Best Way to Split/Pay Monthly Rent on Band Room between 15 People

SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 13:01

Hey all,

We have a group of 5 bands who share a rehearsal space in a Melbourne warehouse.

Total we have about 15 people in the space and we need to devise a better way of paying our monthly rent.

Currently each month one person from each band is paying their share of the rent directly to the guys who run the warehouse, but they only have one person of contact so if someone is late/missing their rent then they have to relay the message to him and he has to chase around finding out who hasnt paid etc.

I figure there has to be an easier/better way. Maybe some sort of online/virtual account which we can all pay into and then rent is automatically transferred to the warehouse owner each month? Theoretically if we get a month ahead in that account then there will always be enough in there even if someone is late by a few days. Only disadvantage is that someone has to manage that account and chase up people who forget/are late… Thats the best solution I can think up?

Anyone have any better ideas or know of some sort of app/service that would handle this?

Thanks,

Financial

Comments

  • daalinz on 03/01/2018 - 13:05
    +6

    Bikies

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 13:05
      +2

      Always Bikies.

  • MattyAu on 03/01/2018 - 13:06
    +2

    There's DiviPay, but that creates a virtual MasterCard, so it may not suit your requirements.

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 14:14

      Could be useful, thanks. taking a look now.

      • divipay on 06/02/2018 - 11:15
        +1

        Hi, DiviPay rep here. Checking in to see if there is anyway we can help. Are you able to pay your rent via a card transaction? If so you can use DiviPay to automatically collect funds from each person. Those funds will be loaded onto the digital wallet and can then be spent using the virtual mastercard attached. The group functionality is currently available on our mobile application both Android and iOS. Let me know if this will solve your issue or if there is any other way we can help as this is a common use case we are trying to solve for people!

  • poboy on 03/01/2018 - 13:17
    +3

    Yeah, this is going to suck. One band essentially has the relationship with the studio, with the other bands subleasing from the main band.

    I think your proposed solution is really the only way it's going to work. Assuming you are the main band, you need to get a payment contract from the other bands. Pay 1 month ahead. Late payment to attract a penalty of some sort.

    But again, this is going to suck. The more people you need to rely on, the more chance of failure. Make sure you have contingencies for the first band that wants to leave… And for the other bands that you can't contact for a month.

    • Halo375 on 03/01/2018 - 13:50
      +1

      Yeah, there's really no way around it. One person needs to step up and manage the funds each month. Perhaps have each band pay a one month deposit, to be used the first time they fail to pay by the due date? Ask each band to setup a recurring payment to the central account - plus have bikies on call if the account manager tries to pull a swifty and dash with the cash.

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 16:00

      Yeah, I think its the only way too. Just seems so old school / analogue and hoped someone had come up wit a solution to this age old dilemma (i.e. Every share house in history)

      A band wouldnt be un-contactable, we are all tight, a lot of us live together and some of us are friends dating back 20+ years etc. Some people are just forgetful and not down with automated payments etc.

  • djkelly69 on 03/01/2018 - 14:12

    One person pays themselves, then gets reimbursed by everyone? Just make a rule that on the first day/usage of each month, no-one gets in the door to the space without paying their $20 cash or whatever.

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 14:15

      Yeah thats essentially my idea at the moment. No way to stop people using the room though, we all have keys and come/go as we please.

  • Quantumcat on 03/01/2018 - 14:13
    +4

    Maybe make all the bands pay a bond equivalent to 4 months' rent into the shared account (the idea you mentioned). If any bands miss more than 1 month of rent then the designated hassler gets onto them (to both pay the missing rent and top up the bond), if they miss two months' rent they are kicked out of the rehearsal space and the remaining one month bond is used for time spent to find a new band to take up the slot to avoid a rent increase to everyone else.

    For example. Say it's $200 a month each band.

    A band has $800 credit, then the rent is due on the 1st of the month but they haven't paid it. Deducted from bond. They have $600 credit and are a month behind. But then on the 4th they remember to pay it — all good now $800 in credit again.
    Next time, rent due on the 1st and they haven't paid it, one month behind. Except they forget all month to pay it and it becomes the 1st on the 2nd month and they're 2 months behind ($400 in credit). Hassler kicks in and tells them they'd better put $400 in the account by the 31st. All good, they do, back to $800 credit.
    Next time same as above, but they don't put that $400 in. Another $200 is deducted for the rent and now they're only $200 in credit. They get kicked out of the rehearsal space, and now there's 2 months to find a new band (the remaining month of the last $200 that was deducted, plus the remaining $200).

  • hashtagbargain on 03/01/2018 - 14:30
    +1

    Hi OP, sorry dont have much advice reg your situation… but would love to come see you and your mates play! deets?

