How to split rent as a couple?

PureAppleJuice

PureAppleJuice

PureAppleJuice

Associate
Joined
18 Dec 2005
Posts
1,449
Location
Londontown
Hello all,

One of those tedious 'I can't function at life threads' but thought it'd be useful to have outsider input.

I'm in the process of moving house. Currently my girlfriend and I share a room and there are two other housemates.

The rent in the current place is £2,100 PCM and is split on a room by room basis, so we've got a rather cushy deal, paying £350 a month each.

Anyway, we're now looking for a new property and the other two housemates are gung-ho on splitting the rent by the number of people in the property, despite their being only three rooms.

E.g. if the rent is £2,600 PCM for a three bed, they say we all pay £650 each. I don't think that's particularly fair as we're then paying for half of the rent.

My counter proposal (which I think is rather generous) is that we as a couple pay £600 each (i.e. £1,200 total) and they then the other two housemates pay £700 each, but they still think they're still being hard done by.

What are your thoughts? Utility bills would be split by the number of people sharing the house.

The fairest alternative would be, I feel, is to pay on a 'room basis' then divide the 'communal area' by the number of people in the property. But I don't think that'll have any dice.

I suppose what I'm trying to ascertain from this post is whether I'm being unreasonable in how I feel the rent should be split.
 
Room basis for the rent, individual basis for the rest. You really can't pay the same rent as them when your both going to be sharing a room...

Stand your ground
 
Oh I know, welcome to London prices.

For background, we were paying £2,100 for a really nice townhouse in Clerkenwell (central London in case you don't know). The landlord was a contact of mine and it was cheap.

I feel that the claws are out as they've now realised that such a standard of living can't be maintained for similar 'room by room' prices when faced with market rate rents, and essentially want us, the couple, to subsidise the budget. We're all collectively keen to remain in said location.
 
Per-room basis would be the sensible option to be honest given than 2 of you are going to be sharing...
 
Jesus Christ £2100 per month on rent!
I overpay my mortgage by 20% (2 years into a 90% 25 year mortgage) on a 3 bed detached is £550!

Back on topic. It really is tricky to sort.
You could argue that room is one cost and communal areas are another. Does your girlfriend have a car? Just wondering if you share a driveway.

BRB, off to fit balloons to my house like off the film 'Up' and glide down to London!
 
How long have you been living with these housemates for? It sounds like whatever you decide, someone is not going to be happy about the arrangement, which will eventually lead to resentment and a toxic living environment.

Assuming all the rooms are of an equal size, the rent should be split on a per-room basis, with you and your partner contributing more to bills, etc.
 
Goodie said:
Room basis for the rent, individual basis for the rest. You really can't pay the same rent as them when your both going to be sharing a room...

Stand your ground
Click to expand...

maybe the room is the biggest one in which case they should pay slightly more than the others.

I'm of the opinion his counter offer is pretty generous
 
arknor said:
maybe the room is the biggest one in which case they should pay slightly more than the others.

I'm of the opinion his counter offer is pretty generous
Click to expand...

+1 on both accounts. Cut your loses and leave, they can suffer the extortionate rent themselves.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
Jesus Christ £2100 per month on rent!
I overpay my mortgage by 20% (2 years into a 90% 25 year mortgage) on a 3 bed detached is £550!

Back on topic. It really is tricky to sort.
You could argue that room is one cost and communal areas are another. Does your girlfriend have a car? Just wondering if you share a driveway.

BRB, off to fit balloons to my house like off the film 'Up' and glide down to London!
Click to expand...

Is kind of crazy in London :S - I used to be paying in the region of £700-800/m for a flat (2 bedroom) getting on for 10 years back now - my old neighbours were saying the other day the empty ones are being advertised at £1500/m now.
 
PureAppleJuice said:
My counter proposal (which I think is rather generous) is that we as a couple pay £600 each (i.e. £1,200 total) and they then the other two housemates pay £700 each, but they still think they're still being hard done by.

What are your thoughts? Utility bills would be split by the number of people sharing the house.

The fairest alternative would be, I feel, is to pay on a 'room basis' then divide the 'communal area' by the number of people in the property. But I don't think that'll have any dice.

I suppose what I'm trying to ascertain from this post is whether I'm being unreasonable in how I feel the rent should be split.
Click to expand...

YANBU

You're absolutely correct IMO, the rent for a flat share represents exclusive occupation of a room and shared use of the rest of the dwelling. So in some flat shares the person with the biggest room will pay more in rent than the person with the smallest room.

I think your offer is reasonable... assuming all rooms are equal size I'd be tempted to do it in quite an arbitrary way - rent representing 50% room 50% rest of dwelling. So say a 2600 per month flat, you as a couple would pay 1,083.33 (650(communal areas) + 433.33(room)) (or 541.66 each) and the others 758.33 (325(communal area) + 433.33(room)).

your offer is more generous than that

you could look at the size of the rooms too though to be fair, I'd assume that as a couple you'd be wanting the largest room in which case splitting the amount for the rooms evenly isn't fair and you guys should pay a premium for that (split the room portion of the rent proportionally by size of the room perhaps)

overall you just want to find agreement, you don't have to be anal and start going into detailed calculations with them - the above was just an illustration that I'd agree with your thinking - you just need to point out that splitting the rent four ways isn't on as you guys are both paying for sharing a single bedroom but they get a bedroom each. Having said that your current arrangement of splitting three ways is also unfair on them - you definitely need a compromise in between the two.

If they don't see that rather obvious point then suggest a 4 bedroom house, rent split 4 ways but you two get the fourth bedroom as a study.
 
Last edited:
Only me that thinks £2,100 is quite the bargain for Clerkenwell then :p Rents around here have gone silly, £1,800 for two bed flats. And this is zone 3 for crying out loud!

Edit: As I suspected 2+ bed flats in Clerkenwell seem to be starting at £2,400ish.
 
Last edited:
You should not be paying the same price each.

The couple should pay a larger amount eg 150% of one room and split the bills.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom