Many of the tenancies offered by Unipol are fully inclusive. This means the bills are included in your rent. It is your responsibility to check your tenancy to find out if you have household or utility bills to pay.
Tenants sharing a property usually have joint responsibility for the household bills. It is important you organise and agree this as soon as possible after moving in. It is very stressful to try and manage this without any agreements and Unipol cannot intervene in disagreements over payment amounts.
- Organise a kitchen meeting with all tenants in the property and ensure you set aside time to discuss who will pay, how much and how it will be paid, monthly or quarterly.
- Agree and contact your chosen supplier and register all new tenants on the bill.
- Agree how you will all know the bill is due; a joint noticeboard in the kitchen for bills is useful, or for existing friends a joint bank account only for bills can work.
- Ensure regular meter readings are taken and reported back to your supplier to ensure you’re keeping on top of bills – this will help to monitor your usage as you go along and should prevent any large, unexpected bills.
- Consider nominating one tenant or schedule one specific date to take monthly meter readings and keep the record in a public place where all tenants can access them.
- Each tenant should ensure they put aside money for bills each month and pay when the bill is due.
Some tenants may leave before the end of the tenancy: it is important you take a meter reading when they leave, so they can pay their share of any bills when they leave.