Student house of freezing teenagers - heating on? No

[Uneek]

My DD lives in a student rental with 5 others, with rent and bills split evenly between them. A couple of them are refusing to put the heating on. When my DD has suggested having it on with the thermostat set at a low temp, one of them said she should just put another jumper on. When DD said she would buy a plug in electric heater for her bedroom, the 'put another jumper on' student said she would not pay towards the electricity for the heater as it costs more than gas.

This has turned into a competition to see how long they can go with no heating. 'Another jumper on' student even suggested seeing if they can last until Christmas!

Has anyone else come across this issue? Suggestions on how to stop a war breaking out in this house and allow them to defrost...

Oh god, I remember truculent housemates like that!

Hide a small heater in her room and buy her an electric blanket. Bonus points if you can get one with a good energy efficiency rating.

You can get heated jackets as well.

Draught excluder for her bedroom door.

Every rental contract I had forbade the use of gas and oil heaters, only electric ones allowed. Get her an electric blanket for her bed and a plug in throw and lock them in her room. If its causing damp, best person for her to speak to may actually be her land lord.

We had somewhat of the opposite issues. One person in our group insisted on renting a certain type of house (old victorian style with the tiled floors etc) because it 'had character'. Turns out she also thought 22 degrees was the minimum room temperature she was capable of living in and anything else would result in hyopthermia (she was an international student and they had cheap geothermal power at home). No matter how much we tried to tell her the house wasn't capable of even reaching that temp nevermind holding it she had a tantrum when it was 'only' 20 degrees and we turned the heating off. She had 3 heaters in her room and still wasn't happy saying we were making the house mouldy and there was water running down her walls.

She called the land lord telling her we were killing her and they rushed around. Land lord walked in and declared the house was warmer than theirs and found water running down the walls in just her room - which was attributed to the fact she had packed up and covered every form of ventilation the room had (she even had cut up pool noodles around the door) and was drying her clothes in there. He read her the riot act that she was being ridiculous and causing damage. She had a tantrum, called her parents who sided with us after speaking to the land lord and eventually moved in with a new boyfriend that had a much more modern house. He kicked her out soon after but she'd already surrendered her tenancy with us so we didn't have to take her back.

And, within reason, I now make sure I'm not cold!

It's miserable

Not uncommon, especially now.

We had the same in a shared house at university (though halls weren't great either).
We'd have windows wide in the day to counter the damp and condensation in winter. You couldn't see out of the windows either, otherwise.

I'd repeat advice to buy the heated throw. They cost pence per hour to run.

I think I can see a few issues with this!

For a start, how long is the battery going to last? The first one I googled cost £194 and would last less than 15 minutes with a low-capacity (1000W) heater attached.

I work for a student landlord. If there are 6 of them living in the house they will need a little heating and ventilation to prevent condensation and mould build up.

It will end up costing them more in the long run if they don't take a sensible approach to maintaining the condition of the property.

If you know who the letting agent or landlord is it might be worth a call asking them to send an email reminding them of their responsibilities as tenants to prevent mould damage from condensation.

I do this sometimes at the request of parents for various issues making it look like it's an email to all of our tenants at all properties i.e. by using BCC rather than sending it direct to their email addresses and addressing it Dear All rather than to their names. That way they don't know it's being sent only to them.

Remind them that all their beloved things will go mouldy if they don’t put it on.

Needs to be a middle ground. Can they ask the landlord to install hive or nest and have it set for 2 hours morning.

Probably in the dryers at the laundromat where they wash it.

How does assertiveness magic money to the pockets of students who can't afford to pay for heating bills?

It's hard enough for poorer students without having to subsidise heating for those who parents will happily pay up

DD got LL around to see an under-stairs, unventilated cupboard which was getting mouldy. He has asked her to put the little radiator on in there for a couple of hours a day. Bills are included, within reason, but as he has asked, she is doing what she is told! They also have a dehumidifier going pretty continuously, as well as the heating on all day. It's going to be pretty unhealthy with no heating.

Well, heating costs is one of the costs of living independently. If you live with other people you need to pay a share of a reasonable level of heating. You can't just decide on behalf of anyone that there will be no heating at all. that's entirely unreasonable.

I paid my own way through uni thanks.

If the housemates really can't afford it (and are not just being dramatic/have parents who would actually pay) there is probably a hardship fund at the University they can be directed to. Paying their share of the heating bill would most likely qualify.

I think people are being a bit over dramatic here. Unless there are specific health issues being cold won't do them any harm. Most people over 50 grew up in houses that never had the heating in because CH was for the wealthy only. We got by with unheated bedrooms

Ever tried studying for hours in an unheated bedroom and then going to bed chilled to the marrow? mine was the bedroom at the top of an Edwardian semi (had been the maid's room) and as we only had CH in the hall, kitchen and bathroom DM bought me a gas cylinder heated fire so I could work in comfort.

WTF are we doing when living and working in the conditions of a Victorian workhouse is somehow regarded as good for the moral fibre?

Bollocks to that! she is shelling out a lot of money for her accommodation , she should be is perfectly entitled to spend her time there at a comfortable temperature,

But surely at great extra cost unless I'm missing something and heating is included? Is she offering to pay everyone else's share of the bill?

I agree they need a sensible discussion about heating and the cost and what they are prepared to spend each week rather than just not having the heating on, ever, with no discussion about it. But in the meantime I suggested ways to keep warm.

Why would they pay for that?

Most student houses ime have washing machines.

In my shared house we dried all of our clothes either on the washing line when the weather allowed, or on radiators and clothes horses in the house.

Winter would have been impossible without the heating being on at certain times.

I don't think where they can afford to live is OP's DD's problem!

I graduated from Hull in 1986. Student houses (Grafton St) were like living in the Arctic Circle!

Do any of them have games consoles? I bet they use more power than an oil-filled electric radiator

I had the housemate from hell in my final year. Wouldn't contribute to anything despite her using it. Refused to pay her share on the (prepayment) meters to the point that me and the other girl kept top up vouchers in our room for emergencies. The last straw was when we went home at Christmas and the selfish bitch not only used all of the credit we left but ran us right down into arrears on it.

The difference in bills probably wouldn’t even be that much once divided by 6.

It's hard to know who is being unreasonable. How cold is the house?

I've not really had my heating on yet this year as I've not felt that I needed it (fortunately money isn't a barrier to heating for me). Yet when my sister stayed for a few nights she complained it was freezing and had the heating on like a shot and during the entire day she worked here too.

We grew up in the same household with the same parents. Yet as adults have very different attitudes to heating - I'm comfortable with the house sitting around 19 degrees. She has her thermostat up at 23.

Just having the heating on for a couple of hours a day should start to heat the house up (assuming it’s well insulated) and it should keep the heat. Surely there’s a stipulation in the contract stating they have a responsibility to reduce the risk of damp and mold? Which they will be charged for if it does appear anyway. Failing all else tell her to say f*ck it and put the heating on anyway.

I had this as a student.

I bought myself an electric fan heater and used it. Never said a word to anyone else.

University really teaches you about the class divide when you live with others.