We’re used to reading lists of unreasonable demands in viral threads written by brides-to-be, but a post detailing a very specific checklist for a housemate in London has Twitter in a spin.
The original listing was posted on flat sharing website SpareRoom, and went viral after Twitter user @rxdazn [shared screenshots of the post on Twitter](https://twitter.com/rxdazn/status/106594358593632665636326656 ).
The list of requirements starts off being pretty reasonable; ‘I need you to be out of the flat on week days during normal working hours (9-5) because I work from home 5 days a week and I need the place to myself,’ the prospective flat sharer writes, which is understandable if you need to focus on work during the day and use the flat as an office.
Then we get into the bathroom restrictions; ‘If you have to run to the toilet 15 times a day or every 15 minutes, don’t move in here,’ they continue.
And then come the noise restrictions; ‘My new flatmate has to be a quiet and considerate person. Which means you should use door handles rather than push the doors to slam, and try to behave quietly, especially when it’s late or early in the morning, so as not to disturb others. I won’t tell you for how long you’re allowed to talk a day, it’s nonsense… but I don’t want to hear noise coming from your room all the time… If you’re watching movies without headphones or sports or listen to music, it’s the same thing. If you’re laughing out loud until after 11pm or sleep with the radio on – still the same thing.’
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No laughing after 11? Now that’s a little unreasonable, and housemate socialising seems pretty much off the table too; ‘This isn’t a very sociable house, we don’t do parties and we don’t really have time to cook together or watch TV together.'
It’s not just late nights that are a no-no, it’s early mornings too; ‘There’s no cooking in this flat before 8:30am, and after 11pm. Occasionally I will allow it, and you can also make some porridge or use the microwave… In the mornings I need everyone to try to hurry up with their bathroom routine. No one’s going to wait for half an hour or wake up much earlier just to be able to take a shower.’ This is beginning to sound a LOT like The Big Bang Theory icon Sheldon Cooper’s roommate agreement.
It turns out many of the issues the poster is trying to avoid come from being burned by previous flatmates. The post begins; ‘I had a couple of bad flatmates this year and I don’t want to waste your time and mind if you can’t commit to certain things that are very important to me.’
While we don’t know the age of the poster, it seems as though years of bad flatmate experiences have left this renter with a bad taste in their mouth. And posts like this one might become more common and people spend more of their adult lives renting; a BBC News report this year showed that renting among all age groups has risen, and the proportion of 35 to 54-year-olds who are private tenants has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
This list of requirements may seem absurd, but at least anyone renting that particular flat will know what they’re getting into before they put down a hefty deposit.