Rent is agreed once. Bills are agreed every single month, which is why bills are what people actually fall out over.
And in Nigeria the bill list is longer than most guides admit. It is not just electricity. It is units, generator fuel, water, waste, gas and internet — and each behaves differently when you try to split it.
Here is a system that survives a bad month.
Sort your costs into three types first
This is the step everyone skips, and it is why splits break down.
Type 1 — Fixed, shared, unmeasurable. Waste collection, water or borehole pumping, estate or security levy, internet. The cost is the same whether one person is home or three. Split equally. Always. There is no fair way to meter these and attempting it poisons the household.
Type 2 — Variable but genuinely shared. Electricity units and generator fuel. Consumption varies, but you cannot untangle whose fridge hours are whose. Split equally by default, with one exception below.
Type 3 — Personal. Your own data, your own laundry if it is done outside, your own food if you are not pooling. Nobody splits these.
Most arguments come from someone trying to move a Type 1 or 2 cost into Type 3. Resist it.
Electricity and units
If there is a prepaid meter in the flat's own name, this is straightforward: agree a recharge amount, agree who buys, and rotate or standing-order it. Keep a shared note of every recharge with the date and amount.
If billing is estimated or shared across a compound, you have less control and more to verify. Ask to see the bill. If a service charge covers it, remember you are entitled under section 10 of the Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011 to a separate receipt and a written account at least every six months of how that money was disbursed. Ask for it in writing.
The one fair exception. If one person runs something genuinely heavy and individual — an air conditioner all night while nobody else has one, or a large freezer for a side business — a modest agreed uplift is reasonable. Agree a flat figure, not a calculation. The moment you start metering appliances, you have invented a full-time job and a permanent grievance.
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Generator fuel: the line that needs its own rules
With petrol around ₦1,400 a litre at the time of writing and diesel higher, this is not a small item, and it is the one most likely to cause trouble because it is bought in cash, often urgently, usually by whoever is home.
Agree four things:
- Who buys. Rotate weekly, or one person buys and is reimbursed on a fixed day. Never "whoever notices."
- The hours it runs. Daytime running for someone working from home is a different cost from evening running. If one person needs it for work, that is worth an honest conversation rather than silent resentment.
- The reimbursement day. Same day each month. Chasing is what turns money into a relationship problem.
- The record. Every purchase, date and amount, in one shared note.
Water, waste and gas
Water. Usually a pump and a borehole, so the real cost is the electricity or fuel to run it, plus repairs. Split equally, and agree in advance who fronts a pump repair and how it is shared.
Waste. Flat monthly charge. Split equally, and decide who actually takes it out, which is a separate and surprisingly contentious question.
Cooking gas. If you cook separately, buy separately. If you cook together, refill together and log it.
Make it boring
The system that works is unglamorous:
- One shared record. A pinned note or a simple sheet. Date, item, amount, who paid.
- One settle-up day a month. Not rolling, not ad hoc. One date.
- Transfers, not cash. A transfer with a reference beats "I gave you cash in December" every time.
- A small shared float if you can manage it, so nobody is personally out of pocket for the generator at 9pm.
- The travel rule, agreed early. If someone is away three weeks, do they still pay full share? Type 1 costs, yes. Type 2, a reduction is reasonable. Decide while it is hypothetical.
If you want a ready-made structure for the record itself, there is a companion guide to keeping a household expense log, and one on what to ask about power, water and internet before you take the flat.
Agree it before you move in
Every rule above is easy to agree in week one and hard to agree in month seven. Write the split down, both keep a copy, and settle who pays what and on which date before anyone hands over rent.
Find someone who will actually keep to it on roommates — ask about money habits while you are still deciding, not after.
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