UKC

Hey folks, got a question for the masses as I'm not really sure what 'normal' or fair is in this occaision.

Currently living in a 3 bed house with officially 2 other people. Rent split £175/£175/£150 as one room is quite a bit smaller. Bills split 3 ways.

The lass who's currently paying £175 has a boyfriend who has effectively moved in. As soon as they got together (about when we got the place 7 months ago) he started spending 7 nights a week here, more and more of his stuff arrived (now it's all here), he's here when she's working all day or out all night, he does his washing here, his food is all here, he to all purposes lives here.

For a good while I let this slide because she doesn't want him to live here (he basically starts getting upset if she asks for a night on her own for any reason and they have a row where he accuses her of splitting up with him and then she relents so nothing ever changes).

He's told everyone he knows that they live together and how he moved in with her. The only reason it's not official that he lives here is that she doesn't really want him to, or doens't want to admit it.

However it is very much full time living, his shift pattern (5am starts) is effecting the rest of us because he often wakes us up being noisy, I've had just him in the house with me all day while I was working (home worker) and he's had the tv on upstairs so loud I feel like I'm in a cinema.

This would be fine except for he's paying zero rent and zero bills. Also she pays me late for bills every month while I cover her until she has the money or whatever.

We do live pretty harmoniously together but money is tight for everyone (not as much for me which is the other reason I sort didn't want to raise it) and I certainly feel he should start to pay a quarter share of the bills as he's using just as much as the rest of us. I'm going to have this discussion with them.

However, rent. I dont' really know what's normal in this situation. Yes they share a room, and as a couple they do kinda have less impact on the shared area than 2 single housemates would, but they do have the biggest/best room and he still does impact on us.
So what do people think on that? Should they be paying a larger share of rent as it's two sharing a room, or should it just be the bills they pay extra (basically him paying a share)?

This also all becomes a bit more important to me as the housemate in the small room is likely moving out next month and we don't know if we're replacing yet.

In reply to Scarab9:

Each person should be paying towards the rent imo

In reply to Scarab9:

I live in a shared house. It's bigger than yours as we have 12 rooms. But the monthly cost of each room is based on the size and is the same cost whether 1 or 2 people live in the room. All our bills are included in the rent.
If the guy is being inconsiderate with noise etc, then I would just have a word with him. I get up at 5am and try not to make a noise, but if anyone is playing loud music or a tv and it disturbs me I always just knock on their door and ask them (nicely) if they could keep the noise down a bit

In reply to Scarab9:

I don't think it's unreasonable to request some rent as it is now a 'double' in effect and he will be contributing to wear and tear of the shared areas etc. You could ask for maybe £200 rather than the £175 she currently pays.
With regards to the bills he is having it too easy and should already have volunteered to conribute his fair share....

In reply to Scarab9:
This rings a few bells from my student days... We didn't manage to find a solution which everyone was happy with. I think we got a token payment which wasn't enough to satisfy the person who felt the extra lass should contribute, but was enough to sour our already strained friendship with them.

Is it a HMO property? If so, and it's licensed for three tenants, adding a fourth could cause legal problems and a large fine for your landlord. Followed potentially by evictions and bad references, if your landlord thinks you've breached your contract. How the law separates a guy staying over with his girlfriend fairly often from an extra tenant I have no idea, but I don't think him paying rent would help your case.

That said, I do think, morally, that he owes you a fraction of the bills and maybe some rent money. Perhaps a good approach would be to adjust the rents to accurately reflect room size, and he can help his GF make up the difference. Plus some cash toward bills - cooking and showering both use a lot of gas/leccy and will be adding a good chunk to your bills.

It also sounds like he and his GF need to have a proper conversation about their relationship, where it is and where it's going. But I doubt you can help with that.

In reply to Scarab9:

Based on the situation described bills definitely need to be split between four. In my last rented place we went as far as calculating how many days people were in the house (in case they went on holidays - the electricity and gas only though)
As for the rent - we kinda had similar agreement but later recalculated based on square metres (I did live with some freaks who basically made it rule not to use a dryer as it was too expensive - and wrote my ex a note demanding him to pay more on electricity after he used it ONCE in emergency). I paid the same amount while with my ex and that didn't change after he moved out (slightly reversed situation) but I didn't think it should have - after all I had the biggest room.
Hope that helps, glad I havent had to rent with anyone other than my fiancé for a good 6 years, it's just hard work

In reply to najki_2000:

Cheers all. Gonna have a chat when I can catch her alone

In reply to Scarab9:

I think I'd take seriously anything to do with the housing contracts being compromised. Would be worth looking into.

In reply to Scarab9:

He sounds like a manipulative sleaze ball to me ...
"................................ she doesn't want him to live here (he basically starts getting upset if she asks for a night on her own for any reason and they have a row where he accuses her of splitting up with him and then she relents ........................ "

Tell him he pays 25% of the total rent or he can do one.

In reply to Lusk:


Well put.

Me personally, I'm really tired of people with money who do not pay their way / share.

In reply to Lusk:



I thought he either sounded manipulative or insecure. I dare say they can go hand in hand. A close childhood friend was both.

In reply to Scarab9:

Total monthly rent is £500, so it should be reasonable to say £200, £165, £135 and the bills get split 4 ways.

