rd party disputes, they will get the money however they can.

Infidel

Only 9 months? Hell even 9 hours is too long in the wrong company.

I've had my fair share of house shares - good, bad and TERRIBLE!

My advice: get out asap - which is legally possible - just because you have signed a contract for 'X' amount of months doesn't mean you're roped into it for the duration.

Terrylw1

Is there a communal supply meter as well as yours? If so, the landlord can wire the fire alarms to that meter and you could have a PPM.

Just keep that tenancy agreement for years just incase.

DannyWhoWorks

Thanks for the support guys! I can't get hold of the account number at the moment as the 'leader' has taken the bill. but I have emailed the electric supplier and told them there were a few changes over the summer and we would like to ammend the account names and I added EVERYONE on there. I was so tempted to leave my name off but thought I better not. I also asked for them to send a bill to us to clarify what we owe and I might just have to get a bit forcefull and make sure they pay (if I can).