Striking out on my own...advice.

[ajaxfetish]

After you've addressed the lease document, and what it covers, your 2nd hurdle will be your flat-mates, themselves.

Sit them all down for a serious discussion about the division of labour (who cooks, who cleans, & "borrowing other's property" policy, for starters), and actually play "worst-case scenario", that is, what to do as a group when one can't/won't pay his share of rent, or do the dishes, or return a borrowed TV, or stop eating your can of beans.

It'll happen, even among the best of pals, so plan for it, rather than hoping it won't happen. Doing this early-on is easiest, in my experience. After about 90 days, it gets increasingly difficult to set rules.

And, if you throw a party, always invite the nearest neighbors, to cut down on noise complaints.

QFT. I can't speak in too much detail to the actual renting details, but I've got a bit of experience with roommates. A couple other issues you might consider bringing up early are the thermostat (can get surprisingly contentious) and policies for having friends or significant other's over.

Also

Hide an emergency roll of toilet paper in your room. Nothing like doing your business and then discovering your forgetful roommate used the last of it and didn't bother to replace it.

And

P.S. A common video game liked by all pwns.

Wise words.

Ajax

[InsaneApache]

Going back to the Young Ones thingy, with hair like that BKS is a must for Neil.....


Oh and who are you trying to kid EA? I'd have you down as a Rick.

[Decker]

Don't drop the soap.... no matter what!

[Somebody Else]

Up here, where I am, just so long as there's gin, we're happy.

More seriously, no two rooms are the same, and rent should be (in my opinion) calculated accordingly. (Next year, our plan is that rent will be equal, but money will be put into the booze fund according to room size)

Critically important: if any one of you has a problem, air it immediately. Letting things fester leads to distinctly unpleasant levels of tension in a flat. Speak up about difficulties and solve them there and then. And remember, people are different to each other, and some may, no matter what, not change. You just have to learn to accomodate each other's peculiarities.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

More seriously, no two rooms are the same, and rent should be (in my opinion) calculated accordingly. (Next year, our plan is that rent will be equal, but money will be put into the booze fund according to room size)

Yes, we're planning to do this as two of the bedrooms in the house are substantially larger than the other three. I'm not too bothered about having a large room so it'll save me some money.

[KukriKhan]

So 4 roomies, then?

A large enterprise. One advantage of such a half-squad of guys, is that the other 4 can pick up the slack when someone has a 'down' month, without wrecking everyone's finances.

Will you all be named individually on the lease, and how long is it? I assume the standard would be "end of the academic year", requiring a renegotiation afterwards.

Anyone willing to rent out a 5-bedroom joint to students has presumeably got lots of experience with them. I wouldn't count on ever being able to hoodwink that person.

Of course, we do expect pictures of the happy move-in day (and of your landlord and roomies).

gl & hf!!

[Somebody Else]

Oh, you'll need at least two fridges. Probably a third. One of which should be maintained with a stock of beer, tonic and champagne, lemons &c. &c.

Another thing, learn to wash up as you cook - it's much faster to clean pans and things before everything's encrusted on, and help stop the build up of massive towers of mouldy dishes.

Also, try to avoid neglecting chores because it's someone else's mess/turn. Do it, then talk to them about it. That way, at least there isn't a festering pile of whatever somewhere in the house.

[Kralizec]

Also, try to avoid neglecting chores because it's someone else's mess/turn. Do it, then talk to them about it. That way, at least there isn't a festering pile of whatever somewhere in the house.

Expanding on this advince, make sure you keep to the agreed schedule even if the rest doesn't always do so. Otherwise you really don't have good cause to point the finger at the others, do you? In my experience once such agreements break down it's very hard to get everybody to abide by them again.
In my place (3 people) we have a household box where people pay a fine of 5 bucks if they neglect to clean their part of the house for a given week.

And with 4 people I also recommend having at least 3 fridges. Us 3 can manage with one big and one smaller, but we couldn't possibly do so with an additional roommate.