Bill sharing

Bykobap

Family of four is renting a three bedroom house

Kids are 5 and 6 years old

Father is away Monday morning to Saturday afternoon

Family sublets double room to a couple

What is the fairest way to split the esb/gas bills

Thanks for any replays

MouseTail

That's a crowded house, and a complicated bill share situation. You could go into detail such as do couple tend to vacate weekends, is mother at home with kids after school etc. However I think the family should pay more.

Bykobap

Rent for the house is 950

Couple is paying 300

Mother of the family reasons that the couple should pay 2/3 of esb/gas bill because

a) family pays more rent

b) father of the family is rarely home

Couple is working part time and is mostly home

Mother is with kids after school and they are mostly home also

on_my_oe

The family should pay more of the rent as I'm assuming they have two of the three bedrooms (parents room plus kids room).

As for bills I would guess that 65% family / 35% couple... Five people primarily in the house means three 5ths for the family, two fifths for the couple, but with an adjustment to take into account Dad being home on the weekend.

I sure as anything wouldn't accept the couple pay 66% of the gas and electric if I was them

Mrs OBumble

I'd split it based on number of bedrooms, so family (2xdbr) = 68%, couple (1xdbr) = 32% (rounded).

Arguments based on father being away are bogus: a fair proportion of the bill is due to daily charges which are incurred no matter whether someone is there or not.

And kids may be smaller than adults, but they would tend to make more mess / washing, and they still need rooms heated as much as an adult does.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Really still depends on the circumstances. I would go with number of rooms as a starting point. But expecting the couple to bear 66% of utilities is verging on ridiculous. There's not going to be a huge difference to usage with or without the father - rooms still need to be heated, refrigerator still needs to be running. Children create a lot of mess so it's likely they will be using the washing machine a lot more - and if they use the dryer it eats electricity. Unfortunately it seems children that age seem to be glued to the telly at all times, etc, etc. on the other hand the couple could be charging 20 items at all times.

On the face of it I would say 2/3 to the family/1/3 to the couple.

On a side note, it seems like very unusual living arrangements. Unless you're talking about close relatives, I have never heard of a couple renting with a family. Remember, it's likely that it will be a lot easier for the couple to move out and find alternative accommodation than for the family to find new lodgers. Therefore, I don't think the family should be getting too bullish about a percentage here and there. If they are relying on the couples rent then there's not a big difference in a few percent of bills at the end of the day (assuming no one is taking advantage)

The_Conductor

Sorry- did I read that right- the mother thinks the couple should pay 2/3 of the gas and esb bills?

Thats the biggest load of bollox I've read in quite some time.

Go with a straight 2/3 for the family (seeing as there are 4 of them) 1/3 for the couple seeing as there are two of them.

Suggesting it should be the other way around is someone with a warped view of the situation- it wouldn't be a fair split- and you can be damn sure the couple who are subletting would leave at the first opportunity if you unfairly discriminated against them as you're suggesting.

D3PO

the conductor is right. 2/3 family 1/3 couple the father being away is completely irrelevent to anything and anybody who is stupid enough to try and argue otherwise needs their head examined.

djimi

Family with kids has more rooms to heat, more mouths to feel, more clothes to wash etc. I would suggest 2/3 of the bills to the family is more than fair.