Help! Student renting and must arrange own bills

Tamboulet

My grandson is heading into his second year at Uni and would like to share a flat with two friends. They've found somewhere but bills aren't included.

He told me they've been quoted £30 per student per week with Unihomes to cover tv license, water, insurance, gas, electricity and broadband. To me that seems high, but it does take away the worry about whether your other flatmates are going to avoid payment and it also gives uncapped fuel so no need to fret about ending up with a big bill at the end of the year.

Does anyone have any advice? He's asking me if I think it's reasonable.

Worried_fool

It is far more money than they would spend on bills so long as they are reasonably sensible. However, it does remove the risks that you mention.

GrubbyGirl_2

I personally don't think that's too bad if it's fixed bearing in mind how much utility bills are going to go up. What you don't want is any clause that allows them to be increased mid contract. And at least it's a known quantity.

lohr500

It does seem high compared to adding up the individual elements.
Of course the big unknown is how much gas/electricity they will get through.

Some thoughts :

What happens if one or more of them default? Are they collectively responsible for any shortfall?

Do they plan to stay in the flat for a full 12 months, or will they be moving out at the end of the Uni year? If not a full 12 months, is the Unihomes contract term aligned to the flat term?

Does the contract have any caps on usage, or is it genuinely "as much as you can eat"?

QrizB

If he knows and trusts his flatmates to cough up the cash, paying the bills directly will be cheaper.

I've got two children at university at the moment. One is paying a similar amount to a bills management company, the other has the bills in his own name and is being paid by his flatmate.

tim_p

you say “uncapped fuel” but is there a reasonable use clause in there somewhere. Come the winter there’s nothing to stop them running the heating full blast and controlling the temp by simply dumping excess heat through open windows!

Not sure how much is left for fuel when you take all the other costs out of that. £360 / month doesn’t leave a huge margin surely.

beckstar1975

Does he have a choice? And when does his contract start?

My daughter had to take out the Unihomes package - tbh it helps us with budgetting too. Also - her accommodation contract starts mid may and we have to pay bills from then too so it's much easier to have it all set up with unihomes rather than register with the utilities/get council tax exemption once her summer term has finished

Jemma01

Well, I live on my own in a 3 bedroom house, E&G £145/m (heating set to average 21°), £22 broadband, £23 water, they don't pay council tax, but will probably pay TV licence.

360/m does seem a lot, but less stressful. I've witnessed so many fallouts over money back then. Not worth the stress every month and chasing ppl to pay.

If you are sharing, you must ensure you are responsible for yourself only, you sign your own contract so you're never chased for someone else.

Also if one decides to leave mid way, is your grandkid responsible? Will he need to find a roomate or leave?

t0rt0ise

You need to read the contract. It says that each person is responsible for all the bills so if someone doesn't pay everone individually is responsible for the bill. Also the contract for each service is with the particular provider and most will seek payment from any of the people if necessary. They aren't going to chase each student for their individual payment. That isn't to say it's a bad deal but you don't have the safeguard that you think you do.

squirrelpie

Also insurance is included - but exactly what insurance and with which company?

WiserMiser

Consider paying the energy company by Monthly Variable Direct Debit and then having a whip round each month. Needless to say, make sure monthly meter readings are sent. Then if a flatmate does a runner the loss is only one third of that month's bill.

MVDD will also give them a better understanding of the utility costs, no nasty surprises months down the line.

Remember there's no such thing as an All You Can Eat energy tariff, (unlike phones where the marginal costs to the supplier are negligible). Either the package costs will be set very high so they'll be paying more than necessary, or there will be a massive hike at renewal time, possibly both.

Also watch out for the small print. There may well be pitfalls with Reasonable Use, Minimum Term and suchlike. What they think is being offered and what is actually being offered may be very different.

There's really no need to include the TV Licence in one of these plans. It's a one-off amount, so split it three ways when you move in and be done with it until the renewal date. Better still, remember that they don't need a licence provided that they don't watch or record live TV on any device and don't watch iPlayer. Nor do they have to make any declaration to TV Licensing or let them enter the flat (except in the unlikely event of a Search Warrant having been issued).