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I live in a 3-bedroom house/brownstone and the roommate who handles the bills said that he had to pay extra fees last month because of overuse of gas and electricity.
I'm guessing the heater got used quite a lot, which I almost never blow up because I'm a freak and prefer being cold. We're in a constant fight between me setting the temperature at 64 and the others setting it at 74.
I never cook, so I don't use gas. Also, there's a roommate who's ALWAYS in the house because he works from home.
It just seems a little unfair that I have to pay more than $50 for utilities when they were supposed to be included in the rent.
Yes you are being selfish.
If your arguing a few more bucks for one month then perhaps consider living alone and paying the full bills yourself.
When you live with roommates everything is being split. You are 3 people in an apt, you split bills 3 ways.
Years ago I lived with a roommate a traveled for work all the time, one month I was gone the whole mont.
I didn't say I wasn't home I shouldn't pay half of the cable and con ed.
I had this issue too, a reason why I chose to live alone haha. I like having complete control over my expenses, even if my expenses are more (which ironically, they dropped 300%).
You're not be selfish - you're being unrealistic. I hope that before the "fight," you tried to have a reasonable discussion, pointing out about the at-home roommate.
OP, do you have a proposed solution? What formula would you consider to be fair for the split? Have you tried speaking to both of your roommates about this? If you're complaining but not offering resolution, it's generally not going to get anywhere.
For the record, my opinion is that in a roommate situation, gas & electric should be split eqyually, unless maybe in summer months if one rommate has AC whereas others do not (but that should all be discussed and worked out in advance). Cable is easier to split because if one roomie doesn't have a box or watch it, etc...
Another vote for living alone. I hate how much my electric bill is, but there are no arguments about usage. The amount of my cable bill annoyed me, so I got a FireStick and lowered my plan.
I live in a 3-bedroom house/brownstone and the roommate who handles the bills said that he had to pay extra fees last month because of overuse of gas and electricity.
I'm guessing the heater got used quite a lot, which I almost never blow up because I'm a freak and prefer being cold. We're in a constant fight between me setting the temperature at 64 and the others setting it at 74.
I never cook, so I don't use gas. Also, there's a roommate who's ALWAYS in the house because he works from home.
It just seems a little unfair that I have to pay more than $50 for utilities when they were supposed to be included in the rent.
Am I being selfish here?
What did you guys agree upon when renting? If roommate said utilities were included in the beginning, then you should mention that. Otherwise sit down and have a reasonable discussion. My suggestion is to divide up all the shared utility evenly on a go forward basis and ask him to drop your portion of the rent if all utilities were supposed to be included initially.
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