3 of us guys are about to move into a 3 bed house together. One is a student the other two of us work. What i want to know is if any of you have any survival tips And lets hear everyones experiences of moving out.
make sure to get everyone's name on the lease, and to have the landlord collect rent separately, make sure you have a firm verbal or written agreement to how you're going to divide up utility bills etc, and make sure you have a firm understanding of who shall be doing what sort of household chores, and have some sort of policy on food/cooking etc... also make sure you trust your roommates, and that you get along well...
If you're going to throw a house party be sure to read the good house party thread haha! Just make sure that you get along well with your new housemates.
Utility bills - Get together and make a rock solid agreement to share Phone Bill - Biggest source of house arguments, make each person responsible for recording when they use the phone so the bill can be divided fairly. Alternatively use your mobiles and get an 'incomming calls' only land line. Food shopping - Again make the rules clear from the start. Also, anyone who ever shares a house experiences some friction eventually between housemates, its natural; talk about it before it gets out of proportion.
Take a claw hammer, a screw driver and roll of silver tape (or gaffa), With those youll be able to fix all of the new house's problems (at least temperorarly). Apart from that, a shared account for the bills is realy handy as long as you set up standing orders. That way you wont have to worry about paying the bills and if you have any money left over for the year it can be used on a house party
First think you do after you get that stuff evened out and moved in is throw a house party. The bigger the better, its bad luck if you dont have a party. Mostly you have to be able to trust your roomates and be able to divide up work and costs of living, my friend was able to get that sort of thing to work and they threw some great parties.
Get everything sorted out and signed on pieces of paper as proof for bills, utilities everything once you've divided it up just get along with each other (obviously). Get some huge-ass parties going and maybe set up a camera for your own room set to record like I said in my other thread just in-case...
It will always be more expensive than you think. My brother moved out to a flat so he can be closer to work, he signed a 6month contract on his flat. Hes now back after 6 weeks because the cost of food, council tax, bills and little things like tv lience added extra costs.
Sounds more like bad planning to me. Didn't he realise that he'd have to pay council tax, etc? ----- My Dad's partner's Niece recently discovered that you have to pay for water. She's in her mid teens
Bills I can think of: Rent Water Electricity Food Gas Telephone Internet Council (tax) Television License House Insurance Luxuries Then there's the car tax, mot, insurance and petrol if you have a car Yikes, expensive but from seeing friends share houses, I have to agree that the telephone bill is the source of arguments, and people nicking food. So get your own fridge
One thing I can't stress enough, try and get separate tenancy agreements rather than a joint one - the estate agent/landlord might not like this so much but it makes it more flexible for you, should any of you wish to move out early, and means the estate agent can't try and hold you liable for unpaid rent from your housemates, if it ever comes to it (speaking from bitter experience )
I would get the other two's contact details, i.e. Mum and Dad's home details or next of kin. Mainly just in case anything happens to either of them, but also if any unexpected bills turn up and they've left, you then have somewhere to forward it to in the hope to receive some form of payment.
It can be excellent if you get on well. Not just as mates but as housemates - two very different things. I had an awesome 3 years sharing with mates. We all had a lot of respect for each other and each others stuff so it was pretty easy going. We were all working too so money wasn't ever a big problem. Three incomes in a cheap-ish house. No worries We used to share food and beer and stuff. No one took advantage of it so it worked out cheaper and easier than buying our own stuff all the time. The two mates I lived with for three years are still good mates, we still get on really well. I lived with a different two blokes for about six months and I don't see them any more. We were pretty good mates when we moved in together but our differences got the better of us and pretty much ruined our friendship. Well, one of them turned out to be a complete slob with no financial sense at all, which was a bit of a surprise considering he was an accountant.
Separate tenancy agreements are very hard to come by. I done quite a bit of work for agency clients and the majority agree that the work involved collecting the separate rent makes their management fee nearly unprofitable. If the agency does offer it, chances are they're having difficulty finding renters (for one reason or another). My advice, don't go into a new flat share, instead find a place looking for a new flatmate (e.g. someone's moved out). Chances are they'll want to interview you, this is a good thing. It means you'll get a chance to interview any future flatmates. With separate agreements, the agency will just throw in the first person they find - not good. Like most people have said, don't agree to a phone bill. Fixed incoming calls and internet bill only. Good luck
I moved to halls. Even a stable guy like me found it difficult at times. That's the bit not many people tell u about when u move to new surroundings, but like most things GIVE IT TIME even if u feel f' it!
