shared house-unequal use of electricity

StudentPoverty

Hi, my friend and I have recently rented a room in a shared house and are having a problem with the existing tenant. Basically we are on a tight budget this year and so want to keep costs low. He on the other hand seems to eat electricity! The electric and gas are both on pre-pay meters which we thought would make it easier to keep track of what we were spending. Soon after we moved in the landlord installed a tumble-dryer (at said tenants request it later turned out). The problem now is that the tenant (who is also incredibly lazy) sees this as permitting him to wash clothes on a pretty much daily basis due to the ease of drying them. The dryer is in use almost every day, usually on for around 2hours even for a few items, and since it has been installed the amount of money spent on electric has doubled- a top-up sum that used to last us 10 days now runs out in 4.5. We have never used the dryer and don't intend to except in emergencies, not least because we can't afford the bill to become even bigger. The inequality is really becoming frustrating-my friend and I use the amount of electric 1 person would between us as we share a room and cook together etc, yet as we all pay the same we are covering two-thirds of the cost whereas he uses two-thirds of the electricity and pays a third. I know we can't tell him what to do, and that paying according to use would be impossible but there has got to be some way of broaching the subject and reaching a compromise. Has anyone been in a similar situation, and if so what did you do? The landlord is aware that the other guy is the only one to use the dryer but we havn't spoken to him about what a problem it is. Is there any way that a coin meter could be installed on the dryer so that he alone pays for it? Sorry about the length of this post, any advice would be much appreciated though!

PasturesNew

You can get a plug that fits in the plug socket, then the drier plug fits into that - that has a reading on it for how much the unit is using.

But as this would require him to agree to it being monitored - and not popping out the plug to falsify the readings - it's unlikely.

Plus it would probably cost you £20.

Tricky one. There's always one greedy sod gumming up the works!

olly300

1. Plan to go away for 5 days to a week when you know they will be there.
2. Run the prepay meter down until it is near the emergency money i.e. £3 on it before you go away. Say you will top it up but don't bother.
3. Go away

They will realise they will use more electricity but still may not care.

Seriously the only steps you can take is to talk to the landlord about the bill situation how the bills are shared. Make it clear that as you and the other person are sharing a room you will use less gas to heat it and likewise with the electricity point out that you will use less electricity then one person in their own room due to their washing habits. The landlord may or may not be interested. If they are not the only thing you can do is move out as soon as you can get out of your contract.

The main problem is that whenever you live in a shared house whether you are on a tight budget or not, the other people in the houses lifestyle may not suit yours.