Houseshare, how to split the bills?

macman

I repeat, it's nothing to do with your landlord. He's your landlord, not your dad. You can use the oven however you wish. Your housemates cannot prevent you from doing so.
Nor can your housemates 'kick you out'. You presumably have a tenancy agreement with the landlord, only he can give you notice-and he can't get rid of you in 30 days anyway if you object.
Your landlord seems almost as clueless as your housemates.
But since life at this property is clearly going to be intolerable, I suggest you just give your notice and leave in 6 weeks as intended.
Why would you lose your deposit if you comply with the conditions of the STA?

Nada666

Your landlord is behaving totally illegally. He can neither deprive you of access to any of the amenities you are paying for nor can he issue a notice to quit.

I suggest you contact Shelter (and the renting forum on this board) with respect to the illegal harrassment that the landlord is threatening you with. His license should be revoked.

He can not keep a penny of your deposit.

Unlike others, I would not acquiesce and go quietly. Keep your toothbrushes in your room and hold out for the hell of it.

Fire_Fox

Chris842 wrote: »

I just spoke to my landlord on the phone (I know, but I figured if it went bad, then I'd send a text so I'd have some evidence). I said I wanted to make a complaint about my housemate stopping me using the oven. He said he didnt want to get involved - I said I understood the bills are nothing to do with you and you dont want to get involved in that, but this is about the oven. I'm being denied access to the facilities, and he didnt care! Then he sided with the others and said "I suggest that if you want to pay the oven, you pay the extra £20 they are asking for". (because I think I should pay £85 and they want me to pay £105).

As my housemate had threatened to kick me out, I asked the landlord about this. He said that if all of the other housemates wanted to, they could evict me. And that if don't pay the extra, I'll be getting 30 days notice to move out.

Can I fight this? And if I was given my notice, would I lose my deposit?

"Arguments between housemates are not the concern of the landlord, they are not your mum your secondary school teacher nor your football ref. Don't give your side of the story, behave like an adult even if those around you are not. It is likely none of the landlord's business how the bills are split or even if they are paid at all.

Assuming you are on a joint AST the bills are none of the landlord's business and IMO he is being unprofessional texting you. Landlord cannot kick you out in the fixed term unless there are serious breaches of the tenancy agreement, and even then he'd have to serve formal notice (section 8 if you are being 'accused' of serious breaches, this must be enforced in court it's just a notice of intent) and AFAIK this notice would apply to the whole household, since on a joint tenancy you are legally one tenant not five/six.

Honestly I think you should just not get drawn into the peurile behaviour of your housemate: IF your landlord does get involved politely ask him to detail the issues in writing, explaining what clauses in the AST or what legislation are being breached. If he has any sense he will back off, intimating he would kick you out for no sound legal reason would be deemed harassment.

Even quite subtle stuff can be harassment, keep every text or better still use e-mail or snail mail so you have a record. Try to avoid using the telephone, you can't prove what is said."

What is the point in giving more advice? I advised you to be mature, not to speak on the telephone and preferably not to text (this is NOT evidence, you cannot prove it was received), not to try to get your landlord to act like your referee teacher or parent. You ignored the whole lot: I'm starting to wonder who was the problem in your last house share.

Pincher

If they let you have a friend stay for free two weeks out of four, what's to stop another sharer having one that stays three weeks out of four?

Very soon, a flood of Bulgarians/Romanians will be turning up, all wanting to stay for free TEMPORARILY, "until my friend finds a job". Six tenants? Try 12 fighting for bathrooms in the morning. They are not slimy people, just POOR, and anything FREE they will grab before you can say SNAP.

Nice house shares do exist, but they belong to nice people who rent by word of mouth to nice friends of friends. That's why there are all these two-faced grinning hyenas who go round saying yucky things like "I like your petunias".

Having to ingratiate myself to get what I want? Network with filthy salesmen and PR women? Makes your skin crawl, doesn't it? Where are the good old honest down to earth Proletariat? Oh dear, they can't afford to pay rent, so you wouldn't want to share with them any way: sigh.

Chris842

Fire_Fox wrote: »

"Arguments between housemates are not the concern of the landlord, they are not your mum your secondary school teacher nor your football ref. Don't give your side of the story, behave like an adult even if those around you are not. It is likely none of the landlord's business how the bills are split or even if they are paid at all.

Assuming you are on a joint AST the bills are none of the landlord's business and IMO he is being unprofessional texting you. Landlord cannot kick you out in the fixed term unless there are serious breaches of the tenancy agreement, and even then he'd have to serve formal notice (section 8 if you are being 'accused' of serious breaches, this must be enforced in court it's just a notice of intent) and AFAIK this notice would apply to the whole household, since on a joint tenancy you are legally one tenant not five/six.

Honestly I think you should just not get drawn into the peurile behaviour of your housemate: IF your landlord does get involved politely ask him to detail the issues in writing, explaining what clauses in the AST or what legislation are being breached. If he has any sense he will back off, intimating he would kick you out for no sound legal reason would be deemed harassment.

