The bills that nobody wants to take responsibility for

So, yourself and your friends have finally found a house or an apartment you like, signed the lease and then the landlord or estate agent asks “Who’s name will I put on the electricity supply, when I’m transferring over the account?” Everybody looks around, waiting for somebody else to volunteer their name.

Nobody wants to volunteer for their name to be the sole name on any bill because of the fear that flatmates will do a runner without paying the bill; that the direct debit will be taken out of their account before the rest of the billpayers have transferred in how much they owe; that if they ever move out it will be near on impossible to get their details off the bill.

We will be publishing a series of articles, based on information provided by banks and utility providers such as phone, electricity and heating companies on how to manage bills in shared houses here on Housemates from Hell.

Here are some options to begin with:

Setting up a joint bank account for rent and bill-related direct debits

Many couples set up joint bank accounts, but just because you’re married doesn’t mean you can’t set up a joint account amongst friends and flatmates to manage bills.

A lot of utilities these days demand that bills are paid by direct debit. Sometimes the only way to get out of this is to pay a deposit of a few hundred euro. One of the risks of direct debit for shared bills, however, is that if you’ve only €100 in your account to live on for the week and your three flatmates forget or can’t afford to lodge their €30 share of a €120 bill, the direct debit will come out of your account and because there’s not enough money to meet the bill it will be put back into your account a few days later with a charge of approx €10 on your account for a returned direct debit. If your name is on the bill this may go against your credit rating. Not pretty!

If it’s possible to put a number of names on a utility bill and the direct debit is from a joint account at least there is some shared responsibility and respect for unpaid bills and the repercussions.

Using internet or phone banking to pay your share of the bill

Regardless of whose name is on the bill, one of the handy ways to beat a direct debit from an account is to get the full amount due to the utility company at least 5 days before the direct debit is due to hit the linked bank account.

Many utilities can be set up to be paid through online banking by selecting the utility from a list and linking the utility account number.

Bills usually arrive at regular intervals. e.g. every month or every two months. Direct debits are usually taken from accounts 2 weeks or 14 days from the arrival of the bill. If the bill is opened promptly and divided up fairly, everyone should make the time to transfer their portion of the bill directly to the utility company within a week of the bill’s arrival. Result? Bill is paid on time and nobody is worried about their account being used for direct debit. The downside of this is if somebody is tardy with bill payments and their payment hasn’t hit the household’s utility account 5 or so days before it’s due out, the remaining amount due may still be taken out of someone else’s account via direct debit. If it happens more than once – you know what to do – use that person’s account for future direct debits.

Housemates From Hell is committed to giving housemates the most accurate advice on living harmoniously and dealing with problem flatmates. Bear with us while we find out from banks and utility companies in Ireland about how they can help with fair bill shares.

We’d love to hear your stories about nightmare bill shares.

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