Sharing the Payment of Bills - Am I in the Wrong?

[di marco]

i need some advice so any help would be greatly appreciated

ill try and make this as uncomplicated as possible lol!

basically i lived with 5 other people in a student house. our contract ended on 30th june and although me and 3 of the other people are still going to be living there next year, 2 of the people have moved out. cos of this, since just before the end of june i have been phoning up all the companies which supply our electricity/water etc trying to get them to send us a bill which goes up til the 30th june so that we can pay what we owe til our contract ran out. 1 of my housemates who is moving out is moving to america for a year on 15th august so i needed to have all the bills before she goes so she can pay her share, so have been constantly calling up (on really expensive phone numbers! :angry: ) trying to get the bills through asap

anyway, the only bill im still waiting for is the line rental bill so i worked out how much we all owed from the other 3 bills and text all my housemates telling them id pay all the bills and this is what they would owe me. i also said that if anyone wanted to see the bills i would email them to them (knowing full well that my housemate who is moving to america wouldnt pay them if she couldnt see how much each bill was for!), anyway, as i expected she text me back straight away asking for the bills to be sent (which is fine) and saying she wanted to know the exact dates of the bills (even though id already said the were all til the end of june)

getting on to the part i have a problem with (sorry its such an essay lol! :rolleyes: ), this housemate moved out of the house about 2 or 3 weeks before the contract was up and now shes saying she wont pay the bills for the time she wasnt there. now we all decided that we would just split every bill we got into 6 as it would be impossible to work out the exact amount of electricity etc each person had used. 1 of my other housemates moved out in the middle of may (6 weeks before our contract ended) and shes happy to pay her share of the bills like we all agreed. i wasnt living there right til the end either, nor were some of my other housemates, but all the rest of us are paying our share of the bill

i think my housemate should stop moaning and pay a sixth of the bills like all the rest of us are, am i in the wrong thinking this? obviously the utilities companies werent gonna send us 6 separate bills so we could work out exactly how much was used while we were still there, and on numerous occassions throughout the year i went home for a week (and a month at xmas and easter) yet i didnt moan that i wasnt there the whole time so i didnt want to pay the full amount

so, am i in the wrong expecting my housemate to pay a sixth, or should she just pay the sixth like the rest of us cos its the fairest way to do it?

any help is appreciated, sorry for the essay lol!

[Bryan]

if it's what you all agreed then it should be stuck too. at the end of the day the bills divided by six isn't going to be that expensive, at the end of the day, what are they loosing out? a couple of quid? what use is there grumbling over that and loosing a friendship becuase of it. it's silly really. i agree, you should expect them to pay their fare share, it's just the way it should be, and it annoys me when people get fussy like that.

i just hope i dont face this kind of problem the next two years, as the bills are coming out of my account, so if i dont get paid by my friends then i'll be out of pocket!!!

[Chloe O'brien]

You're not being unreasonable DM as you said no-one has stayed in the house for the whole year without going home and if all housemates agreed to the terms of splitting the bills evenly before they moved in then she should stop her maoning and cough up the cash. I bet it's not a huge amount she is being asked to pay.

[di marco]

well atm its about £50, thats for water and electricity for 2months and sewage for 4months, there will also be 3months worth of line rental but that will only be about an extra £7. if we worked it out, she would only be saving a few quid anyway and i made all the phone calls to their premium rate numbers yet im not expecting anyone to pay me back for that! and i dont have enough money in my account to pay all the bills so my dad is paying them then im gonna pay him back my share and give him the others money when i receive it so i feel bad for my dad if she doesnt pay cos its not even gonna be me whos out of pocket!

im glad you agree though, i didnt wanna seem mean, but it annoys me when people dont pay their share, especially when this housemate kept going on at one of my other housemates cos she owed her a quid!

i just hope she lets me know whats happening soon as shes moving to america on friday!

[Abigail]

She sounds like a stingy cow if she's arguing over a quid (no offence intended)

And yeah, I do agree with you. She should cough up for her share of the bills.

[Meh]

Tell her you'll pass the debt on to a US based debt collection agency :D

[Kim]

She should definitely pay her fair share. She agreed to pay it when she moved in with you, and if she wanted to get stingy about it then she should have stayed there until the contract was up. As you've said, everyone else paid the full amount when they weren't in the house for the full year, and this girl who won't pay can't exactly say that she isn't paying because she wasn't there - the services were still being provided to the house so it has to be paid whether you were there or not. This girl really needs to grow up - there's far worse bills going around than this; my Gran died in January and she was in hospital from September and she still had to pay the bills, and we've still got to pay them now because the house hasn't sold. For all the hassle she's caused I wouldn't blame you if you billed her for the premium rate numbers you called as well!

[di marco]

thanks for all the help guys :) just to let you all know, she emailed me saying she will pay on 22nd august cos thats when her loan comes through and she doesnt have any money til then. im just hoping she does pay seeing as shes now in america! thanks again

[di marco]

i just hope i dont face this kind of problem the next two years, as the bills are coming out of my account, so if i dont get paid by my friends then i'll be out of pocket!!!

thats why i dont wanna pay by direct debit (even though its cheaper) cos people take ages to pay you back. after this year my sis is hoping to go to the other uni in canterbury so weve already decided to share a house next year cos it will be a lot less hassle!

[di marco]

She sounds like a stingy cow if she's arguing over a quid (no offence intended)

she is! she will ask people to get her something while theyre out and people wont bother asking for the money cos its only a few quid and she will sometimes use other peoples stuff (like bread or something) but no one minds cos its only a bit, but she wont let anyone use her stuff unless its replaced and any money she lends people has to be paid back straight away (although she doesnt often lend money to people). its a shame really cos i was really good friends with her in our first year and now i dont like her much at all!