Keeping on top of the cleaning will ensure that the landlord and your housemates are happy. Make sure everyone has a part to play best suited to them; pull together a cleaning rota so that everyone shares responsibility for the communal areas of the house. Invest in a notice board or just stick a rota on the fridge or somewhere visible so that everyone knows the score.

Make sure you find out when the bins and recycling are collected. Check what time bins need to be by the roadside, and make a note to put them out the night before on the weekly cleaning rota. Utilise these services regularly to prevent rubbish building up in the property and creating nasty smells, mould or unwanted pests. To check when your rubbish days are look on your local councils website:

• Colchester Borough Council
• Tendring District Council

You should also look up what your council will accept for recycling and make sure that your know how to properly separate your rubbish. Most councils will provide recycling boxes which can be ordered on their websites.

Put together a cash kitty into which all housemates contribute so much a month towards the cost of items all housemates will use such as toilet roll, cleaning supplies etc. This will stop arguments over whose turn it is to buy such items.

Everybody has their own pet hate’s so it is important that when one of your housemates does something which upsets you, that you speak to them about it. Bottling it up is only going to make the situation worse and potentially lead to a bigger argument which will negatively affect all housemates. However, it is important to remember that your own habits may not be to the taste of all your housemates and that living together is about compromising and finding a way to coexist which suits everyone.

It’s nice to have friends or partners stay over but ensure that your housemates are kept up to date on people that are coming to stay and that the length of their visit is not excessive. Having someone stay for a long period of time may make your housemates feel awkward and annoyed at the fact that they are essentially paying for this person to be living with you rent free.

Introduce yourself to your neighbours when you move in and try to establish a good relationship. This should help to build a relationship between you so that if problems do arise you both feel comfortable talking to each other about them.

Being overly loud can be a nuisance to both your housemates and your neighbours. It is important to respect those living around you and attempt to keep noise to a minimum.

If you are planning to have a party it is best to let your neighbours know and try and keep it to a weekend night when it is less likely that they will have work the next morning, remember not everyone is a student.