Money Moral Dilemma: Should my housemate who works from home pay a greater share of the rent?

MSE_Kelvin

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

  I live in a house-share and while I'm at work six days a week, my housemate works from home. Our landlord wants to put our rent up due to the increasing cost of bills, which are included in our rent. While I'm rarely home, my housemate has a fan or the heating on every day, as well as using the cooker, kettle and so on. Given that bills are included, should he pay more rent than me?

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Albermarle

Yes he should pay more towards the bills, but not towards the actual rent.
So you will need to try and work out how much the extra energy costs.
In reality extra heating costs in the Winter will be the main extra cost. The rest will be relatively peanuts, and not really worth arguing about.
Averaged out over the year, maybe an extra £50 a month ??

Martico

The housemate should investigate their work from home allowance from their employer if employed, or HMRC if self-employed, and work things out from there

Exodi

I'd say yes, though technically not towards the rent (as in theory that should stay the same whether he's home all day or not).

As the LL is baking the bills into the rent and is claiming the rent is being increased due to the bills, I think it could be reasonable to ask your housemate to contribute the amount the rent is being increased by.

CapeTown

Hell yes. Certainly more towards bills

gothvixen

Yes. Inform the landlord of the situation and discuss it with the housemate. He surely has to accept that this is fair?

Shell1989

If you make good money, or significantly better money than him, I wouldn’t bother make it awkward for the sake of a couple pounds a month. If you’re in a worse position, perhaps you could justify such a conversation without it coming across greedy or petty.

Yer_Wee_Man

Could be very hard to get a reasonably accurate extra cost for the bills, especially if hourly usage data from a Smart Meter App is not readily available, or the LL has better things to do with his time. It could also cause angst and resentment ( from either side if the amount isn’t mutually acceptable) within the household. It would make life much easier for both parties if one of Martins main mantras could be instilled in the Home Worker, that of course being ‘HEAT THE PERSON NOT THE HOME’. 

keithyno.1

It would be just too complicated to work out what percentage more of the rent your housemate should pay compared to you, to cover his greater use of electricity/gas/water etc, as from the sound of it neither of you see these utility bills and they go direct to the landlord. 

Trying to work out any figures would be pure guesswork, unless you were friendly with the landlord and they were prepared to provide you with copies of the bills. 

If that's not the case and the landlord wouldn't provide you with copies of the bills and it's really bugging you then the only thing I can suggest is you both look for somewhere else to rent where you only pay the actual rental per month to the landlord and you pay the utility bills separately, like most households. Then you could come to an arrangement based on usage of the utilities.

gr3g0ree

I was in the same situation as you. Heating was the biggest expense. Water and electricity much less in comparison.

Few questions to ask that may help: since when is the housemate working from home? Started recently or a few years now? What average amount were the bills per seasons before and where are they now? Generally where the bills are for heating now I doubt that the increase is that much compared to a few years ago.

If the house mate uses more, should pay more, just check if the rent increase is really for the bills and not an excuse for more profit.

primrose_penguin

Yes I think he should pay more to cover the cost of the heating etc. he alone uses when working from home. The rent should be split 50/50, perhaps you could ask your Llandlord what actual portion the rent only is, I presume your council tax is also included which again should be paid 50/50, but I would have hoped your flatmate would have realised he should contribute more than you towards the heating etc. so you need to have a friendly chat, and hopefully come towards a fair agreement.