SpareRoom
Free, Android, iPhone
Find flatmates, divvy up chores and manage household finances with these apps. SpareRoom claims to be the UK’s most popular flatshare website and its app features thousands of properties, most of which are listed with good-quality photos. To browse listings is free, but to contact a landlord or place a listing you’ll need to have registered. Communication is by instant messaging or phone call and is from within the app, so contact details are kept private. A £9.99 in-app purchase allows landlords to move a listing towards the top of a postcode search for a week, or searchers to get “early-bird” access — that is, to see new rooms a day or two ahead of cheapskate rivals. You can save searches and receive replies to messages on the go. With 10 people said to be chasing every room in London, that could give you the edge you need.
Fairshare
Free, Android, iPad, iPhone
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So you’ve found a room and think your troubles are over. Wrong. Nothing angers housemates more than a washing-up rota. Fairshare might not do chores for you but it does allow you to draw up to-do lists and share them with house members running the same app. It also creates a shared shopping list (add the items you need, or tick off stuff you’ve bought) and a messageboard. The really clever bit, though, is that rent-payers have the option to gamify tasks. Complete assigned chores each month and your percentage share of the rent starts to go down; if you’d rather be lazy, do nothing and pay more. Or hire a cleaner.
FlatMate
Free, Android, iPad, iPhone
If you’d rather be on the street than playing games with the rent, try this regular expenses app. Again, it’s shared between all housemates running the app, and if one only has a BlackBerry or — gasp — no smartphone at all, you can create an offline account for them. Buy stuff for the house and the bill is added to the general account, or a sub-account of selected house members. Specify a monthly spending limit and expenses are deducted from it, with warnings going out if you’re about to go over.