S: House bills while away-input?

[ride2bhi]

During the months of July and August I left my place in Los Angeles to do some traveling in Costa Rica and to take a summer school course down in San Diego. The actual dates were:

Costa Rica - July 18th-29th
San Diego - July 31 - Sept 6

I didn't want to worry about a sublease so I left my place dormant and returned a couple weekends for a total of 7 days during that month and half I was gone, which totaled 50 days. Before I left, I mentioned that I wanted to figure out bills for while I was gone, but nothing ever was discussed. When I did come home during those weekends, I noticed that my roommates had the airconditioning set to 70 degrees and it was constantly coming on, even if no one was home. I set it to 76 degrees and would turn it off when I left during the days I was there. Today I received the bill sheet and I, according to my 3 other roommates, owe money to cover power and gas. The other bills, such as phone, water, and sewer I feel I am accountable for, but the power bill is something that can be directly related to me being gone, and thus not using the power or gas. There is no written agreement on splitting the bills, but it is understood that we split the bills in quarters. The worse part is that with one quarter of the tennants being gone, the bill, one would think, would go down. Since they were being gluttonous while I was gone, it is the highest bill we have had since the beginning of the year. I am frustrated and tired of roommates and I'm seriously thinking this is the last straw and I should move. Am I out of line in my thinking here? Thanks for the outlet.

[Airencracken]

No you're not out of line. Most people are retarded morons. You seem to live with three of them.

[Grimm]

I would pay the bill, but bitch like hell about them wasting your money while you were gone. Then get another place with more considerate roomates.

Remember that you should not be entirely exempt from the power bill. When you agreed to room with them you were agreeing to take 1/4 of the bill. You should still be responsible for 1/4 of normal usage.

[smeakim]

Again how much are we talking about here? If you complain, you are going to cause an issue. You could try to convince them that you will pay your normal half, and they cover the other part between the three of them. In the end its your call. You may want to start looking.

[ride2bhi]

The bill for electricity was $172 and gas was $48 meaning I owe $55 for the month. Not a huge bill, but it still pisses me off. Fogot to mention that while I was gone, the landlord who is also the fourth roommate, had his girlfriend living here. Looking at apartments tomorrow.

[eSDee]

Burn that place to the ground and call it even.

[Airencracken]

Yeah bro it's time to move and screw those bastards to the wall.

[ray]

Move in with EsDee! =)

[ufcrusher]

Simply put, even if you were not there, there would be some bill for the electricity and water. Most places require that you leave them on as part of the requirements by the state. Thus, although the bill would be minimal, I have seen bills in the $20 range for no one being there.

I would tell your roommates that obviously there is no question about the "static" bills meaning the ones that are not derived from useage. Phone bill, cable bill, trash/sewer, etc. come each month and should theoretically be the same. (At least most phone bills are fixed now, rather than the old days of getting $150 phonebills from long distance) These bills you cannot argue with and should pay as usual.

The use derived bills - water and electricity - are a different matter. Other than the minimal amount that you would have been required by law to pay by keeping them on, you have basically no useage. Now there are two ways of doing this (ok, so there are more, but for my purposes there are two).

First, you can tell them that you are only willing to pay X amount of the bill as you werent there and didnt cause any of the bill. X can be any amount from $0 to the full bill, but its a number that you assign, not them. If you want to be a "cool" roommate, you could just take several months while you were there average them and pay that amount. Explaining that there is no way the bill should have gone up when the useage went down but being nice, you are willing to chip in fair amount. This way you arent paying more than what you think is the normal amount. Problem with this is...you are paying for nothing. In any case, if you chose this option you will be sitting there justifying your stance when they dont care.

Secondly, you could just pay the full bill since you didnt reach another agreement. Take it as a life lesson that you should have made an agreement in writing before you left.

I will point out that electricity bills do fluctuate as a result of the price of electricity as well as useage. We had it where a bill jumped up close to $20 when our useage actually was down by 20%. My wife and I were scratching our heads trying to figure out what happened when our bill had been fairly steady to suddenly jump. It wasnt until we looked at the price of the power that we discovered the issue.

Its not a fun place to be in. I have been on both sides of this equation. In one instance I hated my roommates so I told him that he had to pay his third of the bill. (Although in our case, the bill didnt go up, but rather way down) When I was the person that wasnt there, my roommates told me not to worry about paying anything when we got the bill. I still gave them a little money as I didnt think it was fair. Obviously depends on the people and the situation. Good luck with it.

[ride2bhi]

Thanks for all the responses. It's amazing the varying degree of opinions I have received on the subject. I have been looking for apartments the last week and have come to the conclusion that I can't afford my own place just yet. I will have to suck it up and deal with my current situation for a little while longer. I am still bothered by the lack of compromise shown by my roommates and have made some changes that reflect these feelings. Too bad because I feel that it has caused me to act in a petty manner, but I feel forced to, so that I am not taken advantage of.

[Grimm]

Thanks for all the responses. It's amazing the varying degree of opinions I have received on the subject. I have been looking for apartments the last week and have come to the conclusion that I can't afford my own place just yet. I will have to suck it up and deal with my current situation for a little while longer. I am still bothered by the lack of compromise shown by my roommates and have made some changes that reflect these feelings. Too bad because I feel that it has caused me to act in a petty manner, but I feel forced to, so that I am not taken advantage of.
You don't have to get your own place, just get better roommates. Check craigslist for people needing a roommate and see if you can discuss these issues before moving in.

[eSDee]

You can move into my house in SD. I'm probably gonna move out in a few.

[ride2bhi]

Where you heading? Going to make an honest woman of the lady friend of yours? Thanks for the offer but commuting from SD to LA might get old after a week or so...