Sharing a Flat/apartment – Sharers Etiquette

Like millions of other Londoners who can’t afford their own place – I share a flat.

I’m living with a couple that I’ve known since university (going on 9+ years) and I’ve spent the last two living with them.  We get on pretty well and we do share a lot of things like meals together, we have the same friends and 90% of the time they’re like my extended family…

…but, there are times when they’re a bit too much like family and I think they forget about showing basic Sharers Etiquette.

I guess this could just go under basic etiquette, but I think it is far more relevant this way.

Guests

I have absolutely no objection or problem with having guests come over to visit.  These will always be either friends or (their) family and I know them all to a certain extent.

Guests to stay over

I would like a little more than “x is coming to stay for the night” when I’m being informed of this.  The guest invariably stays in the lounge – source of much communal entertainment and home to the tv and my PS3 as well as access to the kitchen – so there’s a noticeable disruption to the standard setup of sharing arrangement.  I don’t think it’s acceptable to announce this as a fact and even less so when giving me less than a day’s notice.

For me, the correct way of saying this would be “Is it okay for x to stay over for the night?”.  It would always be “Yes” from me, but I at least get the feeling like I am an equal (or at least have a voice) in the sharing situation.

Getting over it

I’ve brought this up before evidently my concerns fall on deaf ears (literally, bad hearing bordering on partial deafness).  If it were just this I’d might let it go, but there are far more ways they continue to be bad sharers than I’ve mentioned here.  One solution I’ve thought of – moving out.  The major obstacle here being a severe lack of funds and employment to get a new place.

Ah well, I can suck it in.  Grit my teeth and moan online in the meantime I guess.