And if they get nasty about paying their share, maybe you need to charge them storage fees for not tossing their belongings into the street...
I'm reminded of the non-custodial parent arguing, "When the kids are with me for the whole month of July, I shouldn't have to pay you child support."
The custodial parent still has to maintain the home (with utilities) whether the kids are there or not.
I assume your roommates were out-of-town by choice, although each of them had agreed to pay one third of the rent and utilities. A landlady in a rooming house wouldn't forego the rent because her tenants were out of town. Neither should you.
Your roommates came home to a living situation without frozen pipes.
If their expenses are less--than your expenses are more. This is unfair all around.
I vote that you ask your roommates to honor the original agreement.
I have to agree with Noddy. After all, why should YOU be stuck for the difference? Theoretically, If they were not paying while they were away, you should have been able to rent the room to someone else.
I owned a condo for years that remained empty for all but a few weeks out of the year. I still had to pay the entire yearly association dues, even though I was only using their services for a small fraction of the time.
I had my air conditioning running during the time I was away, so that the house would not rot from the humidity, and had to pay my utility bill.
Thanks for more opinions. (back to neither here nor there for me).
Ok, I took care of mail and made sure pipes didn't freeze, watered plants, etc. I still would be ok with not charging them the full amount. no way would I allow them to pay nothing. Somewhere in between....
I would just act casual about asking them for the utilities, like there is no "in between." Maybe they'll just pay up, and you won't have to worry about paying some of their share. If they don't agree, then you can work something out. But I like the argument that if you all went away, do you not pay bills?
This reminds me of when a group of people go out to eat, and try to figure out who owes exactly what...it's easier to just split the difference evenly, because in the long run(with friends), it all works out.
If we all left, we'd set the heat down to 50 degrees. And then we'd split it 3 ways. I'm propsing that, since I didn't keep the heat set that low, I should pay up some of the difference.
Ok, I'll only sort of vaguely bring up the option of cutting them a deal.
If you went away for a month would they pick up your portion of the bill????
fishin - we'll never be confronted with that scenario.
Yeah, I understand that but what if? I understand you are trying to be fair and all but if I sign an agreement to rent a place and pay 1/3rd of the utilities then I'd expect to pay 1/3rd regardless of what else may happen.
Would you concern yourself with it if it was only a weekend? Would you divy up the bill to give them a 2 day credit?
You can't be adjusting the bill every month based on what they choose to do with their time. They made the rental agreement and they made the decision to go away for a month or two. If it were me I'd expect to still pay my full share when I got back...
I have a hard time realistically putting myself into unlikely scenarios. Shrug.
I think it'd be obvious to all that it wouldn't be worth the effort of calculation to figure out a weekend. But, I'd already thought I'd make it clear it was only going to happen when they were gone for a month or longer.
hehe Yer just to nice to people and ya think yerself a big meanie for charging them the full amount even though they rightfully should.
No arguments there, fishin!
Littlek
I agree with Noddy, Phoenix, and Fishin. It was their choice to leave for the month/months, so it's their problem. There's being nice, and there's being too nice. You all have an agreement to split the rent/bills 3 ways and it's simply not fair to you to have to cover for them just because THEY decided to leave for awhile. If I was one of your housemates, I would never expect you to cover my butt if I chose to take a trip and I don't think you would either, so the same thing goes for them. If they are anything like you or I, then they won't expect you to cut them a deal either.
