I am living in a house with 8 people. Can we set up some type of joint bank account to pay bills with?

Question

I am looking for an option that allows access for 8 people but not being under one persons name. It would be open for only one year or as long as we rent. Basically to pay bills and groceries ect. Thanks for any suggestions!

Answer 1

I would not suggest that at all! What if one of the rommies emptied the account out & took all of the money!?

Answer 2

Most cities don't let so many unrelated people live together so you are subject to eviction at any moment.

A bank would be reluctant to have so many co-signers. What is the point? What does it accomplish or prevent?

Answer 3

No. That's the drawback of having lots of unrelated people being joint and severally liable for rent and utilities. The bank will require the SSN and personal info of whoever is allowed to deposit and spend the money and the IRS will get a report of it too.

You need to select someone to keep books for common expenses. The arrangment you have will only work if everyone pays their bills on time and is honest. If someone doesn't pay, I don't think you can legally evict them. The arrangement you have is not good from a legal standpoint.

Same problem with common groceries. If someone eats all the food, what are you going to do about it, put a lock on the pantry?

Answer 4

Yes you can, BUT, complications may/could arise.

You can open an account as "XYZ Group".  Use any name you like.

Anyone can make deposits with their own cash or personal check.

You should require at least two signatures.  I don't think you can use 8.

However, if one of the signers should leave, you will have a problem

cashing any checks.

You cannot just remove a signer from an account.  You must close the account and reopen a new one.

  

You may be able to allow all 8 to have access to the account, the ability to write checks, BUT, this brings up the complications.  Any one person could clean out the account and leave.  

Don't leave everyone open to that possibility.  

h**l, my ex cleaned out one account before we considered divorce.