New app launches to help flatmates sort out rows over costs

A free app has been launched to help housemates split costs, track expenses, share responsibilities and manage their home.

Splittable has been founded by Nick Katz, 31, who says he is the youngest Fellow of the RICS.

He is currently a flat-sharer, having so far shared nine properties with a variety housemates.

The venture has been afforded early help by PiLabs, the proptech incubator business headed by Faisal Butt, whose Spire Ventures company has put funding into eMoov and Ivy Gate estate agents.

Splittable is aimed at all kinds of sharers, including the many tenants who share with strangers they have met on flat-sharing sites, and who may not even share the same language.

The average UK rental lease is only 18 months, and flatshares are usually shorter – often because of fall-outs over shopping and bills.

The site and app – available on Android and iOS – works by providing housemates with a simple and hassle-free visual representation of household expenditures, from rent and utilities to groceries and nights out.

Sharers can invite their co-habitors via email, a Facebook message or a WhatsApp message. The ‘All Squared Meter’ shows everything that’s owed at a glance.

However, Katz said that the app does not mean that all the flatmates must sign up to the app in order for it to deliver. He said: “There will always be at least one reluctant tenant. But this will work even if only the ‘alpha’ tenant signs up.”

Nick Katz

Katz, pictured, said: “As a flatmate in a London house share of six, I’m well aware of the struggles and inequalities that can come with sharing costs and duties at home. It usually ends up being left to one person to buy household sundries, pay bills, and generally manage the show.

“Our mission at Splittable is simple: we want to improve the lives of people in shared accommodation, enabling them to stress less and live more.”

The app has been trialled by over 1,000 young tenants in London, and has received glowing reviews on the App Store.

The intention is that the app and site will always be free for tenants to use.

Splittable will monetise itself, said Katz, but not in the immediate future: “It will be expensive to deliver and we are engaged on another round of fund-raising, but we have some very exciting plans in the pipeline.”

The site originated in the Open Data Institute founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, legendary inventor of the worldwide web.

Splittable says it aims to put an end to those “awkward” conversations that flat-sharers have about money.

It doesn’t go quite as far as saying how it will sort out the arguments about whose milk it is in the fridge.

The website is here

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