Advice-new housemate

narcissi · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 43

Hello,

One of our friends has just moved into our 2 bedroom flat (mine and my boyfriend's). Is it fair to ask him for half the rent and all bills paid for?

I think it is because he has his own room....?

But some of my friends don't think so.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Urban Pauper · Joined: 07 Aug 2006 Posts: 1582

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 4755

How about half the rent (as it's two bedrooms and he's got one, i.e. 50% of them, plus full use of all other areas) and a third of the bills since he will account for this amount of use.

In the event that in the future he moves a girlfriend in, this would not mean any increase in rent on his behalf if you choose a by room, rather than by person basis to split costs.

I suppose you could negotiate on the rent if he's particularly miffed about the deal.

Best thing is to keep everyone happy - no point in starting off the tenancy with bad feelings on any side or it will just breakdown and spoil a friendship.

Bipolar Bear · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 176

Are both bedrooms the same size? in most places they arent - the "second" room is quite often a shoebox. We have 3 brms here, all rooms different sizes, plus 2 parking spaces. We assigned a value to the parking spaces and deducted that amount from the rent (whoever has them pays that amount in addition to their rent), then divided up the remaining rent as a percentage according to room size - 40.4/33.7/25.8 i think it was (dont ask me how i came by those figures!). My wife and i have the master, 2 guys take the other rooms. All bills are divided equally amongst the 4 of us. thats how we do it anyway.

riverghost · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 3538 Location: West London

Half rent is not fair. There a few factors that should be taken into concideration.

1) Are bills included. If they are then two people will incur more bills than one.
2) Room size. Are the rooms the same size? If so I think that slightly less that half half is fair as you have to take into concideration the share amenities.

Fairest way: Work out the number of rooms, divide them by the total rent, subtract the total of two room (ie the bed rooms), divide by the number of residents,and add the undivided cost of the other bedroom.

In short. It's fairest for the tenant to pay for only a 3rd share of the communal rooms.