Even quite subtle stuff can be harassment, keep every text or better still use e-mail or snail mail so you have a record. Try to avoid using the telephone, you can't prove what is said."

What is the point in giving more advice? I advised you to be mature, not to speak on the telephone and preferably not to text (this is NOT evidence, you cannot prove it was received), not to try to get your landlord to act like your referee teacher or parent. You ignored the whole lot: I'm starting to wonder who was the problem in your last house share.

Well you said keep every text, so I'd have thought texts could be used as evidence? Now you are changing your mind and saying I cant? As the below quote says, if I'm being deprived of access to amenities I am paying for, this is illegal, and thats why I called. It was easier to get it across than in a text message and I dont have his email address.

Nada666 wrote: »

Your landlord is behaving totally illegally. He can neither deprive you of access to any of the amenities you are paying for nor can he issue a notice to quit.

I suggest you contact Shelter (and the renting forum on this board) with respect to the illegal harrassment that the landlord is threatening you with. His license should be revoked.

He can not keep a penny of your deposit.

Unlike others, I would not acquiesce and go quietly. Keep your toothbrushes in your room and hold out for the hell of it.

He can't keep a penny of the deposit if I'm evicted?

There are a lot of replies saying "stop being so petty, its only £20". I suggest you try actually living with this !!!!!!!, see how much you want to pay him then. I wouldnt pay him a single penny that I dont owe. Whether I should pay for my girlfriend seems to split opinion so that could be up for debate, but I certainly should not have to pay for the period when I didnt even live here.

dimbo61

Stop texting or ringing the landlord FULL STOP the bills are none of his business.
The other tenants are just that tenants !!! not the landlord and they can not kick you out but they can make life very uncomfortable .
Carry on with your life and finish your last six weeks in London.
Leave and never go back
When you return to Manchester look for a place for you and your G/F to live in together ( I have a nice one bed ground floor flat empty )
You pay the bills for the gas/electric/broadband/phone calls that you and your G/F make. Simple really.
Housesharing requires give and take or you end up living in a dump

Fire_Fox

Chris842 wrote: »

Well you said keep every text, so I'd have thought texts could be used as evidence? Now you are changing your mind and saying I cant? As the below quote says, if I'm being deprived of access to amenities I am paying for, this is illegal, and thats why I called. It was easier to get it across than in a text message and I dont have his email address.

There are a lot of replies saying "stop being so petty, its only £20". I suggest you try actually living with this !!!!!!!, see how much you want to pay him then. I wouldnt pay him a single penny that I dont owe. Whether I should pay for my girlfriend seems to split opinion so that could be up for debate, but I certainly should not have to pay for the period when I didnt even live here.

Your landlord is not depriving you of anything so this peurile argument is NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM. He is not your housemate's dad, not your solicitor, not a police officer, not a magistrate, not your mama, not a football ref nor a school teacher. Your landlord has zero authority to enforce the law you claim is being breached. The landlord has supplied an oven which as far as we know is safe and functional, that is the sum total of his liability to you.

You are not a special snowflake nor the only person who has lived with hellish housemates. Read the thread and the links properly instead of insulting us by erroneously paraphrasing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr_complex

Herongull

I am wondering if you are being unreasonable here.

Of course there are many different formulae that could be used to split the bills, taking account of absences and visitors. Some are more complicated than others. And of course one could consider even more complicated ones eg taking account of whether you have baths or showers or eating out or whatever.

There are pros and cons and winners and losers with all of these different approaches.

The current situation seems to be that long before you came, the other housemates agreed on an approach which has the following features:

1/ No discounts for absences

2/ Visitors pay their share (calculated on a daily basis).

This isn't an unreasonable one. Perhaps they want to keep it as simple as possible eg 1/), but then some people had visitors who were there all the time and this created arguments because the visitors were using the facilities and creating queues for the bathroom and paid nothing. So sometime in the past rule 2/ was added.

Because of your regular arrangement with your gf, you happen to lose out under this arrangement (as will anyone is away more than average - perhaps one of the housemats is often away on weekends and he/she also loses out).

But that's life. You are a newcomer to the house and you are not staying very long. You can't expect the housemates to change their long established bill calculation method just because it disadvantages someone in your situation (and anyone who is away often).

So go with flow and pay up. Why create ill-feeling and strife? It is just not worth it. Perhaps in your next houseshare or whatever, the arrangements may happen to work in your favour? It all averages out in the end.

But you do need to consider other's perspectives and not stress out over small things if you want a happy life.

Idiophreak

Suddenly I feel quite overcharged...I went home every weekend at uni and was the only person in my house to do so...I have to say, it never even occurred to me to try and pay less than everyone else....

meg72

What a miserable situation to be in, but as you only have 5 weeks to go I would pay it and spend everyweek with th GF, sixweeks will soon be over and then you are well rid of such petty people.