Real life MMD: Should we charge a new housemate more to reduce our rent?

BMSrachael

I can't believe someone would even ask this question. Disgusting.

I hope noone replies to your advert for a tenant and your rent goes up anyway!

rinabean

I don't understand the outrage. You go to see a room, it's £x, you like it, you pay £x. What does it matter what everyone else is paying? You don't compare to your housemates' rents, you compare to the other houseshares.

The idea that if you make someone an offer and they accept it, when they've had chance to look at the competition, and then this person is both likely and entitled to destroy your personal property, etc., is disgusting. Maybe you should make this a question you ask to any enquirers and rule out any freak who thinks that that's okay!

I would be worried about your lack of proper lease, too.

iclayt

Oh good grief, this is a recipe for disaster.

Your landlord should be deciding on how much rent each tenant pays and should provide you with a contract, either a joint or separate ones depending on the living arrangement you have. You and the other tenants don't really have the right to decide how much a new tenant pays. This all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

As for the moral side of things - imagine you're the new tenant and you discover your new housemates are ripping you off. A £25 gain for each of you, but £100 loss for him/her - that's just plain mean!

cloughja

Ask yourself - WWJD - what would Joey do?

Seakay

It depends - do you think that with holding the truth is the same as lying? I do. Lying to someone in order to obtain money from them is generally regarded as a confidence trick and illegal.

jagu

The answer seems obvious. Explain to the new tenant that he/she will be paying more than the rest of you. If they are happy to join you on that basis, what's the problem?

minicooper272

Like everyone says, if it's a bigger room, charge more, but the person who benefits from the savings should be the one in the smallest room. If you lot have already occupied the largest rooms, then you pay more and offer the newbie the saving.

I rented a room from someone for a short time - they had 3 children who lived there half the time. I discovered they had been charging me more than 50% of everything (mortgage and bills), even though I occupied 1 bedroom, while his family occupied 3 bedrooms. It also meant I was paying for half his kids electricity usage too and to add insult to injury, despite charging for heating in the rent, he never turned it on, which actually made me ill. Needless to say, I moved out when my initial lease ran out, but finding this out completely soured the whole thing.

I was tied by a lease, but if you do this to the newbie, there is nothing stopping them from moving out tomorrow and leaving you to split their rent costs. They will also resent you for a long time afterwards, and there's nothing stopping them from doing something that will make it more difficult to replace them (like planting a very smelly cheese where you will never find it, but the smell will put viewers right off!)

Primrose

I certainly wouldn't charge a higher rent and I think you should also get the legal protection of a formal lease.
Apart from anything else, it would be unfair, and if you all end up becoming good friends & having a good relationhip it will then be extremely embarrassing to admit that you conned the person in the first place.
Keep everything equal as a means of setting a good example that all responsibilities should be equally shared.

sheepbitingstranger

glad to hear there are still some decent people out there. to even think of such a thing is sick.

dave2

I thought the intention was to "share" a flat with the new person?

As regards morality, well the simple rule of thumb is would you consider it fair if done to you? The wording suggests to me that there is an element of deception in the idea. This is not how to go about life and especially not how to go about living with a person.

As regards legality, it depends on how the rent is supposed to be calculated. If the landlord is renting the flat then it's up to you lot to agree how to split the bill. You say you don't have formal documentation but this should be clear based on whether or not you guys have had to foot the bill for the empty room.

But if he is renting individual rooms, and your rent has remained consistent regardless of the number of flatmates, then clearly the landlord has a contract (albeit oral) with individuals. Applying an increase to the rent without the knowledge of both landlord and new tenant is a fraud.