House Shares & Flatshares. Find your House Share & Flatshare with RoomBuddies.com

POINTS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN CHOOSING YOUR HOUSEMATE

December 2nd, 2008

If a guy is sharing with a guy he will think - “I wonder if his TV is bigger than mine and has better graphics on Play station.” Or “Should we have two fridges? One to store the beer and one for the food?” And finally, “I wonder if he’ll be strong enough to carry a keg up five flights of stairs with me? And will he have a better have a car.”

 

Girls as usually are way more complicated and will ask questions like – “What if she’s a complete geek who won’t be able to party with me? I wonder if she’s the same size as me so we can double our wardrobe?” Quickly followed by, “Wait, what if she’s more petite than me and I feel miserably fat next to her” Which is immediately followed by, “Is she monstrously fat?” “Does she go tanning? Or does she apply self tanner sloppily and I am going to be seen with orange streak girl in the dinning hall?”

 

If you’re an only child you will sometimes specifically want to be roomed with another only child, that way you both come in with the same notions that sharing is out and top-of-the-line products are in. Not once did it ever cross my mind that someone would actually bring a Shaper Image humidifier to college for fun…

 

No matter what you say in the beginning of the year you and your roommate are going to fight. It may be over something small and petty like taking out the rubbish or bigger issues like her kicking you out of your room every night so she can cuddle with her new boyfriend. Either way it’s always nice to keep a bottle of Nair handy to replace her shampoo bottle with. Just throwing that suggestion out there, you do what you want with it.

 

Living with guys is always difficult, especially on a small campus. The incessant jokes about hooking up with each other gets really old after the first week, but will never go out of style to everyone else.

 

Most boys don’t clean. Guys in general don’t clean and are content living in the equivalent of a solid waste dump with a recycling department that consists of empty beer cans overflowing the trash bin in the corner. Guys will usually only clean the days before their girlfriends are coming to stay.

 

That’s not to say that guys living with girls in general wouldn’t have a counter-argument. They may have clothes and beer cans scattered about the place, but girls tear up
a bathroom no matter what especially when getting ready for a big night out! 

YOUR A HOUSE-SHARING STUDENT IF….

December 2nd, 2008

Here are some signs to look out for to confirm you are officially a house-sharing student - 

If you average 3 hours of sleep a night

If your trash is overflowing and your bank account isn’t

If you are personally keeping the local pizza place from bankruptcy

If you wake up 10 minutes before class

If you wear the same jeans 13 days in a row — without washing them

If your breakfast consists of a Coke on the way to class

If it takes a shovel to find the floor of your room

If you celebrate when you find 10p

If your room is so cold that your toilet freezes over

If you wear a sweat suit for so long that it stands up by itself

If you get more sleep in class than in your room

If you can sleep through your roommate’s blaring stereo

If you live in an area that is smaller than most mobile homes

If you have a fine collection of domestic beer bottles

If you have ever seen two consecutive sunrises without sleeping

If your underwear supply dictates the time between laundry loads

If your idea of “doing your hair” is putting on a baseball hat

If your midnight snack is microwave popcorn

If you cannot remember the last time you washed your car

If you eat at the cafeteria because it’s “free”, even though it sucks

HILARIOUS WAYS TO ANNOY YOUR HOUSEMATE

December 2nd, 2008

Take your time to read through these hilarious ways to annoy you housemate, they will have you laughing your head off in no time! 

Continually refer to your roommate using terms of endearment (sweetcheeks, honeybuns). Slap him/her in the face if they ever do the same.

Pretend to talk while pretending to be asleep.

Move you roommate’s personal effects around. Start subtlely. Gradually work up to big things, and eventually glue everything she/he owns to the ceiling.

Ask your roommate if your family can move in “just for a couple of weeks.”

Smoke ball-point pens.

Shoot rubber bands at your roommate while his/her back is turned, and then look away quickly.

Hide your underwear and socks in your roommate’s closet. Accuse him/her of stealing it.

Whenever he/she is about to fall asleep, ask questions that start with “Did you ever wonder why….” Be creative.

Open your window shades before you go to sleep each night. Close them as soon as you wake up.

Send secret admirer notes on your roommate’s e-mail.

If you get in before your roomate, go to sleep in his/her bed.

Whenever you go to sleep, start jumping on your bed. Do so for a while, then jump really high and act like you hit your head on the ceiling. Crumple onto your bed and fake like you were knocked out. Use this method to fall asleep every night for a month.

If your roommate goes away for a weekend, change the locks.

Create an imaginary cat for a pet. Talk to it every night, act like you’re holding it, keep a litter box under your desk. After two weeks, say that your cat is missing. Put up signs in your dorm; blame your roommate.

