Hi, does anyone have any advice on utilities for a first apartment (sophs in CA/off campus). 2 girls sharing guest house and need: internet (maybe not cable tv), water, gas, electric. Is it best to put both names on acct or split responsibility?
I think in the large majority of situations, it’s only 1 person per account, and the other just pays them back. So right now I’m on the internet account and my roommate is on the electric, and every month we just Venmo each other what we owe.
Water is usually included in rent (at least I’ve never paid for it in any apartment in the two cities I’ve paid rent in). Gas has been included in the rent in places that did not use gas for heating (i.e. if the only gas consumption is the stove).
I don’t think utility companies will let you create separate accounts and for something like internet, the cost savings of sharing would make it very foolish for each of you to have your own account. Even something like netflix or hulu should be shared since they now let you have more than one device stream at a time and even let you have your own profiles so the recommendation algorithm isn’t sullied by your roommate.
Easiest is definitely to have one person do all of it and then the individuals pay them back each month but if no one is willing/wants to have their name attached to everything, you could at least divvy it up where one person’s name is on internet, one on electricity, one on gas if needed and then sort out the debts each month (as rebeccar describes above)
Agree, typically one name is allowed per account. In my D’s apartment one has the electric bill and one has the cable bill and they use Venmo to repay each other.
The easiest way is to have one person name on all the utilities. That person would then let each roommate know what is owed. However, I strongly recommend against it, I have read too many stories here where one person is left holding the bag when their roommates can’t or won’t pay. I suggest that each roommate have one of the utilities in their name and split the bills each month.
Also have a formal agreement how the utilities are handle during breaks. For example if one roommate goes home for the summer or withdraws or studies abroad who pays their share?
Thanks to everyone–I think the way to go is split utilities 2 each on paper and then split privately everything.