Rent/Bills issues, need advice..... Options

[buttons]

I have been living in a house share for the past few months. My first experience living in a flat share!

Its a 3 bed flat with a communal open plan kitchen/lounge/dinner and toilet/bathroom.

I have four housemates. First room there is a married couple, 2nd room has a single girl and (single) me in the 3rd room.

I have the smallest room of the three and recently found out I pay the same rent as the others. Their rooms are much bigger with double beds. I couldn't fit one in my room.

Also, I noticed bills (like electric/gas, tv/broadband/phone. c.tax) are split in 3 not in four. It seems the couple see themselves as one person. Is this fair? I haven't brought it up with them as I don't want any tension in the flat.

The flat is let out by an agency and it seems the couple are the oldest tenants. The bills come in couple’s name.

Is this bill/rent arrangement fair or am I just crazy!?

[cohabskilohm]

I have been living in a house share for the past few months. My first experience living in a flat share!

Its a 3 bed flat with a communal open plan kitchen/lounge/dinner and toilet/bathroom.

I have four housemates. First room there is a married couple, 2nd room has a single girl and (single) me in the 3rd room.

I have the smallest room of the three and recently found out I pay the same rent as the others. Their rooms are much bigger with double beds. I couldn't fit one in my room.

Also, I noticed bills (like electric/gas, tv/broadband/phone. c.tax) are split in 3 not in four. It seems the couple see themselves as one person. Is this fair? I haven't brought it up with them as I don't want any tension in the flat.

The flat is let out by an agency and it seems the couple are the oldest tenants. The bills come in couple’s name.

Is this bill/rent arrangement fair or am I just crazy!?

As unfair as it may seem I imagine you have signed a lease and knew what you were getting in to when you moved in. I don't really think you have much of a case.

[buttons]

no I haven't signed a lease....

I'm not on any contract.....

[darker_phoenix]

Are the couple sharing a room? Seems fair enough.

[Parsifal]

Since you have the smallest room you should pay less.
I'm not sure that it would be correct to split the expenses by four though. After all, when the couple are in their room and have the lights on they are using the same electricity for two as would be for one? Ditto if they watch tv together. But, cooking a meal for two might use more gas than cooking for one. Why is there a phone bill? Do you have your own mobile phone that you use? And how does the broadband work? Is there a single connection in the communal room and everybody takes turns? Are the two of them on twice as much as you are?

Are you living in this flat away from home because you're not going through with the proposed marriage that you previously wrote about?

[Brightonbased]

The main question is: Whose flat is it?

It looks to me as if the couple are the people who actually rent the flat from the landlord. If so, they set the terms by which the other two rooms are occupied and, if that is for you to to pay a third of bills, then that's the deal. You will have to approach them tactfully and see if you can negotiate a smaller share.

If it's any compensation they may well be acting illegally (in civil terms) as their rental agreement or the flat owner/landlord's lease are almost certain to exclude sub-letting rooms. But if you raised that with the agent, you would lose your home.....so it's a nuclear option.

[kissmequick]

as a *very* experienced renter of accommodation, the norm (for what it's worth) is this:

the usual facilities are split equally: so gas, water, electricity, phone landline standing charge and tv license are all split equally between members of the house, regardless of living arrangements. you may never use hot water to bathe, but you might wash your clothes everyday. you might never cook, but you might be using an electric blanket all night...it's swings and roundabouts, so split it all evenly. it also helps to focus everyone on energy saving.

the phone standing charge/line rental can be contentious, but if a member of the house has so much as given out the number once to friends or family, then they are taking advantage of it for incoming calls, even if they never make an outgoing call, therefore they pay their part of the standing charge.

'specials' are sorted out between parties. e.g. if you use the broadband, you take your share of the bill. if you don't have a computer or a wi-fi enabled anything then you don't pay. if you never watch sky in the living room because you're happy with freeview in your bedroom, then you don't contribute to the sky package.

mostly it's quite simple, and mostly it should all be clear and sorted before you move in.

oh, and usually the rooms do come in different prices - the smallest one should be cheaper than the others, especially as it's effectively a single room in your case and you can't even get a double bed in it.

This post has been edited by kissmequick: Jul 27 2011, 16:09

[YORKSHIRE GUY]

Should all be sorted out before you move in.

[mikes]

First mistake is not having a contract.

[Sirus]

It is a little unfair but not worth the aggro of complaining about it. If it really bothers you and you don't have a contract, just move.

[BrownEyes]

As other people have mentioned, it would have been ideal if you sorted bills/rent BEFORE you moved into the property (surely you have some form of contract/agreement of some sort?)

From my experience:

Rooms usually all pay the same rent, irrelevant of size. The only time this really changes is if the room is a single; it is usually the case that all rooms pay a set price, unless one is a single in which there is usually a reduced rate.

Bills are usually split completely equal. It's impossible to know who uses exactly how much utilities, so this really is the only fair way to do it. As another poster said it's swings and roundabouts, you may have massive hot baths, but not doing any cooking whatsoever, whereas others may have short cold showers but spend all day with the oven on roasting and baking. The only thing I can suggest is you ask them all to be more energy conscious in general - i.e. turning lights off, etc.

Being a student, I've experiened living in the smallest room of a rented property and the largest - I've always paid the same rate as the others. Likewise, bills have always been split equally.