I'm sure the person in the box room will be happier with an extra £15 in his/her pocket a s you will with an extra £10. If he leaves then resort back to the normal payments. If he returns for anything more than 3 nights a week the rent goes up. Maybe write it all up in a contract and get all 4 of you to sign it.

In reply to Scarab9:
Depends on the contract is the house on a room share basis only? or does someone hold the tenancy and then renting out the rooms?

I.e. when you moved in did you move in to a room for rent at an agreed cost of £175 or £150 per month or a room to rent as a share of £500 per month?

I think it makes a difference in that;

if the Landlord has set the rent based on rooms and is renting the rooms out individually at £175, £175 and £150 then in my opinion he is under no obligation to split the overall rent 4 ways as his part is covered in the £175 being paid for by his partner.

If however, the property is just simply £500 a month split between the tenants then yes he should stump up his share.

In both cases I would say all bills should be split 4 ways.

That is just my opinion thinking back to when I used to house share etc. Should also add check the tenancy agreement or speak to the Landlord might be best any rent changes coming from them etc

In reply to Scarab9:

Apportion the rent to bedrooms and common rooms. Use floor area of each room to get rent per room. Each bedroom is paid for by whoever happens to be in it (with any split between them being their private matter) and common areas are split equally between all people. Bills are split equally between all people.

That would seem equitable. He's only getting half a bedroom after all, it's only increased usage of common areas etc that *should* affect the others...

Or follow your other plan of talking to the girl about it when you find her alone. She'll no doubt tell the guy who sounds like he'll go in to a jealous strop about any other bloke talking to her in private and perhaps finally get shown the door...

In reply to Scarab9:

At uni I had a similar situation when I moved into a house with my girlfriend. House was rented per room so we split room rent between us and everyone in the house split the bills between us equally. Worked without hassle.

In reply to Scarab9:

We operated what seemed like a pretty fair system back in the day.

1. Take half the total rent for the flat and divide that up equally by the number of people resident, each person paying an equal share. This is essentially everyone paying for a proportion of the "house space"
2. Take the other half of the rent and proportion it based on room size. Big room pays more, small room pays less, regardless of how many people in the room. This covers the "room space"

It seemed to iron out the issue of some rooms being bigger/smaller, while also accounting for the fact that shared occupancy of room should benefit those in the room while also recompensing those who have to deal with an extra body in the house.

In reply to Scarab9:

Get everyone together, explain that he has essentially been leeching of not just her but all of you. Put your foot down now Before its too late. If you keep covering the bills etc (are they all in your name or joint?) Eventually you will be left high and dry with a big bill and no deposit returned. I've been there and it cost me over a grand in the end.

He must pay an equal share of the bills including council tax etc., and I would suggest a small increase in rent for the couples room due to the fact the remaining housemates have less space preferably do this in writing with landlords agreement.

If this doesn't happen, then he can't live in your house. Get the landlord/letting agent involved if necessary.

It will of course sour your relationship a fair amount which may or may not be able to be overcome. Are you prepared to lose girlfriend as a housemate? This may be best all round

Legally he has to go on the electoral role too.

In reply to Scarab9:

I had similar. But they split their rent and bills went equally. I wansnt happy as she wasn't suing council tax nor did the landlord know. So in affect could have got me into bother legally and work-wise.
It did my head in and one day I exploded over the kitchen jenga on the draining board. Now they bought a place, and I feel at my expense as they saved a f*ck load on basically no rent

In reply to Scarab9:
I had a situation like this and to make it worse the hanger on stayed home all day smoking and using the phone loads to call his dealer/take away shops, and heating the whole house when it would have otherwise been empty.

At a minimum the bills should be split. How about you get everyone sat down and ask them if they think the situation I fair and maybe they'll surprise you and offer to contribute. If they don't you then ask them to cough up.

In reply to Scarab9:

quick clarify as it's been mentioned a few times - we rent the house as a whole, and the landlady is sort of a acquaintance/friend so there's no problems with extra people or however we want to play it.


Anyway, had a word with the lass and she is already in agreement and apparently they've been arguing about it recently. She's got it across that yes he does need to pay a proper share (apparently up until now when she's mentioned it all he's offered is "oh ill give you £20 on friday when I get paid towards" .....?!!). I think it looks like I'm going to have a chat with him and sort it (great....) but at least she's on side. He gets a promotion in a week or two so will be on more money (and about double what she is which is the ridiculous thing!) so it's looking like start of august we'll have him paying.

yay.

just gotta hope the talk goes ok now :-/

In reply to Scarab9:

George Thorogood's 'One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer' springs to my mind here!

In reply to balmybaldwin:


I always thought you could choose to be on electoral role. I certain have that choice.

In reply to Scarab9:

I would at least be looking at bills being split 4 ways, the extra cooking, washing, showers, TV, computer etc is probably costing the household an extra couple of hundred a year.

In reply to Scarab9:

well that went pretty well! all sorted.

Bills 4 ways (and 3 once the person in the small room moves out which looks like in about 4-6 weeks sadly).

Rent is slightly adjusted so between them the couple pay an extra £25 than she is on her own now.

cheers for the advice and views guys, much appreciated.

In reply to Scarab9:

We look forward to your 'House mate won't pay his rent' thread in about a month's time

In reply to ByEek:

Yes, its not the electoral role I'm thinking of...its the council tax form declaring who lives there I think

In reply to balmybaldwin:


Assuming you are not claiming a council tax reduction benefit then I think the only compulsory one is the census.