Whenever the phone rings, get up and answer the door.

Whenever someone knocks, answer the phone.

Tell your roommate that someone called and said that it was really important but you can’t remember who it was.

When you walk into your room, turn off your lights. Turn them on when you leave.

Hang stuffed animals with nooses from your ceiling. Whenever you walk by them mutter, “You shouldn’t have done that to me.”

Trash the room when your roommate’s not around. Then leave and wait for your roommate to come back. When she or he does, walk in and act surprised. Say, “Uh-oh, it looks like THEY were here again.”

Every Thursday, pack up everything you own and tell your roommate you’re going home. Come back in an hour and explain that no one was home. Unpack everything and go to sleep.

Every time you wake up, start yelling, “Oh, no! Where am I?!” and run around the room for a few minutes. Then go back to bed. If your roommate asks, say you don’t know what he/she is talking about.

Buy a Jack-In-The-Box. Every day, turn the handle until the clown pops out. Scream continuously for twenty minutes.

Lock the door while your roommate is out. When s/he comes back and tries to unlock it, yell, “Don’t come in, I’m naked!” Keep this up for several hours. When you finally let your roommate in, immediately take off all of your clothes, and ignore your roommate.

If your roommate comes home after midnight, hit him/her on the head with a rolling pin. Immediately go to bed, muttering, “Ungrateful little…”

Tell your roommate, “I’ve got an important message for you.” Then pretend to faint. When you recover, say you can’t remember what the message was. Later on, say, “Oh, yeah, I remember!” Pretend to faint again. Keep this up for several weeks.

Bowl inside the room. Set up tournaments with other people in the building. Award someone a trophy. If your roommate wants to bowl too, explain that he/she needs bowling shoes.

While your roommate is out, glue your shoes to the ceiling. When your roommate walks in, sit on the floor, hold your head, and moan.

Make a sandwich. Don’t eat it; leave it on the floor. Ignore the sandwich. Wait until your roommate gets rid of it, and then say, “Hey, where is my sandwich!?” Complain loudly that you are hungry.

Throw darts at a bare wall. All of a sudden, act excited, telling your roommate that you hit the bullseye.

Practice needlepoint every night. At one point, grab your thumb and scream, “Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!” Cry hysterically for a few minutes, and then go to bed. Sob and sniff all night.

Scatter stuffed animals around the room. Put party hats on them. Play loud music. When your roommate walks in, turn off the music, take off the party hats, put away the stuffed animals, and say, “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”

Hit your roommate on the head with a brick. Claim that you were trying to kill a mosquito.

Steal something valuable of your roommate’s. If he/she asks about it, tell him/her that you traded it for some magic beans. Give some beans to your roommate.

Instead of turning off the light switch, smash the light bulb with a hammer. Put a new bulb in the next day. Complain often about the cost of light bulbs.

When you walk into the room, look at your roommate in disgust and yell, “Oh, you’re here!” Walk away yelling and cursing.

Leave the room at random, knock on the door, and wait for your roommate to let you back in. If he/she asks about it, go on a tangent about the importance of good manners.

Leave your room and lock the door. Proceed to bang on the door, screaming, “Let me in.” Get mad at your roommate for locking you out.

Constantly slip and fall - on your carpet.

Let your alarm clock go off and refuse to turn it off. If your roommate comments, pretend not to hear anything.

Every time you take a shower, yell audibly, “I’m melting, I’m melting!”

When your roommate has friends over, get under your covers and stare at them through a little hole in the covers. Use a telescope.

When you leave the room, put on a screensaver that says, “I’m watching you.”

BEST PRANKS TO PLAY ON YOUR HOUSE MATE 2008

December 2nd, 2008

We thought we would put together some funny “house mate prank ” clips we have seen in 2008.  There is no particular order to them but be prepared for side splitting laughs.

Put talc in your flatmates hair dryer

Another good idea to give your house mate a new look when his hair seriously turns pink. Pour enough hair dye into the victim’s shampoo bottle and let him do the rest. This prank can be really funny if done to the right person: i.e. light blond hair dye for the counterculture, death-metal fan (it’ll match nice with his all-black wardrobe of Metallica and Slayer t-shirts), or jet black for someone who works at Abercrombie.

Provide your housemate with a friendly wake up call…

Probably about half the students at college bring a pretty serious set of speakers with them so that they can blast their tunes louder than their roommates. For a fun and simple prank, just grab the most heavy-hitting speaker system you can find, and surround the victim with them while they’re asleep. Prior to turning them on, get a really obnoxious song ready in iTunes at the loudest possible part of the song, and pause it. Now, crank the speakers up as loud as they go, hit play, and run!

