Flatting Stories

[Daisygirl]

Hey all

 

Its gotten to that stage in life where I have decided to move out to a flat/apartment with some mates! Big decision for me, going out to the wide wide world... Very exciting though!!! 

 

....so I was wondering if anyone had any advice?

 

Or just random stories to tell about their flatting experience? 

 

One of the ones that I have is from my dad: he and his mate were investigating a house that was going to be demolished when they chanced upon a perfectly good couch. Rather than leave the couch to be demolished with the house, they nicked it and started carrying it home to their new flat.

 

However, halfway home the police happened to drive by in a car. Quick as a flash, Dad and his mate plonked down the couch and sat down on it, cool as you please, and waved as the car went past, being nutty uni students thinking that they were about to be arrested for theft of a couch from an abandoned building. Once the car went past, they jumped up and took their new couch home. 

 

Daisy

[MissMormie]

Be sure to ask neighbours about any problems in the building before picking the place. They might know about the upstairs neighbour that plays music all night, or they know about the landlord that doesn't fix anything. Also, you've already said hi, so that's nice when you move in

[Daisygirl]

Be sure to ask neighbours about any problems in the building before picking the place. They might know about the upstairs neighbour that plays music all night, or they know about the landlord that doesn't fix anything. Also, you've already said hi, so that's nice when you move in

 

Hey, awesome! Would not have thought of that would be unfortunate to end up in a place with noisy neighbours, Im waaaay too much of a light sleeper so would be bad for me haha

[Jittersthe.Clown]

Go by and walk around during the evening/night time.  You have to be comfortable in your new place and neighborhoods can change when the sun goes down.  I was looking at a house that was great and had everything we wanted.  Went by at night and there were distinct gangs of kids on either side of the street.  The next day I had asked the neighbors about it and they mentioned that the kids usually get rowdy and the police are called most every night.

[Ceasefire]

Oh wow, I have tons of them.

 

Make sure you have some rules set between housemates. It was assumed because I worked from home that I'd pick up the slack on all of the housework, including my roommates disgusting, nasty, moldy Tupperware. It would usually be that he'd leave them in the sink and just wait for them to get done and then when I'd complain, he'd say he was 'going to do it' and I should have just left them there. Sure. Nasty Tupperware in the sink stinking up the whole house for who knows how long? No thanks.

 

Depending on how many housemates you have and how many parking spots you get, draw straws for parking in the lot versus on the street.

 

And remember to communicate. Someone annoying you with loud music at 5am in your own apartment? Talk to them about it, don't just stew on it. Other tenants, however? Either try to be polite about it or call the landlord. Here are just a few of the horror stories I've had with other tenants in our triplex...

 

• One guy fell asleep, minus one shoe, on the hallway stairwell. We were woken up by his snoring. He didn't come downstairs to get his shoe for a whole week.
• The same guy decided he would sit on the top of his friends truck in the driveway, singing rock ballads...at 3am. With the lights from the truck shining DIRECTLY into my bedroom.
• Annnnnd, I'm not done with this guy yet. He fell asleep watching Home Alone. You could hear the entire movie throughout the night. It replayed. When we called the landlord at 7am, he came over and told us we'd 'just have to wait until he woke up'.

I'll come back to tackle some of the other tenants soon.

[Frost of the Gloaming]

If you are looking at a flat above a business look at their hours; I lived above a home security office whose hours were 8-5 M-F, that was awesome. I also lived above a bakery, which may only be open for certain hours but it's pretty much a 24hr operation esp if they make bread, also the sickly sweet smell that my friends always loved when they came over got really old quick

[I-Jo]

oh boi.

 

so many many stories. more later- I'm going to make a blackberry/raspberry pie and a white chocolate and raspberrie scone!  Man- I want to stab my roommate in the face- with multiple pencils. everywhere.

