Moving Into a Share House: The Complete Checklist
Everything to sort before you hand over money, on move in day, and in your first fortnight, so you do not discover the problems after you have signed.
·Mates on Rent
The expensive mistakes in a share house move are all made in the first week, usually by not asking something that felt awkward at the time.
Here is the order to do things in.
Before you pay anything
See the room in person. Photos flatter rooms enormously. If you genuinely cannot attend, get a live video walkthrough rather than more photos, and ask them to open the wardrobe and point the camera out the window.
Confirm the total monthly cost, not the rent. Rent plus your share of bills plus internet. The gap between advertised rent and actual monthly cost is often larger than people expect.
Ask what the bills usually run to. If nobody can tell you, that itself is worth knowing.
Establish the lease structure. Are you going on the lease as a co tenant, signing a separate agreement, or subletting from a head tenant? This determines your liability if someone else stops paying and it determines your rights if things go wrong. Ask directly.
Check the bond arrangement. How much, who holds it, and whether it is lodged with the state bond authority. In every Australian state, bonds for formal tenancies should be lodged with the relevant authority rather than held by the landlord or head tenant personally. If you are subletting informally, get the arrangement in writing at minimum.
Get the agreement in writing before money changes hands. Rent, due day, bills, notice period, and what happens if you leave early.
The questions people forget to ask
- How long has everyone else lived here, and how many people have come and gone in the past year? High turnover is a signal.
- Is there a cleaning roster, and does anyone follow it?
- What is the internet like, actually? Ask for a speed test if you work from home.
- Which appliances are shared and which belong to individuals? This becomes relevant when the person who owns the washing machine moves out.
- How does parking work, if you drive?
- Are there rules about guests and partners staying?
- Is there any current dispute in the house? Ask it plainly and watch the reaction.
On move in day
Take photos of everything, particularly existing damage, in the room and the shared spaces. Timestamped photos are the cheapest insurance available against a bond dispute later.
Complete a condition report if there is one, and do not rush it. Note every mark. Nobody has ever regretted being thorough here.
Test what you cannot check later: hot water pressure, whether the heating works, phone reception in your room, and how much street noise reaches the bedroom at night rather than at 2pm on a Sunday.
Get the keys sorted, including whether you get a mailbox key.
Take meter readings if you are joining mid billing cycle, so the next bill can be prorated fairly rather than split evenly across a period you were not there for.
Your first fortnight
Set up the shared records straight away. Rent amount, due day, and how bills get split, agreed and visible to everyone. This is the single highest value thing you can do in week one, and the thing most people postpone until there is already confusion. Mates on Rent sets this up in a few minutes and gives everyone the same view of what is owed.
Pay the first rent early. It sets a tone and it is the cheapest reputation you will ever buy.
Learn the house’s actual rhythms: when the bathroom is busy, when people cook, when the bins go out. Most early friction is scheduling rather than personality.
Raise small things while they are small. The dish left in the sink is not worth a conversation. The pattern is, and it is far easier to raise in week two than in month four.
Red flags after you move in
- Nobody can tell you what the last electricity bill was
- Rent is collected by one person with no record of who has paid
- There is a housemate everyone talks about but nobody talks to
- The condition report was never completed
- Your name is not on anything, but you are being asked to cover shortfalls
None of these are fatal, but each is worth resolving early rather than discovering at the end of the lease when the bond is being divided.
The short version
Verify the total cost, understand your lease position, photograph everything, and get the money arrangements written down and visible in the first week.
Do those four things and most of what goes wrong in share houses simply does not come up.