Or you can simply use a MEGAPHONE

Put a dead decaying animal in your flatmates cereal box

Don’t really need to say much for this one.  This guy is a genius.

The Secret Admirer Prank

The secret admirer prank is fun to pull on one of your better friends, the secret admirer requires that you spend some time making notes, letters, cards, pictures, drawings, poems, etc. and leaving them to your friend, from a secret admirer. Say that you found one outside the door addressed to them. Then through some prodding of your friend and some sincere writing from the admirer, arrange for them to meet, only for your friend to find you and your other buddies waiting at the meeting spot. They will be absolutely humiliated, guaranteed!

Butter the floor

Not sure if this is a set up but this has to be included just in case its genuine.  My god it looks as this huy really gets hurt..  LOL

Cover everything in foil and label
This has to be included quite simply because it took ages to get this done..

Invite 50 chickens into your front room

This has to be included for complete Bizarreness.  Must have left a smell if not a mess.

Fill their room full of balloons!

I have tried this myself and to be honest its a lot of hard work to get this prank done and its not really for that much affect.  I have included this one just for effort.


Cover everything they own in newspaper

This must have been done to follow on from the foil one.  Not sure which one is great.  Foil or Newspaper?

- Please let me know by leaving a comment.

Cling Film over the door

Well funny if they had some coffee in ther hands or something.

Ok thanks for reading our 2008 pranks.  Please let us know if we missed anything and we will try and include.

Many Thanks

Room Buddies Team

10 Stupid Things Housemates Have Done When They Are Drunk

November 21st, 2008

Housemates admit the 10 most stupid things they have done when drunk

Getting Naked…

I always lose my clothes when I drink. I feel that clothes are restricting and alcohol is liberating, and that notion equals my being naked every time. It’s quite the dilemma. I don’t actually care that much, but I should probably come with my own warning label.

Random trips into the woods

I roll around in a sharp bushes to try and make crop circles and get bitten by who knows how many insects. I advance into the woods without a light and think I stumbled upon a fossil. Well, it felt like a fossil in the darkness. So I brought it back with me inside and it turned out to be a large piece of broken pottery.

Indentity issues

I’ve run around the house party rapping the King Kong song while beating my chest and running around like a Wildman.

It will all end in tears…

I do things I know will most likely end badly for myself and should cause me to end  up in handcuffs, a hospital bed, or both. I pick fights with random football/rugby  players, pet police horses, sleep on roofs. Im also very easily persuaded to do s  stupid things.

Drunken man-hunt

I play drunken man hunt, woods roulette (stand in the middle of the woods all facing in a different direction, and run straight with your eyes closed and covered, last one standing wins).

Get your own back on the feline!

I kicked my housemates cat and then threw water all over it

There really are no police!

My housemate tried to hide from the police by turning off all the lights in the house, locking all the doors and hiding in a cupboard… there were no police!

Un-invited wedding guest

My crazy housemate ran into a private wedding party wearing a multi-coloured metallic shirt and no shoes, demanding more alcohol until he was thrown out, then started throwing rocks shouting “that’s for kicking me out!” until I dragged him home!

New job in mind?

My drunken housemate stole some breeze blocks from a construction site with the  intent to build a ‘extension’ but when he managed to get them all home forgot all  about the reason why he had them and stacked them in the hallway – I was greeted  by a tower of breeze blocks when I got home!

Abusing stolen objects!

At 2am in the morning my housemate brought home a traffic cone and decided to use it as a megaphone and sing through it until the sun came up!

CLEANING COSTS AND DAMAGES

November 11th, 2008

Cleaning Costs

Check your tenancy agreement because most of them will state that the carpets and curtains need to be to a professional standard when you move out. This does not mean that you should pay good money to get them cleaned, you can account for general wear and tear. If you leave them in a mess the landlord has the rights to pay to get them cleaned and deduct the bill from your deposit.

Damages

Any damage to the property or its contents will have to be paid for or replaced by you. If you break an old TV you don’t have to replace it with a brand new flat screen – just with a product with similar features and cost. Again, you can account for general wear and tear on items it applies to such as sofas, bed, etc.

When you move in you are best to go through the property with the landlord and create an inventory and the condition the items are in, this way you can review that when you move out to make sure everything is there and in the same condition and taking photographs is good evidence of the condition of the property at the start of your tenancy.

TENANT DEPOSIT

November 11th, 2008

You will be required to pay a deposit when you intend on renting property, it’s just so that the landlord has a safety net if anything should occur such as damages or unpaid rent.

From 6 April 2007, all deposits (for rent up to £25,000 per annum) taken by landlords and letting agents for Assured Shorthold Tenancies in England and Wales, must be protected by a tenancy deposit protection scheme.

What is it?

