Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Illinois

It would depend on what your agreement with them is. If this was not discussed, there is no clear answer. If I was the judge, I would be inclined to agree with your roommates, since you probably agreed at the outset to "split everything." To do otherwise, would open a huge can of worms. What if all of you left for the summer? There is still going to be a bill, right? Your absence probably did not affect the utility bill significantly, so why should your roommates be penalized because you chose to leave for a few months? What if one of you was gone just for the weekend? Would you need to prorate for those two days? What if everyone leaves over winter break? No one has to pay since no one was there, right? What if one of you has a fan she runs every night? Should she pay for the use of the fan? What if one of you bakes cookies everyday? Should she pay more? What if you ate some of the cookies? Should you share in the increased utilities from the baking even though you did not do the baking yourself?