Sharing rent fairly

rentquestion

Hi folks,

I'm moving into a house this week and we're having trouble trying to work out a fair way to divide up the rent among us all.

Total rent for the house will be 1400
There are 5 people going to be living there including 1 couple

There are 4 bedrooms in the house - 2 x double ensuite, 1 x double, 1 x single.

The couple will take one of the double ensuites and there will be one person in eack of the rest of the rooms

Any suggestions on how to divide this up fairly?

Thanks,
John

cold_filter

Just divide it by 5, yea the couple will have an ensuite but there will be 2 of them in there and the other single person who got the ensuite fair play, for that room and the rest why dont you just pick names from a hat thing, that seems fair

rentquestion

hey thanks for your quick reply,

i personally would think something like that would be fair but others in the house however wouldn't go for this approach. for example one is a student and specifically wants the box room as it will be cheaper than say the double ensuite so he wouldn't be willing to pay the same amount as someone who has a much better room.

it'll have to be divided up according to room but how to do that fairly without pissing anyone off is the problem!

cold_filter

with 5 people living there rent is 280! how cheap does he want it!!

i dont think it will work becuase the 2 ensuites then will have to pay say 400 for the rooms then the double would have to pay close to that, that still leaves the box room paying 300, how much are the ensuites prepared to pay?

rentquestion

ya i know 280 is very little to be paying but at the same time theres a big difference between a tiny box room and a spacious double ensuite so i can see why he would be pissed if someone was paying so little for a way better room after he requested the box room to save himself a few bob.

its unbelievably difficult to come to an arrangement that everyone will be ok with hence me posting here for some help!

cold_filter

ok the couple could pay 475, the other ensuite could pay 375, the double 325, then the miser could pay 225

warrenaldo

hes obviously right - canty be expected to pay more for the box room.
and its not based on the room only. the people live there so will take up space all over the house.

since 1 person in each of 3 single rooms they should all pay the same. the single person in the double room should pay a bit more than these
and finally the couple should pay more than the person in the double room - but the couples combined total should be less than 2 single beds.

eg : single beds 240, double bed 300 - 400 for couple - maybe thats not 1400. but you get the idea.

thats iinda what we did anyway. similar situation

stipey

TBH I'd be inclined to split it 5 ways - but if that's not to everybody's liking the absolute fairest way to do it (i.e. to a nit pickingly annoying level - but ensuring that the likelihood of arguments is kept to a minimum) is to measure the area of each room (ensuites included) .

A = Double room + ensuite.
B = single room + ensuite
C = single room
D = single room

Find what percentage of the total bedroom area each individual room makes up. Then work out what percentage of the overall rent the inhabitants of each room have to pay.

IMHO this is really fussy - but if thats what it takes. Oh and, if you really wanted to be extra fussy - you could add half the area of the main bathroom to rooms C & D as presumably the people in rooms A and B won't need the use of it.

Wouldn't be my preferred method though.

Stark

Charge the person in the box room cheaper rent. It's only fair.

IanQuigley

Agree a room order [best->worst]
(ie. double w/ en-suite 1, double w/ en-suite 2, double and single)

Get everyone one to write down a sealed bid for each of the rooms. The couple act as one person.

Review the bids as a group and allocate the highest bidder the best room, then the highest remaining bidder for the second room... etc.

Work out to sum of the highest bids (i.e. 2000) and divide the total rent required (1400) by that value (ie, 0.7) then multiply everybodies bid by that value.

In theory that should add up to the total rent.

It will obviously work better if you dont try to second guess each other and bid fairly.

dannyd20

Split the cost per room.

2 x double ensuite €365 each
1 x double €345
1 x single €325

That is the fairest way to do it.

jdivision

Victor has a good way of dividing rent up fairly, think it's a sticky on this forum.

Stark

IanQuigley wrote:

Get everyone one to write down a sealed bid for each of the rooms. The couple act as one person.

I don't agree with a couple being charged the same rent as a single person. They'll be using only one room, but they're still two people as regards sharing the rest of the resources in the house. You need to agree rent for them that's somewhere between that of 1 person and that of 2 people.

Here's *roughly* how I would divide it up:

450 for couple in ensuite 1 (€225 per person)
375 for ensuite 2
325 for double
250 for single

Depending on how **** the box room is. If it's a fairly decent sized one, then you might want to increase the rent slightly for it.

I wouldn't recommend putting the couple in anywhere other than one of the ensuites. You don't want to be sharing a bathroom with a couple

rentquestion

hey thanks again for all the replies its always good to get some outside opinions and see what other people do in their accommodation

Stark

Found Victor's doc. It does look very good:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054867603