It’s mainly the electricity, but I’ve asked about this housemate before because I’ve been struggling with mobility and she’s been getting on my nerves; but I had a chat with my friends and partner to see if I was overreacting.

So my partner and I are strapped for cash for different reasons, I can’t work at the moment because I’ve broken my ankle extensively and can’t walk for 3 months and my partner makes child support payments every week.

Since this housemate moved in (about a month ago) she’ll leave lights, fans and appliances on for hours on end while she leaves the house. Or if she goes to bed she’ll leave the TV on, lights on and fans on. And this isn’t just a one off, I’ve had to have this conversation with her on 6 occasions and those are the occasions where half the houses lights have been left on and she’s been gone for 6 or 7 hours.

I know it hasn’t been my partner because he works a lot of the time, and this only started when she moved in. 

It’s gotten to the point that if I know she’s going out I’ll ask her to make sure she turns everything off that needs to be turned off, or if we’re leaving to go to the same place I’ll check it. I don’t feel like I should need to check this.

But since we’re so strapped for money at the moment and we have been trying to conserve our electricity, water and gas I told her that if this continues her rent will need to increase to cover these costs. 

It’s also stuff like putting a pair of socks in the washing machine and turning it on, or a shirt and turning it on, and those items are the only load. This has happened on a number of occasions, and she only uses the dryer never the clothes line which takes a lot of power. And we have beautiful sunny (sometimes a little hot) days.

Or the dishwasher will have a plate and cutlery in it and she’ll turn it on. 

Tl;dr my housemate uses excessive amounts of electricity and water even though I’ve asked her to conserve it and remember if she’s going out to turn things off, so I told her her rent will need to increase to cover this if it continues. 