There’s a huge amount of fun to be had during your three or four years at university, including sharing a house with student friends, nights out whenever you feel like it, house parties with no supervision and the occasional bout of learning. Life is awesome.

Annoyingly there are a few things that can kill your buzz. The fact you’re now a ‘proper adult’ with responsibilities is difficult to face up to but with a little focus and thought it should only take a small amount of time and you can go back to the fun stuff.

Before arriving at Uni most students will have lived at home and had all day to day chores kept on top of by parents. Your clothes no longer magically travel from grubby and decorating the floor to clean and neatly folded on the end of your bed. The fridge has to be filled and lunches made by your own fair hands. The horror!

Student broadband deals need paying for with actual money

Sharing a house is ace but lighting, heating, telephone, TV license, rent and student broadband deals need paying for with actual money and it’s the responsibility of you and your housemates to sort it all out.

So how will it all work? How much? When? Who? The mechanics of it all are difficult enough to get your head round without the added stress of affording the bills and making sure your housemates can too. Beer money is precious, will it be you who has to prize it out of unwilling fingers every month?

There a number of ways that students sharing a house can go about organising the utility bills. Some are easier than others, think carefully before suggesting a plan to the people you will be sharing a kebab with on a Friday night.

A joint household bank account

Set up a shared bank account into which each housemate pays an agreed share each month. A good idea in that Direct Debits are an easy way to pay each bill. A bad idea in that each housemate must be trusted to pay regularly and not move out half way through the year.

Working out how much everyone should pay can also be a total nightmare. The bill splitter of the house will encounter the stress of making sure all is fair and even across the year. If you each pay a set amount how will a higher bill for heating after winter be paid?

One bill per housemate

Hmmm, in theory this should work well but whoever pays the electricity bill is getting a raw deal in comparison with the lucky soul who is responsible for one of the particularly competitive student broadband deals that are available.

Trust is, once again, an issue. When the gas bill doesn’t get paid and the demand letters arrive that’s going to be one hell of an awkward conversation.

Pre-pay by meter

As long as you actually look round a prospective shared student house and have in-depth communications with the landlord, moving into a house with a pre-payment meter shouldn’t be a surprise. Before signing the contract it’s important to think about whether paying for your utility bills in this way is for you.

Pre-pay meters are ‘topped up’ by buying special cards from selected newsagents and post offices. It’s a brilliant way to monitor how much your household is spending on bills and is a real education on how much running a home costs.

The downside arrives when the meter runs out on a freezing, wet Sunday evening in January. Pity the housemate who loses that particular rock, paper, scissors battle and has to set off into the night in search of a top-up.

Utilities included in the rent

This is an easy option. The onus is on the landlord to pay all the bills and housemates just have to worry about the rent payment. BUT this is a rare find nowadays and you’d have to be super sure the overall rent is fair. Unscrupulous landlords may make you pay more for the luxury of not having to worry.

Nominating a ‘bill keeper’ or a ‘bill splitter’

When sharing a house there is usually one housemate with more confidence and ‘sass’ than everyone else; choose them to be the keeper of bills or the bill splitter. A strong personality will be needed if disaster is to be avoided.

The nominated person will be the bill splitter, money collector and utility payer. They will need to be organised, fair and a little bit ruthless. It’s a huge task and in many cases, will become too much of a responsibility before the end of the third semester leaving a mess for another poor soul to sort out.

Utility bill money paid monthly to the landlord

This way your landlord will have an account with the utility companies and be responsible for paying the bills that your household generates. He or she will collect the money owed either in cash or by direct debit which is simple and easy for you and the faff falls to them.

However, they will stipulate how much you pay without much consultation and the rates may not be competitive as one company will provide for the landlord’s entire property portfolio.

Also, should any of you fall behind at any point any goodwill between you and the house owner will immediately wane. Quick fixes of issues won’t be his or her priority and your damage deposit may be at risk from interest on missed or late bill payments.

All-in-one package bills through a company such as Glide Utilities

This is a pioneering and increasingly popular option for students sharing a house. Glide will organise all your utility bills, TV licenses and student broadband deals into one monthly payment. The payments will be shared equally and fairly across the household.

What’s really fantastic for your peace of mind is that each occupant is responsible for their share and no-one else’s.

Landlords who have previously struggled to collect the correct money for bills from tenants in a timely fashion will love the simplicity of these services too.

Sharing a house and the utility bills doesn’t have to be stressful. Communication between landlord, housemates and the utility companies is vital for harmony to be maintained. Whether you are in the early stages of sharing a house or currently mired in the mess of a house share that hasn’t worked out remember that Glide Utilities can be the go between and ensure everything runs smoothly.