Money Moral Dilemma: Should my housemate who works from home pay a greater share of the rent?

Eccentrica_Gallumbits

If the flatmate working from home is self-employed, he will no doubt be claiming a percentage of his rent and energy costs against any tax he'll be liable to pay, so I would suggest that in those circumstances, technically he ought to be paying a bit more rent than the OP, especially since bills are included. However, it will open up a whole can of worms with the flatmate if you raise this, so ask yourself if you are prepared to spend what little time you do spend in a home in an unpleasantly frosty atmosphere, if not a cold home! Will the landlord be interested in setting you different rents? If you have to work out who pays what, how are you going to do this? Make sure you have thought this through, before you go and raise it with anyone.

For me, it wouldn't be worth the headache in so many different ways, unless I was really struggling to find the rent myself.

JayD

No brainer! - Yes, they should increase their contribution to the bills part of your rent. 

How you work out how much that should be is something you and they must work out together.

Mary_Mouse

Yes he should pay more based on extra utility usage. M

oldnewhand

Being retired I don't know how the working from home tax benefit is calculated but if it is comparatively easy to identify the amount, he is allowed for working from home, he could pay that amount extra. After all he is benefitting from no travel costs and possibly no business attire to buy so wouldn't be losing out on his pre work from home salary. As an aside, it doesn't seem fair that taxpayers who don't work from home should subsidise the benefits that work from home employees enjoy and companies save on premises.

Isin2000

Employees who work from home don't all get a tax break anymore, and even when they did it was peanuts. 
Arguments over travel costs / time , business attire etc are totally specious, by working from home they reduce congestion on roads / trains etc, they help reduce the carbon footprint. They provide extra security over leaving the premises unattended - perhaps they should charge for this service. 
Should the housemate paid extra for the privilege of working from home feel justified for charging a fee to receive parcels delivered during the day time. 
Would they receive a refund if the OP took a day off sick? 
Should you check the wattage of tlight bulbs to check who is costing most per hour during the evenings, perhaps a counter to record toilet flushes?
If this was an issue it should have been raised when the housemate started working from home / they moved in together - otherwise that ship has sailed