The experience of how good or bad an house-sharing is fundamentally rests on the inter-personal relationships between the tenants living together. Breakdowns in communication and trust can lead to problems with rent payment which has a knock-on effect for the landlord.

A new survey conducted by Barclays Money indicates on average, some tenants lost around £550 due to ‘nightmare housemates’ unable or refusing to meet their financial obligations when it comes to utility bills and rent.

Indeed, small disagreements can quickly develop into bigger problems and 35 per cent of housemates who responded to the survey also said that people not cleaning up after themselves was one of the biggest reasons a fellow housemates would earn their ire. Taking food without replacing it (29 per cent) and inviting friends over without asking (28 per cent) were also major no-nos.

According to the Barclays Money survey, 30 per cent admitted they had lost their temper with their housemates for not contributing to household essentials, while individuals being non-committal with utility bills and rent accounted for over a quarter of fall outs.

It also revealed almost half of tenants believed good friendships had been irrevocably broken after living with them and six in 10 claimed that lockdown had made them reconsider how they chose their flatmates in the future, with criteria such as cleanliness, fortitude and money-savvy being the highest of the desired attributes.