Shared house bills

blossom36

Hi, my daughter is moving into a house shared with 4 others for their second year study at Uni.
Interested to hear how others have organised paying household bills... ie opened a joint account (is this even possible with 5 pers?) or is there another way?

Thank you

Lokolo

1 for water
1 for gas
1 for electric
1 for broadband
1 for tv or something else

Joint accounts as students are almost always a bad idea.

Pleut

I wouldn't get a joint account! I lived with a couple of lads a few years ago. I ended up getting hounded for unpaid bills even though one of the boys was supposed to be paying them with money we gave. Turns out another of the lads hadn't transferred the money over. Nightmare!

Make sure they know to get confirmation of each payment to protect themselves.

devildog

A join t account is not the way to go because the students could be financially linked for years if something went wrong. As suggested , taking on a bill each is the sensible solution BUT obviously some bills are a lot less than others and it would mean money being transferred to all students to cover all bills.
What I did although maybe not the best idea was to manage the bills for the students in my youngest's house. Each bill was in my name (in lieu of my youngest's name) with the other 3 students named onthe bills also. Each student set up a standing order to pay me a set amount each month and I monitored and paid bills. It has run really smoothly with no issues, the house has now been handed back, utilities cancelled and paid up. Thought it was a bit silly doing it at first, but it was problem free, maybe I justgot lucky with the students

dailycheaptips

Hmmm. You would have to make sure her housemates are REALLY dependable.
Otherwise, I would recommend designating one person each month to keep expenses in check and going around the 5 to collect their 1/5 of the bills.

lika_86

Don't set up a joint account as that financially links people and may have a negative impact on her credit rating.

Best advice is to sit back and let someone else sort it! I never had anything in my name.

We used to have one house account which we all put a lump sum of money into at each student loan payment (don't wait until the bill comes and everyone claims poverty) and all bills and communal shopping (loo roll, washing up liquid, all bought in bulk) were paid for from that. We'd chip in from time to time if it needed topping up and divided any remainder equally at the end.