Anyone in a house share over 30? How is it?

[Moooonpig]

May be finding myself in this situation. I've houseshared when younger, some good, some bad.
A lot of houseshares have cleaners for communal areas now which is good, and many sharers I've previously lived with have been great.
However it's always risky and like others have had several bad experiences.
I'd search for a professional houseshare with people around my age or older I suppose. Have seen one where it's only the male landlord living there but not sure how ideal that would be.

I houseshare after my divorce I was 45. It was ok for a while. It was HMO with 6 beds and one bath one kitchen so we had to be organised with rotas for kitchen and bathroom. I couldn't afford the income multiple for a flat. It was £800 a month all bills so really cheap. Ten years later my half of bills in rented flat is £1400

Thanks for sharing, wow, are you in the London area? Was it a harmonious living arrangement?

I am - I’m in London though so this is very common and lots of my early 30s friends are in houseshares too.

I live with 2 other women who are also late twenties/early 30s who are lovely. I think it’s very important to share with similar ages and professionals as you say, not 21 year old students. Also try and meet them or have a chat beforehand so you can suss them out - don’t move in anywhere where you haven’t met the people you’ll be living with. I’d also say for me personally I’d only live with max 2 other people - big houses can be a nightmare.

Normally I'd always go for the live in landlord option, so long as I get along with the landlord after a meeting or two and it's clear the landlord has shared a house successfully previously (as in, not just renting out a room cause they need/want money).

I find live in landlords are much more likely to fix broken things and generally the houses have a higher standard of furnishings/appliances.

I house shared (in different homes) until I was 36! Not in London either, just poor and retraining.
I second the comment about moving in with a landlord, though only if they'll treat you as a sharer not a lodger (lodger is cheaper but tends to come with rules about not using certain parts of the house and is really only suited to say, temporary digs while working away)

It's quite common for people to buy a house solo with a plan of renting a room or two to help with the mortgage. That situation I'd be fine with assuming I got on ok with the landlord. I have a few single male friends who did so.

I would avoid larger houseshares. Partly because of kitchen/bathroom pressures but also just because in my experience bigger properties always seem to be more sociable ones - larger rooms, easier to have partners staying all the time, larger living spaces suited to having lots of guests - was great when I was in my twenties but in thirties id go for places with 2 or 3 people max.

I don't know how common this is now but houseshares with bills included are definitely worth it to avoid the stress of splitting bills with strangers. Otherwise the tensions around the one housemate (there's always one!) who wants a thermostat set to 20 degrees every day become a real grind.

Lastly I'd check about whether anyone WFH and if there's rules around WFH. Some ads I've seen do specify about this, because multiple adults WFH in one household is rarely practical, plus it's not fun to be on a day off and feel you have to creep around because someone else is on video calls in the kitchen!

It was in Brighton I shared with 4 other women about my age and a lesbian couple in their early 40s it was perfectly harmonious. One had a rent reduction for doing the cleaning, another loved gardening, I met my partner who lived in the boys house next door, his was a shit pit, overflowing ashtrays, filthy kitchen, toilets awful but he kept hus room nice. After about 6 months we decided to move in together and left Brighton. You do have to organised tho

I house shared with a live in landlord and 2 rooms was being rented out mine and another to a couple the house was bare tbh sofa in lounge no curtains or blinds up very very very over grown gardens front and back very strict rules other tenants spent 4-5 hours in the kitchen making it difficult to cook 1 bathroom small town not a city costing me £500 a month I moved out within 2 months couldn't take it anymore in their
Kitchen only had a kettle fridge which I wasn't allowed to use and washing machine it was hell