I’m asking this out of curiosity because I’ve seen this argument arise multiple times between friends of mine.
So let’s say Susan and Bob are a couple. Susan and Bob have an extra bedroom and decide to split bills with a friend. So Steve moves in.
I’ve seen it argued that Susan and Bob together ‘count’ as one person, so the rent/bills would be split 50/50. I’ve also seen it argued that Susan and Bob ‘count’ as two separate people, and the bills are higher for Steve than if he just moved in with one of them. So therefore, Steve should only be responsible for 1/3 and the couple responsible for the rest.
I’m not sure how I feel about it, as couples often share finances. But then again, one could argue that Steve would end up with more of a financial burden than if he just moved in with one person.
So what do you guys think? Does it make any difference to you if the couple is married or not? Or if there are kids involved? Or if the house/apartment originally belonged to the couple as opposed to our hypothetical single guy?
I think if the married couple share a room, that should count for something. If it’s the larger bedroom, of course…
It all depends. The best way is if the first party to become a resident or finds the house decides what to offer the last one or two, and they accept or not. No negotiation, just take it or leave it.
My two (now adult) children went through all the combinations as they changed roommates nearly every term in a college town where all space was scarce and expensive. Never really worked out smoothly, but the cost splitting lapses always fell to the parents to paper over so everybody would settle down and end the arguments. A far better plan is that all couples should be off by themselves. Is that really asking too much?
The way I did it when I had a couple move into my house, I split the rent 50/50 since that was the for room itself, then I split the water, gas, and electric bills 33/33/34 since those are dependent on usage. The cable and internet bills were split 50/50 again since they aren’t dependent on the amount of people.
Now, this was my house, so I got to dictate the terms, but that was about as fair as I could think of.
Yeah, I’d go with what Hirka T’Bawa said. Rent the rooms out by, well, the room. An additional person in the room, whether a guest or a spouse, does not place any significant additional drain on the house.
Utilities, however, should be split evenly by the individual.
No set answer, it’s whatever all 3 parties agree to. I would do thirds personally but if everyone is fine with 50/50 then there’s nothing wrong with that. But everyone should figure all this out before Steve moves in. If they can’t agree then Steve should stay where he is.
I would want thirds. The couple would share a room even if they were in a 2 bedroom by themselves and the rest of the house, where everybody will probably spend most of their non-sleeping/non-sexy time, is going to be shared equally among 3 people. If I really liked the roommates or the living arrangement I might be willing to pay more but thirds would be my first inclination.
Two people are sharing one bedroom and one person has the other. So its 50/50 there
1/3 1/3 1/3 on the utilities.
However, 3 people are ALSO using the common areas and if anything the couple are the ones that are naturally going to dominate those common areas, making up for the imbalance in the bedroom situation.
So, in my mind, it is much close to 1/3 1/3 1/3 than 50/50.
And beside, the couple is getting some on a regular basis, so they should cut a lonely horney homie some slack
When we had a room mate we always split it in thirds–I was always one of the couple, never the single, and it always seemed worth in in terms of domestic harmony to split it in thirds. For one thing, the couple gets 2/3 of the voting power in any sort of decision, so they are going to end up setting the tone of the place as far as cleanliness/house rules/etc, so it only seems right that they are paying 2/3 of the rent.
It depends on whether the person is “renting a room” or “sharing a flat.” They are different. If I “rent a room” I feel that is the end of my responsibility. If I “share a flat,” then I feel everything like housekeeping to repairs should be split equally.
Assuming they are “sharing the flat,” I would add up the square footage of the two bedrooms and divide that by the cost of rent then proportion it.
For example if the master bedroom 325 square feet and the other bedroom is 200 square feet, the total is 525 square feet. Let’s say the rent is $1,000/month. So that is $1.90.5 per square foot. That means the couple would pay 325 X $1.905 = 619.13 while the single dude would pay $380.87
And then all common areas and all utilitites and chores would be split threeways
That would be 62% to 38% split and based on occupancy of square footage of non common areas
It doesn’t matter as long as everyone agrees to it up front, but my inclination is much closer to splitting it into thirds than 50/50.
Utilities are a no-brainer; if everyone’s using electricity, watching the cable, and using the internet, they each count equally for those, so definitely thirds.
Rent is more iffy, but if there is a lot of common area, I’d go more for thirds, while if the odd man out gets a bedroom equal in size to what the couple gets and there isn’t a lot of common area, 50/50 might be doable. I’d still prefer thirds, though; having three adults taking up a place is a lot different than just two people living there.
I do like Markxxx’s idea of splitting it up by square footage- the precision appeals to me.
Given that the couple will have the larger bedroom, and outside the bedroom every person uses the facilities equally, a 33/33/33 split seems much more fair than a 25/25/50 split.
In your scenario, the couple is renting an extra room to someone else. It seems to me they ought to charge what is reasonable given the going market and it is not realistic to think of it as a roommate situation.
In a roommate situation, I think splitting the rent 50/50 and the utilities 1/3 each seems more realistic, unless the members of the couple each gets a bedroom in the house/flat.
In either case, if it isn’t all spelled out before somebody moves their stuff, well, then the ensuing arguments and drama constitute the stupid tax imposed on such arrangements by the universe.
That sounds like a very fair way to do things - reflects total apartment usage and costs, in my mind.
Another way I’ve heard of people doing is prorating the rent according to bedroom square footage. e.g. A has a bedroom that’s 300 square feet, B has one that’s 200 square feet, so they split the rent 60/40. If A were married to A-prime, then it’d be 30/30/40 for A, A-prime and B.
My husband and I sleep in separate rooms, due to the fact that we keep very different schedules and we were always waking each other up when one of us climbed into bed or got up. Both of us snore, too, and each keeps the other awake. Many couples sleep in separate rooms if they have different schedules, or something like that.
I was willing to put up with it until my husband called me “hose nose” one time too often, and said that with my CPAP, it was like sleeping with Darth Vader. Then I made him sleep in the back bedroom.
In my last apartment, my fiancee and I shared a room and our friend had the second room. We, of course, had the bigger room because there were two of us in that room. But we split everything in thirds. We figured it would be easier on everyone that way. Even if we (my fiancee and I) got the short end of the stick space wise, it was still cheaper for us to have our roomie there than not, so we opted to pay the extra 16.666666% to have him there and split in thirds, not halves. (That sentence was messed up, but I’m too tired to try to figure out another way to write it.)
Here’s a twist: Single Steve moves in w/ me into my 2 BR after I ditch the crazy girl from my life. We pay all the rent and bills 50/50. As a courtesy, when he moves in, I move to the smaller bedroom to give him more room for his stuff. (The small room is *much *smaller, but all my leftover stuff / furniture / chairs are all over the house.)
Then Steve meets Newgirl, dates, marries and she moves in within 6 months. (I know, I know…there’s drama, but irrelevant here.)
Steve and Newgirl agree to pay 50% of the rent. But they’re taking a stance on utilities. Even though Newgirl has no job, takes 30 minute showers, stays at home all day sucking up the A/C, watching TV, blah blah blah. Utility bills (heat, electric, water, gas) all increase to some degree (some more than others).
Now, I have to suck up on the increase of my utilities due to her consumption? I don’t like that.
We were never able to resolve it until we moved to the next place. Then all was good.
