Moving Out

Yeah living with people you know and at least mostly trust really helps. When I moved out from my parent's place I moved to a place where knew and trusted the people I'd be living with, and it really made the transition of moving out for the first time a lot smoother. I didn't have any real good "stats" either, except a decent credit score, but I had moved in and sublet a room from somebody else for a while, before being part of the actual house contract itself, so I managed to convince the landlord that I was "obviously responsible enough" to not need a co-signer (aka the person who gets to pay if you don't). Somebody who moved in here a year after got screwed over by a past roommate in the same way that people are talking about in this thread. Same goes for my sister actually. Really the only good precaution I can think of after listening to their stories are:

Make sure to have it all in paper, have your ducks in a row.

If you do end up being the name on the utilities, or anything significant really, things like rent if your house is supposed to pay one large sum (everybody pays 300, but the rent is really just a flat 900 and you all technically 'chip in'), write up a contract and have everybody sign it. Doesn't have to be all official-like, just something that says "you agree to pay X dollars on rent and Y on utilities from date# to date#, etc etc". Your landlords may actually be good help with writing that, if they're helpful people. Even if you're with friends, keep paper around. My sister actually got screwed over by her best friend from high school, but wasn't required to pay the hundreds of dollars the friend owed, because of all the paper.
Even if all it outlines is "I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SHARE YOU", it could save your butt.