Paying more than someone with a en suite (Renting)

surfer9

Hi,

I live in a house share. There are 5 of us living here. We all know what each other pay in rent.

4 of us have double rooms which are more or less the same size. We all moved in at different times, even different years over the past 5 years.

The rents on these are:

£500 (Moved in 1st)
£505 (Moved in 2nd)
£510 (Moved in 4th)
£540 (Moved in 5th)

The rent has never gone up for any of us since moving in. There is a trend that the rent has been put up for new people moving into the house as time has gone by - which is understandable as rents have increased over time.

What isn't right with the 4 of us is.......

The 5th tenant (who was 3rd on the timeline of moving in) has a massive double room, plenty of storage space, and an en suite......they are paying £520.

This tenant with the en suite is paying £20 less than someone in a very average double room.

I personally pay £505 for my average double room and am fairly annoyed myself that another tenant only pays £15 more for such a large room with en suite. I feel sorry for the person paying £540 for their standard room and I know how angry they are about it.

The tenant with the en suite keeps complaining to the landlady about 'issues' in the house which the rest of us believe are not issues. This tenant is fussy and has always complained and tried to get their own way. So that makes the rest of us even more annoyed.


What do you guys think about the rent differences between the 4 of us and the person in the en suite. Should the landlord have made the rental costs fairer as this has been the situation for a long time and the landlord has had plenty of opportunities to rectify this.....

None of us have discussed the rental prices with the landlord. Do you think it is fair for us to query the rental differences and request the en suite room be charged at a more fair rate?

Is there any rules/regulations about fair rental charges (I assume not).

Thanks.

melstar11

This is a bit like comparing what you earn with colleagues. You obviously each accepted the individual rent when you signed up. I can understand you are miffed that the new tenant has a better room for less than someone else, but that person has moved in with every other room already taken - Hobson's choice over who they are living with. Perhaps they are just a better negotiator? If one of you wanted the ensuite room, why did you not ask the LL about moving to it?

Let it go - and don't take it out on the new tenant.

What is to say that what you have been told from whatever source is correct? Could just be a wind up.

mildredalien

Asking a landlord to increase rent, that's a first! They might but I can't see what good it would do you apart from feeling like you've got one over on an annoying housemate. Honestly, life is too short imo.

Maybe you could ask for first refusal for moving into the nicest room if/when another tenant moves out?

FBaby

here is a trend that the rent has been put up for new people moving into the house as time has gone by - which is understandable as rents have increased over time.

You've answered your own question. Rent rates fluctuate in time, that's just the way it is.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I think you should stop being petty over fifty odd pence a day. You are all adults and can negotiate your own rent with your landlord, but leave this third party out of it. They obviously negotiated better than any of you!

melstar11

Sorry - missed your bit about timeline of moving in. The LL has stepped the rent up over time by the looks of things. Even less reason to be miffed.

HappyMJ

You can't ask for someone else's rent to be increased but you can ask for your rent to be lowered.

Whether the landlord would do that or not is up to them.

If you're not happy with the rent you can always move out.

Most of the "rent" you pay isn't for the actual room but for everything else that is provided. If you were to add up the floor area of the entire house then divide evenly over each square metre then figure out 1/5th of the common areas then add your room you would find the difference isn't really that much at all.

i.e 5 bedroom house might be 2,500 square feet. Rent and expenses might come to £2,500/month so each square foot is £1 per month. The common areas might come to 1,250 square feet which you pay 1/5th of (£250 each) and your room might be smaller than the other rooms at 200 square feet so your rent comes to £450. Another room might be 250 square feet so they would pay £500 even though the room they have is much bigger...another might have 300 square feet so they pay £550 even though the room itself is 50% bigger they're only paying 20% more in rent.

As you've found the rent changes over time rent goes up and it goes down but your tenancies do not so you will all be paying different amounts. If the rent is too high relative to current market rates then move out. If it's low then stay as long as you want. It's unlikely the LL will increase the existing tenants rent every time a new tenant moves in.

surfer9

1. The tenant isn't new - the tenant has been here for ages. We have let the issue go for years, the fact is it isn't fair.

2. The landlord has been messaging all of us in the house claiming there is disharmony in the house and not every tenant is happy. After getting to the bottom of this, it is this one housemate with the en suite who has been making a fuss about petty things in the house. The landlord has told us she wants us to sort out the harmony in the house and asked us to have a meeting......so this issue about rent costs arose. As this person in the en suite has now opened up a can of worms. The only things causing disharmony in this house is the landlady regularly turning up without any notice + the person in the massive en suite paying less than someone in an ordinary room. The landlord wants to know what is bothering us as they want the house to be a 'happy house'. Well we are not happy about the unfairness of the rent.

3. Yeah £0.50 rent a day is a way of putting it to make it sound like it isn't much (it's actually more than £0.50 a day.....

It is £240 more a year for a room which is much less appealing.

Anyone would agree that it isn't right that someone pays that much more for a lesser room.


4. I very much doubt the price was negotiated. The area I live in is popular and the rooms get filled in a few days.


5. None of us had the opportunity to have the en suite - the agent never tells us when someone is leaving and the previous tenant was barley living here and never even told us that they were moving out. Plus at that time - the rest of us were pretty sure that that room was being rented at a much higher cost than the current tenant ended up paying. If the agent came to us and told us that en suite was going for an extra £10-£20 fee then hell yeah - we would have all been snapping the agents arm off to get in there.


6. The previous housemate that was in that room was paying £560. As far as what I can remember from being told about 2 years ago - I think the agent accidently put the wrong price on the advertisement and ended up letting the tenant have the room for £520. So the main rental prices in question are nothing to do with the current market value at the time of initial rental.


I personally am happy with what I pay - and although myself and other housemates are disgruntled at the unfairness of rental costs in the house, we have never made too much of an issue of it. I think it is because we are now fed up of the current situation where mountains are being made out of molehills and we have been told to have a meeting and discuss our 'issues' + the landlord wanting to know any reason if any - as to any unhappiness that this has come up. I think I'll take you guys advice and not bother mentioning it as something that is making housemates 'unhappy'.

To put it bluntly - it takes the mick that someone is paying £240 more than someone with an en suite. If I was in that tenants situation and found out that was the case - I would move out as he is trying to do.

IMO: It makes sense to rectify that - the landlord has the opportunity the rectify that themselves in July as a 6month term comes to an end. Maybe they will.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

So if you're happy with what you pay, get on with it. What others pay is no more your business than what others get paid at work for doing similar jobs to you. I'm sorry but this whole thread is petty beyond belief.

AnnieO1234

Okay so the landlord should in increase the normal room rate to £550 (taking into account stepping up from latest rent ) and £600 for the ensuite... Would you be happy then?

This is no different from a landlord owning multiple properties with varying rents because they started at different times. It's really a case of myob, you were happy to pay it to begin with and it's only when you found out the grass might be greener that you've turned.

The landlord I believe needs give no notice in respect of common areas. If you don't like it, you need to find a group of people to rent on a joint tenancy which comes with a host of other problems if the tenants aren't linked.

Xxx

Person_one

There's loads of inequality in how much people pay for their housing, unfortunately its just much more visible and obvious in your situation so more grating.

I pay less than £400 a month for a whole house and a garden, is that fair when you pay so much more just for a room? Of course not!

That's the nature of the crappy housing market in this country though. You just have to find the best deal/situation you can for yourself and not pay more than you can afford.