To prevent any problems occurring with your flatmates, you may want to consider entering in to some sort of “Flatmate Understanding”. This could be quite useful in sorting out issues at a later date if any problems were to arise.
When you enter in to a lease with your new flatmates, you are jointly liable under that lease, so it may be a good idea to agree to some basic rules in a “flatmate understanding”. Joint liability basically means that any or all of the flatmates can be held liable when just one of the flatmates fails to meet obligations under the lease, such as late rent, or damage. The flatmate understanding should detail each flatmates obligation to the other members of the household.
All flatmates should sign and date the understanding to ensure faith.
Some of the points that could be included are-
- Rent
- Bathroom time
- Shopping
- Visitors
- TV / Music
- Borrowing / Lending personal items
We’d like to hear some of the things that you would put in your “flatmate understanding”.
Visit the Share housing site for more useful information
