Many graduates and young professionals chose to live in shared housing. It provides the freedom of not living with parents, but without the high expense of living alone, especially in big cities.
Students often live in shared accommodations during university, so many young people already understand what shared housing involves. However, students living in shared housing often have different experiences than young professionals. If you’re a young professional considering living in shared accommodation, there are some extra factors you should consider before signing your tenancy agreement.
In this blog, we’ll cover the difference between professional and student housing, the pros and cons of young professional shared housing, and how shared utility bills work.
Professional houses are usually near good transport links, whereas student accommodation is typically centred around university campuses. When looking for a shared house to rent as a young professional, you’ll likely search for a place near your workplace or the city centre.
Professional houses are generally higher quality than student houses, which can result in a higher charge. The rent charge will also differ depending on the city’s rental market. For example, young professional accommodation in London will be much more expensive than in a city in the North.
Both joint and sole tenancies are commonly used in shared accommodation for students and professional housing. Student houses are usually rented with joint tenancy agreements. Sole tenancies are generally more popular in professional accommodation as housemates often move in separately and are unacquainted before living together.
A sole tenancy agreement also allows tenants to move out independently. Whereas, with a joint tenancy, if somebody moves out before the contract expires or doesn’t pay rent on time, all tenants are responsible for the contract breach.
Shared housing is typically fully furnished, which is perfect if you have little money to invest in furniture and appliances.
Shared young professional accommodation is perfect if you’re a recent graduate who has just moved to a new city for work. Living with people of a similar age and in a similar position means you have a ready-made group of friends (of course, there’s no guarantee you’ll get on).
Living in shared housing generally means you’ll get more space for your budget. You’ll likely get a spacious communal living room and a large kitchen to cook in. Shared housing for young professionals sometimes offers en suite rooms if you don’t want to share a bathroom.
Shared housing is generally much cheaper than living on your own. This means you’ll be able to live in a more central or nicer location than if you lived alone.
A lot of shared housing offers short-term tenancy agreements, which is ideal if you’re only going to be in a city for a short time or aren’t sure when you’ll need to move.
Living with a group of people you don’t know can be challenging. This can also be true for people who you do know if you’ve moved into a house share with your mates. People might have different cleaning standards or personal space preferences. This can easily lead to heated arguments without honest communication and set boundaries. If you’re on a sole tenancy, check if there are any rules or cleaning rotas in place when you move in.
Unlike in a student house, where everyone is a student and is likely on a similar schedule, in young professional accommodation, people might be on different schedules. If you’ve got to be up early, you might not appreciate your housemate coming home in the early morning hours and making a racket. However, this is easily solved with communication.
Living with people you don’t know can make paying for water, gas and electric bills difficult. You might be stressed about what happens if someone forgets to pay or whose responsibility it is to set up direct debits.
The tenancy agreement should stipulate who is responsible for utilities. Landlords sometimes include this cost in the rent, especially if everybody has sole contracts.
An organised system must be formed if you have to pay bills separately. Otherwise, payments can easily be made late, or some housemates may pay more than others.
Creating a joint account allows everybody to be fully aware of the utility charges. But this can be tricky when tenants don’t yet know or trust each other. If the account goes overdrawn or one person has a poor credit history, it could hurt everybody else’s credit rating. This is one of the main reasons we don’t suggest opening a joint account.
Transferring monthly payments into one tenant’s account might be more suitable. But if the bills are put under one person’s name, they will be liable for any late payments, which is hardly ideal.
Check out our guide on Shared Bills for more information.
If you’re still stressed about how bills will work in a shared house, Split the Bills has a solution. We’re a bill-splitting service trusted by thousands of young professionals and students.
Bills in a shared house can be tricky and stressful, so we created a way to completely simplify household bills. Our team sets up the utility accounts, manages direct debits, and ensures everyone pays their part of the bills! All you have to do is pay your own monthly bills (which we’ll calculate for you).
You can include all the bills you need in your personalised package – energy, broadband, water and even a TV licence if you want to watch live TV.
Learn more about how Split the Bills is helping young professionals living in shared accommodation, or get a price today!
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