[Elastigirl]

If you are looking at a flat above a business look at their hours; I lived above a home security office whose hours were 8-5 M-F, that was awesome. I also lived above a bakery, which may only be open for certain hours but it's pretty much a 24hr operation esp if they make bread, also the sickly sweet smell that my friends always loved when they came over got really old

My son lived over a frozen yogurt shop and loved it. It was open until like 3 am. Some might dislike the noise, but son and friends thought it was very convenient for when you have a craving for a late night treat

 

Before he moved out, we went to a rummage sale put on by a church, and were able to  find lots of cheap kitchen items and some furniture.

 

They set up a schedule of whose turn it was to fix dinner and do dishes for each night. 

[iatetheyeti]

Make sure you have some rules set between housemates.

 

So much of this^

 

The amount of times I've had to clear up after my housemates, or do the dishes because guess what, there aren't any clean ones left, or chuck mouldy food out... Yeah, not so much fun. Luckily in this current house we've established a twenty four hour rule on the dishes, though we still run out of teaspoons daily. In my last place one of my housemates had the horrible habit of using the entire kitchen's worth of pots, pans, and other dishes to cook one meal, then he wouldn't clear it up for days. Either I did it, or I asked him to and his girlfriend would do it. Another kept rubbish and mouldering food stuffed behind the chair she'd claimed and the rest of us had to keep throwing it out because she wouldn't take a telling.

 

This time around we've got pretty good at communicating with one another. We've also got a schedule pinned up in the kitchen so we all know who has however much on in regards to work, uni, and suchlike. That way we can make sure we're not creating extra, and needless, work for anyone. That, and we know when to keep the noise down. So far there's only been one night where the noise levels got too high too late.

 

So basically, just talk to each other. Make sure you establish some ground rules. Mostly I've found that once you do that, things just fall into place.

[I-Jo]

okay- I have a moment.

 

I've lived with several sets of people.

 

college was small space- 4 people- but miltary school so things EVENUTALLY had to get tidy- but the clean up was often one/two sided. well- really it was usually just ONE slop who refused to particpate.  Or thougth she had better things to do up till the ten minutes befre inspection then expected us to help her. PFFTA

 

Lived with me best friend every year. few issues. Mostly just personality issues- both of us liked having a mostly tidy clean house.   I think that worked well because we actually lived together- not just co-habitated. if that makes sense. we might as well have been a couple.

 

Current roommate- complete and utter piece of shit.

I had a good idea of what I was getting into- his GF has moved out (he was so lazy he didnt break up with her- he just waited for her to leave)... and she had been complaining to me about how lazy he was. She had some serious flaws too- but man- it was a mess.  his big excuse was alway "I'm too busy"

 

That worked moderately well on her as an excuse. But I work 3-4 jobs. Bitch please.

 

Anyway- we had a nice system for the fridge- my food was on the middle shelf whatever he wanted was on the top shelf.   He mostly takes out the trash- sound systems stayed on medium when one or the other was home (he worked nights- I worked days).  But cleaning?  none existence.

 

His dog had lof of medical issues and he was pretty oblivoius so I was left cleaning up a LOT of her issues.  It was very stressful.  Dishes get left- pots and pans get left.

 

RULES. RULES are important.  Stuff gets cleaned up immediatley- like within a day or two- laundry gets moved if you aren't there.

[Daisygirl]

Wow, sounds like a lot can go wrong! :/ So, what I need to be checking mainly are

a) check the neighbourhood, neighbours and place where I'm living is where I want to be, i.e. hrs if above a buisness, noisy neighbour issues etc.

b ) set ground rules with flatmates related to cleaning, food, music usage/volume, laundry/washing

---> so with ground rules maybe should we set up a roster? I think we are going to be sharing food, so maybe person A does dinner and washing on monday, person b on tuesday, etc...kind of thing? 

is there anything else? Thanks everyone for their input, most of this stuff I wouldn't have thought of having to do!

[Mad Hatter]

A lot of things can go wrong - and a lot of things will WILL go wrong, that's the fun of living with other people. A roster sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't, it depends on you and your mates. You'll see that quickly as you get to know them in a whole different way, for better and worse haha.