  • Looking4Bargians on 03/01/2018 - 15:14
    +1

    Splitwise is the best. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/splitwise/id458023433?mt=8

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 16:04

      Yeah I have used this before, but not sure it would be useful in this situation…

      • kiwijunglist on 03/01/2018 - 17:21

        Used splitwise for group holiday paying for expensives, was perfect. Would use every time!

        However unlikely useful for this group of people, unless there are multiple small expenses.

  • jace88 on 03/01/2018 - 15:28
    +1

    I'm surprised the warehouse guys let each of the bands pay into their account directly rather than demanding it come from a single (or smaller group at least) of 'renters'.

    The shared account to pool together funds and keep track of who pays/who hasn't sounds sensible, but it depends how well you know each other and who will wear the risk- if the bands are paying into a shared account and someone makes off with the money, then the contributing bands lose both their money and access to the studio.

    Out of interest though, if one band were to not pay their share, what happens to the rest of you guys? Who is liable for the payment? And does everyone else lose access to the studios because one band does not pay? How do you decide on who gets to use the rehearsal area at any particular time (presumably there's a schedule of sorts, but what happens if there's a dispute)?

    • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 15:57

      Yeah same here honestly considering each month someone always forgets/pays late even when we remind everyone via FB group chat.

      We all know each other extremely well (most of us for 20+ years going to school together) so it is extremely unlikely that a whole band would just up and disappear/not pay rent. Also a lot of us also share houses together haha.

      The space is really laid back and causal about payments. they wouldn't stop us going it at all and we have our own keys to the place so would be all but impossible anyway, but I just don't want to keep annoying them to be honest.

      • jace88 on 03/01/2018 - 16:09

        If it's all amongst friends and you're just trying to help facilitate it all, maybe the easiest way is to get everyone to set up recurring transfers to the primary band's account, and then you have a single payment to the warehouse guys from there? You could go more formal with a separate account to hold it, asking for one month in advance, etc… but if the tardiness is just because of an accident rather than someone trying to disappear/not pay rent, etc… then this should be sufficient.

        • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 16:14

          Thats what we are doing currently. But its 5 transfers to the warehouse guys as there are 5 bands.
          So when one band hasn't paid they contact one dude in one of the other bands and he has to send messages out figuring out who hasn't paid and its just a pain because someone always forgets (there is an added complication as a few guys are in multiple bands too).

          And yes Tardiness is always, and will always be because some people are terrible at finances, paying bills etc. I just dont want to annoy the Warehouse owners if possible.

  • try2bhelpful on 03/01/2018 - 15:35

    Presumably you can get an account that only the landlord can withdraw money from and then everyone can do a transfer into. Whenever I do transfers you can set this up with an identifier so the depositor knows what this is for. If everyone did the deposit, using their own name, then it would be pretty obvious who hasn't paid up. I also agree this should be done a month in advance to give you time to chase up whoever hasn't paid. One member of each band should be setup as the enforcer to ensure the others pay.

  • SkMed on 03/01/2018 - 16:10
    +5

    Thanks all. Seems like the old school method is still the only way currently (someone has to come up with something more hassle free, I would pay for it)

    My ultimate solution would be some sort of online/virtual bank account which could also send out reminders and work like so:

    • One person sets up a virtual account and everyone pays 2 months rent into it so we always have overflow.
    • 1 month rent is automatically sent to Warehouse owner a few days before due date.
    • Automated message/email/text is sent to all band members letting them know its been paid and to pay the next months rent before xx/xx/xx
    • Account can detect who has/hasn't paid and automatic reminders are continually sent to members who still haven't paid and gain in frequency as due date approaches.
    • Virtual account owner is notified about a week before due date if someone hasn't paid and they can then chase manually.

    This would mean its all automated and the account owner only needs to chase people if they forget multiple times and not have to crawl through transactions crossing names off lists etc.

    Someone invent this please. Happy to pay $2 per month. thanks.

    • eyeballz2770 on 05/01/2018 - 11:45

      Have you thought about the bands paying rent into a PayPal account? It would be connected to a bank account (like a fee-free NAB account) but the funds would always be in PP if you have the 2 month overflow.

      I'll assume you're opening the account for the sake of this example. You can keep a running count of rent-paid notifications although double-checking on who's paid would be easy and immediate through the app.

      I'm pretty sure you can automate anything setup like messaging, invoicing, and late payment reminders. Check out the Tools section for ideas.

      Then you can automate the date the rent is paid to the warehouse guys into their nominated bank account or PayPal account. Their PP account would send the warehouse guys instant notification that the rent had been paid.

      Setup would be pretty easy given the closed group and after a few months it should be running smoothly. :)

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