Housemate causing expensive bills, but the rest of us might have to pay for it

Fireflyaway

It does seem unfair but I agree, moving out is probably the best way. This person has lived there a long while and i cant see her suddenly changing her way of life dramatically. Her behaviour doesn't sound anti social just maybe not so appropriate when sharing a house.

MoonChild91

elsien said:

If your "problem" housemate has been there 5 years and is a creature of routine,  it seems unlikely that a recent increase in bills is purely down to her. Especially as you say a lot of her activities are the same as previously.  I do think it's unreasonable to try to tell someone else how often they should be having a bath.
Is it possible that the utilities have been increasing for some time just because the tariffs were increasing over the last couple of years, but it's only now got to the point where he's feeling the need to increase the rent according?  You don't seem to be considering at all the impact of you and the second house mate being at home all day as well,  just shoving all the blame on her.
To be honest it does just sound as if the 3 of you sharing just isn't working anymore. 

Sorry, thought I'd made it clear in the original post - the issues of bills started before we all started working from home. Our landlord said they had doubled in the time between about Feb 2019 and Feb 2020, which seems more than a tariff increase (though I could be wrong). 

MoonChild91

Spendless said:

Do you have/can you get one of those meters that show you exactly what the consumption is in money for the electricity? When we've had one, I've seen that it is the combination of heat and or movement that costs a lot. eg vaccumming, ironing, electric shower, washing machine and so on. Sometimesthe costs shown are high but it's only for a limited time, for example boiling a kettle for a cuppa.  
It's also possible that the previous tenant of your room was such a low user due to not being there much that bills have been estimated on that usuage and now it's increased.

Yes we do - that's what I've been checking! It's in the kitchen so it's pretty handy to see how it suddenly spikes when you use a kettle etc. I was keeping an eye on how much energy we'd used over a certain period of time, such as overnight or during the morning getting ready, which is when I noticed that about 50 to 60% was being used when 2 of us were out. 
I think you're probably right about the previous tenant using so little that it's maybe skewed the bills over those few years. 

MoonChild91

BrassicWoman said:

£5 a day for three people is £150 a month or £50 each.

I live alone and my leccy bill (no gas) is £65.

doesn’t seem a crazy amount to me.

Financially, do you want all this upheaval and bad feeling for what’s probably no more than £20 a month each? And which hasn’t gone up in five years?

it sounds like her other behaviour is really your issue. And the landlord won’t fix that for you.

Maybe it's a fairly average amount, but I've nearly always lived in 3/4 beds and we've never spent this amount on bills before - even when using a pre-pay meter which is notoriously expensive. UK average for a 3 bed house is apparently around £100 a month, we're at least £50 over that. Maybe that's reflective of it being a houseshare and not a family home but I'm not entirely convinced. 

Spendless

I've re-read your OP and what I think has happened is it's not that the low user who you've replaced has disguised how much the other one uses. It's that you've come in with higher electricity costs than the low user. All the things you mention shower, hairdryer, and oven/hob (if you mean something warm for breakfast) are higher electricity costs than say leaving a lightbulb on. In addition like I mentioned before there may have been estimated bills and a recent correct reading has made the costs jump. I can see your housemate won't be happy if she's kept the same habits in 5 years, she'll see it as you the newcomer increasing bills, without realising the previous occupant kept the bills low.  I have no idea how she manages to spend 4 hours plus in the kitchen for just one person?? . Are you sure she's got the oven on the whole time? All of you seperately cooking even if one of you is batch doing is going to be higher costs. Have you considered getting slow cooker/s to help reduce the bill?

MoonChild91

Spendless said:

I've re-read your OP and what I think has happened is it's not that the low user who you've replaced has disguised how much the other one uses. It's that you've come in with higher electricity costs than the low user. All the things you mention shower, hairdryer, and oven/hob (if you mean something warm for breakfast) are higher electricity costs than say leaving a lightbulb on. In addition like I mentioned before there may have been estimated bills and a recent correct reading has made the costs jump. I can see your housemate won't be happy if she's kept the same habits in 5 years, she'll see it as you the newcomer increasing bills, without realising the previous occupant kept the bills low.  I have no idea how she manages to spend 4 hours plus in the kitchen for just one person?? . Are you sure she's got the oven on the whole time? All of you seperately cooking even if one of you is batch doing is going to be higher costs. Have you considered getting slow cooker/s to help reduce the bill?

Honestly, it is like a war zone down there when she's cooking! She'll make 3 or 4 meals in one go to keep in the fridge for weekday lunches, but then will also cook something for that day's lunch after, and possibly be baking. Then will cook dinner that night. It's not been unknown for her to spend 6 hours with the oven on cooking one thing after another. I get that it's a hobby that she enjoys, but it's gotten to the stage now where every meal she eats has to be something meticulously planned from scratch and often very complicated - she's not the sort of person who will just have beans on toast when it's been a long day or something. Honestly, I don't really understand it myself, and I enjoy cooking. 
We have 2 slow cookers, one is hers and one is mine. I do use mine semi-regularly for thing like curries and chilli, though most of the things I make tend to be quick anyway. My other housemate uses mine for similar things. The most I've ever seen her use hers for is cooking dried beans overnight or making pulled pork - she says slow cooking takes too long and she enjoys the process of cooking too much to like using it. Me and my other housemate mostly cook dinner together on a weekend, mostly just to be social and so we can both eat at a reasonable time. 
Also forgot to mention that she does about 4 loads of washing a week, and I'm guessing washing machines aren't cheap to run. 

Spendless

No washing machines won't be cheap either. Do you also have a tumble dryer? What about a dish washer?  It's anything that is heated. I only found this out when we first got a monitor that moitored usuage, I saw it go to over £1 per minute, ran upstairs wondering what on earth my son then aged around 11 and the mate he'd had sleepover were doing. I was ready to blame them on the xbox, then I discovered my husband was in the shower and it was that that had showed the increased cost. 

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

MoonChild91 said:
Honestly, it is like a war zone down there when she's cooking! She'll make 3 or 4 meals in one go to keep in the fridge for weekday lunches, but then will also cook something for that day's lunch after, and possibly be baking. Then will cook dinner that night. It's not been unknown for her to spend 6 hours with the oven on cooking one thing after another. I get that it's a hobby that she enjoys, but it's gotten to the stage now where every meal she eats has to be something meticulously planned from scratch and often very complicated - she's not the sort of person who will just have beans on toast when it's been a long day or something. 

Urgh I've house-shared with a few people like that.  One guy would spend all Sunday in the kitchen plus somehow manage to be in there for hours every evening.  It was a 'territory' thing I think.

MoonChild91

Spendless said:

No washing machines won't be cheap either. Do you also have a tumble dryer? What about a dish washer?  It's anything that is heated. I only found this out when we first got a monitor that moitored usuage, I saw it go to over £1 per minute, ran upstairs wondering what on earth my son then aged around 11 and the mate he'd had sleepover were doing. I was ready to blame them on the xbox, then I discovered my husband was in the shower and it was that that had showed the increased cost. 

No, luckily we don't have either - hand washing and line drying for us otherwise I'm sure it would be worse. We don't have a TV either or any games consoles, and apart from the kitchen radio and the speaker in her room all our music equipment is either rechargeable or battery powered. 

elsien

I suppose another question is how much your landlord is shopping around for cheaper tariffs. If it's not been impacting him directly up till now, he may not have bothered. Although again, that's not really something you have a  lot of control over.