Money Moral Dilemma: My housemate has a bigger room - how should we split the rent?

DragonQ

I had this issue in a 5-student house nearly a decade ago. We decided that we'd draw lots to decide the order in which we'd pick rooms. Half way through the year, we then swapped the order around and re-picked rooms.


Bit of hassle but definitely fair.

crmism

A starting point will be to measure the floor space available to each of you; that done, consider the facilities each room has. If the latter are identical, then the calculation is simple and based upon floor space alone.

If one room has, say, built-in storage space and the other hasn't, then there's a case for making a further adjustment. However, there's no real formula that will enable you to arrive at a fair rent between tenants if the amenities differ significantly, so you could ask the landlord to add together the rents he's currently getting, then divide the total between you both in such a way that you pay less than the other tenant and he or she pays more, based on what's available to each of you.

If the landlord is reluctant to do that, why don't the three of you get together, come to an amicable agreement on a fair rent for each of you, and sign fresh Agreements on that basis?

sevenhills

MSE_Kelvin wrote: »

I'm renting a shared house and recently found out my housemate is paying less than me for a bigger room. We recently signed a new contract and they've agreed to discuss splitting it in a fairer way. What is the best way to go about this?

That is easy, bid for it. Just start at a 50/50 split of the rent, then 55/45 split, will either of you bid 60%?

blue12

If all else is equal, just do it on square footage/metres. On the other hand, if one room has clear advantages (quiet, light, better ventilation, etc) try to come upwith a split that gives those featrues some weight. If you share an internet connection that you pay for, you could work that into the split, particularly if there are premium services that will benefit/interest one of you more than the other.

sorchaa

Use the "Split Wise" calculator. If you google it it should come up. And show it to your housemate, cant really argue with an existing calculator!