Setting up utilities in a new share: who calls who
Do two things on the first day, before the boxes are open: photograph the meter readings, and write down which of you is opening which account. The readings protect you from paying for the previous tenants, and the list stops the internet being ordered twice or not at all — which are the only two outcomes when nobody is named.
What actually needs opening
- Electricity, and gas if it is separate.
- Water, where it is not included in the rent.
- Internet, which has the longest lead time and should be first.
- Council tax or its local equivalent, which is often nobody's job until a letter arrives.
- Contents insurance, which is per-household and cheaper than most people expect.
Different names on different accounts
Spreading them is worth doing deliberately at the start, when it costs nothing. One person holding all five is one person floating the household every month and carrying every price rise, and moving an account later is far more effort than opening it in the right name now.
Take the readings even if you think it is fine
The most common first-month dispute in a new share is a bill covering a period before anybody lived there. A photograph with a timestamp ends that conversation before it starts, and it takes a minute.
Internet first, though. Everything else can be sorted in week two; a connection ordered in week two arrives in week five.
About fifteen things, once
Your month, before it happens.
Rent, the bills, the subscriptions and what everyone earns. Type it once and the ones that repeat come back on their own, with the date each one lands.