Tenancy Deposit Protection is designed to ensure:

·       you get all or part of your deposit back, when you are entitled to it

·       any disputes between you and your landlord or agent will be easier to resolve

·       landlords and letting agents who do not protect tenancy deposits will have to pay their tenant back three times the deposit

 

How does it work?

At the beginning of a new tenancy agreement, pay your deposit to your landlord or agent as usual.

Within 14 days, the landlord or agent is required to give you details about how your deposit is protected including:

·       the contact details of the tenancy deposit scheme

·       the contact details of the landlord or agent

·       how to apply for the release of the deposit

·       information explaining the purpose of the deposit

·       what to do if there is a dispute about the deposit

If you don’t get this information, ask your landlord or agent the simple question – ‘how is my deposit protected?’

You have a responsibility to return the property in the same condition that it was let to you, allowing for fair wear and tear.

Many tenants will not be aware of the rights they have when it comes to the deposit, it’s your job to find out when the landlord can take money out of your deposit.

Listing Your Room for Rent

November 7th, 2008

Be clear and honest

You should always tell people what they are getting in the advertisement, what appliances come included, what bills are included if any? When you are stating the size of the rooms you are best stating the dimensions, many landlords will get confused when it comes to having double and single rooms. At least if you state the dimensions people will be able to judge if it’s big enough for their needs.

Include a picture

The best thing you can do is include a picture into your listing, this will automatically remove any people that are not keen on how it looks - inside and out. You will have heard of the saying “a picture speaks a thousand words.”

if it’s a flat share, state a little about the current tenants

If you are offering a flat share then the current tenants play an important role when it comes to finding a new one. Describe each person so that people can make a decision whether they would get on or not, list their hobbies, what they do and other similar things.

Up sell the location

Regardless where your property is, it should have some key points that will attract people. Perhaps it’s on the main bus route, close to the town centre, close to schools/colleges or universities. This will also play an important role to which type of person would be interested.

Arrange house viewing

Once you have people that are interested you should always take the time and offer to show them around the property. People will then be able to get a feel to whether they can see themselves living there or not. Again, if it’s a flat share try to get the housemates together so they can meet them and get to know them a little.

Tenant Deposit

November 6th, 2008

You will be required to pay a deposit when you intend on renting property, it’s just so that the landlord has a safety net if anything should occur such as damages or unpaid rent.

Many tenants will not be aware of the rights they have when it comes to the deposit, it’s you job to find out when the landlord can take money out of your deposit.

Cleaning Costs

Check your tenancy agreement because most of them will state that the carpets and curtains need to be to a professional standard when you move out. This does not mean that you should pay good money to get them cleaned, you can account for general wear and tear. If you leave them in a mess the landlord has the rights to pay to get them cleaned and deduct the bill from your deposit.

Damages

Any damage to the property or its contents will have to be paid for or replaced by you. If you break an old TV you don’t have to replace it with a brand new flat screen – just with a product with similar features and cost. Again, you can account for general wear and tear on items it applies to such as sofas, bed, etc.

Unpaid Rent

If you decide to skip the last month’s rent the landlord is in his rights to take it from the deposit, if the amount does not cover the rent then you could be taken to court and pay the outstanding fees plus any other costs this process incurs.

When you move in you are best to go through the property with the landlord and create an inventory and the condition the items are in, this way you can review that when you move out to make sure everything is there and in the same condition.

Rights as a Tenant

November 5th, 2008

When you are a tenant you should take the time to be aware of the rights that you have, this will avoid any hassle if a problem should occur. You could also save yourself from being taken advantage of by a landlord. Check the tenancy agreement that you sign for the full details.

Live in peace

Under any circumstances is the landlord allowed to surprise visit the property and expect to be allowed to enter. They must always give at least 24 hours notice prior to their visit if they intend on inspecting or performing any repairs.

A landlord is also not allowed to change any of the locks, open post address to that property, cut off or change any of your utilities without notice. Don’t be afraid to let them know where they stand if they should try something that you’re not happy about.

The property itself

It’s the landlords job to ensure that the property itself if safe and secure, this includes checking that all of the locks and alarms are in good working order. Utilities such as gas and electric should all be safe and meet the standard regulations.

If any of the furnishings included are not in good working condition then it’s up to your landlord to repair or replace them before you move in. You should take note of the condition of the furnishing when moving in and make the landlord aware as this will prevent any problems when it comes to moving out.

Tenancy deposit

When you are living in the property you have to be careful not to cause any damage to items in the property, if you don’t cause any financial loss to the landlord then you are entitled to 100% of the deposit you gave when you first moved in. If the landlord tries to deduct money from the deposit which you don’t agree with you should consult professional advice to see where you stand.