 

Oh and add bill handling to the list of rules, shared bills can be a huge PITA if someone decides they're going to be broke on bill days.

[I-Jo]

the food depends on diet needs and personality. for a good 9-10 months- I cooked and left overs I didn't use went on the top shelf. I cooked and cleaned. Bought all the fod.  Any time we went out- he paid. worked well. now that there is tension- it's definitely you eat what you want and I eat what I want.  I weigh my food- and pre-portion it- so it's super important to me that he not eat it.  that needs to be identified.

 

pets?  who takes care of them if they are gone?

cleaning up messes?

who pays for cleaning supplies?

agreed with Mad Hatter about bills. can be ackward- lay some ground rules- and grace period rules.

 

all important things to identified

[Ceasefire]

Depending on the situation with the washing machine (multiple or just one?) it might be nice to get some kind of schedule going with that. Sadly here it seems that whichever apartment gets to it first gets use of it and there's no plan to it. Sometimes I find my just-washed laundry on top of the dryer because someone else needed to use it. Could have put it in the basket or IN the dryer (we leave quarters downstairs for that reason) but nope. Frozen laundry. Fun.

[I-Jo]

agreed.

 

I go by college rules with microwaves and washing.

 

If you get there and the load before is done and said owner isn't there- it gets moved.

[theDonnybrook]

Please note, based on the work I have done as part of my profession, I am very pessimistic about renting situations.  If there are local government websites that provide access to building code violations, look up the address.  I was a housing lawyer in a large US city for a while, and i can't tell you how helpful it was to look this stuff up regularly to establish defenses for illegal eviction cases.  Also check title histories to confirm your potential landlord is the owner, check local court filings to see if the landlord is being sued for anything related to the property (mortgage, by former tenants, government agencies for code violations, debts, or anything else that may negatively impact your right to rent).  I could give you tons of terrible stories from the trenches, but will spare you the gory details.  Dig deep on whoever you are renting from to make sure they won't give you problems.  Oh, make sure you can afford to pay at least two months full rent if your roommate(s) can't/won't/don't pay their share of the rent.  When tehy don't pay, kick them out ASAP.  You are jointly responsbile for paying the rent, so if someone isn't paying, they need to move on as everyone else will share the burden they have created.  It also always seemed to help me think everyone was out to screw me.  Housing shouldn't be so messed up.

[Mad Hatter]

Might not be relevant but in the UK at least we always rented through agencies and that got rid of the worst of the issues above. We still had terrible landlords from time to time, but mostly it was things in the house that never got fixed and things like that.

[Minty Keen]

I've have a pretty good experience, been living with my roommates for 5 years now...

But I'm lucky. One of my mates is my cousin, and the other her husband, and then another one of their friends.

We're all nerds who play video games.

 

I'm probably the least nerdy out of all of them which sort of makes me sad. Since I've been healthier I have less time for video games, which besides reading fantasy stuff and watching anime is one of the only things that makes me nerdy. The biggest thing, really.

 

As long as you all have some sort of agreement to honour each other's space and to somehow keep the house  (especially the kitchen/bathroom) functional... you should be set.

 

I clean all the bathrooms in the house. I don't really care.

 My other roomy vacuums once in a while.

None of us like dusting. I'm allergic to it, so not dusting affects me the most, but I don't want to be the one doing it, since it makes me sick for like 2 days when I do.

So usually that happens only like... when we have a bunch of people over.

My cousin takes care of the dishwasher. Basically she just makes sure it runs when it needs to, and empties it when it's done.

And her hubby is responsible for taking the garbage and recycling out.

 

As long as all these things happen often enough we're all pretty happy. Sometimes we switch jobs around, but right now we're all pretty happy with the chores we've assigned ourselves.

[I-Jo]

vacuum instead.

 

I hate dusting- I mostly just vaccuum- ceiling fans?  vacuum.  
 

it's good ENOUGH and it doesn't leave the area completely un-usable for hours.