Apartment / Bills issues ... someone please help!

[jenii]

Roommates have to share expenses. It's a fact of life. It sounds like she can afford more, which is WHY she has the biggest room. Which means it sounds like she already pays slightly more than everyone else.

If you can have a dialogue with this girl without getting confrontational, and just asking that she turn her heating off when she's not home, I'm sure the problem will be solved. You can't make her turn off lights whenever she leaves a room. The most you can ask her to do is turn off her heating if she's not gonna be home. That's a reasonable request.

Asking her to pay a larger chunk than she already does, however, is unreasonable. You all live in the same house, you all share expenses. If you can't move past only wanting to pay YOUR EXACT SHARE, then maybe you aren't ready to have roommates.

This sounded a lot meaner than I intended it to, but it's a harsh truth. Some people just can't do the sharing-a-house thing. It's cheaper, but it's obviously not something you can comfortably live with if it's only been two months and you're already having drama in the house.

I wouldn't suggest a "house meeting," either, because then it's the rest of you ganging up on this one girl, and that's never cool. It'll only make the drama worse, and it won't actually solve anything.

You might think it's her fault, but I've lived in a house with multiple roommates, and the group does tend to choose one roommate to "pick on" (often the one with the biggest room-- the complaint is usually that it's "unfair"). The problem probably isn't even as bad as everyone's convinced themselves it is. This is just what happens when a bunch of incompatible people (or ones who aren't ready to be in this situation) decide to share a house.

 

[labellavita7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenii Roommates have to share expenses. It's a fact of life. It sounds like she can afford more, which is WHY she has the biggest room. Which means it sounds like she already pays slightly more than everyone else. If you can have a dialogue with this girl without getting confrontational, and just asking that she turn her heating off when she's not home, I'm sure the problem will be solved. You can't make her turn off lights whenever she leaves a room. The most you can ask her to do is turn off her heating if she's not gonna be home. That's a reasonable request. Asking her to pay a larger chunk than she already does, however, is unreasonable. You all live in the same house, you all share expenses. If you can't move past only wanting to pay YOUR EXACT SHARE, then maybe you aren't ready to have roommates. This sounded a lot meaner than I intended it to, but it's a harsh truth. Some people just can't do the sharing-a-house thing. It's cheaper, but it's obviously not something you can comfortably live with if it's only been two months and you're already having drama in the house. I wouldn't suggest a "house meeting," either, because then it's the rest of you ganging up on this one girl, and that's never cool. It'll only make the drama worse, and it won't actually solve anything. You might think it's her fault, but I've lived in a house with multiple roommates, and the group does tend to choose one roommate to "pick on" (often the one with the biggest room-- the complaint is usually that it's "unfair"). The problem probably isn't even as bad as everyone's convinced themselves it is. This is just what happens when a bunch of incompatible people (or ones who aren't ready to be in this situation) decide to share a house.

Thank you, but I've lived with roommates for the past three years. I'm used to roommates, and I know how to comfortably live with other people. We aren't blaming her for anything but leaving lights on, it is obviously not her fault she got electric heating. But the fact that it even exists in her room, and only her room, makes the bill lopsided for the rest of us... not her fault. I'm unsure as to why asking her to pay a little more is unfair, when she's admitted to leaving everything on and continues to do it. There is no fighting going on in the house, there is no drama, all there is is confusion about how to handle the payment of this bill. You are all making this seem like I'm 12 years old living with people I hate and not knowing how to interact with people. Yes it's two months in, which is why we're figuring this stuff out NOW. Nobody is picking on each other and fighting, we're all adults here.

 

[gigglegirl]

One thing I've thought of (which may not help with inflation and just general price increases) is finding out what the bills last year were for electricity? I know my local hydro company where we get both electricity and gas on one bill breaks it down by type and both cumulative and last say "October's" use. I wonder if the landlord could provide you this info if you go to him/her and say "this has come up and we want to solve it". Its definitely not perfect as this year's November could be polar opposite temperature wise than last year (unseasonably warm/cold whatever) but it could help give you an idea and work out how much more consumption is happening now with the basement unit. I stress ballpark figure.

Again wish you all the best, just wanted to add something that popped into my head as my hydro bill sits here on my desk!

 

[captodometer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by labellavita7 Thank you, but I've lived with roommates for the past three years. I'm used to roommates, and I know how to comfortably live with other people. You are all making this seem like I'm 12 years old living with people I hate and not knowing how to interact with people. Yes it's two months in, which is why we're figuring this stuff out NOW. Nobody is picking on each other and fighting, we're all adults here.

I assumed that this was the first time for all of you living away from home, but you just stated that it isn't, at least for you. If you have been doing shared living situations for three years, you should know how leases and expense sharing work by now

The time to lay down house rules about energy conservation and anything else that might potentially be a problem was before you signed the lease.

I won't presume to speak for anyone else who posted in this thread, but you and all 3 your roomies do sound immature to me. It's true that one is wasting energy by leaving the lights on, but this is minor compared to baseboard heating costs which she has no control over. And it sounds as if the 3 of you are glad that she took the larger basement room, because none of you could afford the extra rent for it? If this is indeed the case, it means that 3 of you are living above your means: your budgets are already maxed out, and you have no money to cover contingencies like an increased utility bill or emergency medical expenses. You shouldn't be living somewhere where it takes your entire monthly income just to get by under the best of circumstances. Because you are screwed if anything goes wrong, which it has in your current situation.

You also can't assume that natural gas heating is automatically going to be less expensive than electric. Price of natural gas is tied to the price of oil, which just hit a record high sometime last month. If it's a really cold winter, or something happens in the Middle East to disrupt the oil supply, natural gas prices will go through the roof. And when the basement roomie has the heat on, she is actually heating the rest of the house. Hot air rises and cold air sinks: those of you upstairs are actually benefiting to some extent from having the basement heat on. So you can't really argue that you shouldn't have to pay for it.

I do have one final suggestion for you and your roomies. Contact your gas and electric provider: in a lot of places the same company bills for both. You can probably go on the budget plan: this means that they average your bill over the year so that it's not gigantic during the winter months. Example: Rochester Gas and Electric. When I wasn't on the budget plan, I would end up with a monthly bill of $350-550 during the winter, depending on how cold it was. And during the summer months, the bill would be less than $100. On the budget plan, I paid $229 every month. My payment got reduced mid-year to $172 because I replaced the original 1940's windows/doors with modern energy efficient ones; the utility company does continue to read your meters. This is an accurate method of budgeting: when I moved out in the middle of a month and canceled my service, I ended up owing RG&E $50 for the final bill. You would receive a refund at the end if you had overpaid during the course of the year.

This is the only thing I can suggest to help you spread out the cost of your utility bills. Unless you have a written agreement to the contrary, everyone in the house is legally responsible for one quarter of both the electric and gas bills. The fact that at least three of you are probably unable to pay is irrelevant.

EDIT: The previous use history that gigglegirl mentioned is usually included in your monthly bill. Looks like a bar chart of the last 12-18 months, and usually says "estimated" or 'actual' under each bar. Useful to some extent for determining your future bills, but you don't know how many people lived there before you, how much stuff they had, if they liked it warm/cold, etc. And it's a moot point anyway unless basement roomie volunteers to pay the projected difference herself(I wouldn't if I were her); she is legally within her rights to refuse.