House share issues

spott

Sorry for the bringing an old post up but it is dealing with with a very similar situation.

Me and 2 others moved into a house 2 years ago. I have had the best room all along for equal rent - I am lucky.

One of the other 2 moved out last year and was replaced straight away. The other 1 of the original 3 is moving out soon and is going to be replaced too.

The person who moved in last year is only now bringing up the possibility of swapping rooms or splitting rent per room size, but agreed a year ago to pay the price he's paying for the room that was advertised. I have only known him a year now so he was a stranger to me but I like living with him. I said I would think about it but I am not gaining anything from this.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? I know that original thread is for friends, but this is slightly different. I don't know the new person that is going to arrive.

dudara

Post split out into its own thread.

dudara

leggo

Nope, he was happy to agree to the initial terms so that's his problem now, you owe him nothing and like you said you gain nothing from the move. If it comes to it, tell him if he wants to renege on the terms he moved in under, you'll have no problem finding a replacement and completely understand.

What will end up happening is the person who can negotiate best wins, and so far he's winning. By even thinking about it you've lost your high ground. So go back to him ASAP and be polite but firm about it and get that back. It's a market, this "your room is X size" argument is BS that's not how renting works. He took it for market value at the time and that's his situation, we don't get to renegotiate our rent unless some shmuck is willing to let us walk over them.

spott

Thanks. I will say it to him when I see him next.

ArtyC

He agreed to that rent for that room. In my experience the one who has been the longest in any share house has the best room! Just the way it works out!! No deal

chuckles30

ArtyC wrote: »

He agreed to that rent for that room. In my experience the one who has been the longest in any share house has the best room! Just the way it works out!! No deal

That's the way it works - I was in the smallest room in a house share for years - when one of the girls moved on, I upgraded to her room and the smaller room was rented out. Rent was always split equally. Last in normally finishes up with the smallest room.

zoobizoo

Priority on rooms always given to current house mates.

But, I've always lived in places where the rent was split in terms of room size.

sammyjo90

Ive lived in house shares for years and room prices have never been split equally unless you are renting the entire house (my experiences)
However, The rates have been set by landlord in these cases.

In thks case..Your housemate agreed to the price of the room when they moved in. Thats what they continue paying

Neon_Lights

Who is the leaseholder?

Potatoeman

It really depends. If you split it evenly and someone gets a box room and another a double it's unfair and they will leave sooner, especially if they find out they are paying the same as someone in double room.

Look up splitwise for a fair deal otherwise you will have a revolving door of tenants.

Mooooo

Unless the bigger room has an ensuite and the others don't they would normally be equal for rent unless perhaps it's a tiny room all together

Paddy Cow

spott wrote: »

Sorry for the bringing an old post up but it is dealing with with a very similar situation.

Me and 2 others moved into a house 2 years ago. I have had the best room all along for equal rent - I am lucky.

One of the other 2 moved out last year and was replaced straight away. The other 1 of the original 3 is moving out soon and is going to be replaced too.

The person who moved in last year is only now bringing up the possibility of swapping rooms or splitting rent per room size, but agreed a year ago to pay the price he's paying for the room that was advertised. I have only known him a year now so he was a stranger to me but I like living with him. I said I would think about it but I am not gaining anything from this.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? I know that original thread is for friends, but this is slightly different. I don't know the new person that is going to arrive.

I think he is being fair and you are not. When I lived in house share, rent did vary depending on the size of the room. It's not fair to expect the person who has the box room to pay the same rent as the person who has the biggest. You have said yourself that you were lucky to have the best room at the same price as everyone else.

You have known this person for a year and are happy living with him, so he is not a stranger. He is not being unreasonable. He has paid his agreed rent for a year. He has even asked about swapping his room. If he was unreasonable he would've kicked up a fuss much earlier.

Ask yourself this: would you be happy to pay the rent you are paying now for his room?

If he agreed to pay more rent for your room and you paid less for his, would you change rooms?

If the answer is no, then it is time to re-negotiate his rent. You've had a sweet deal but all good things must come to an end. You've taken it for granted that rooms are split evenly but that's not the norm and this guy has been there long enough that he gets a say in how the rent is divided.

It probably stings that you will now have to pay a bit more rent but it's only fair. He's paid over the odds for a year. Is he being reasonable in how much he wants to change it? You haven't said if it will be 10 or 20 extra euro per week/month. That would be a huge consideration.

leggo

Where are people getting these notions that fairness comes into play when talking about stuff like rent or wages though? Like try and renegotiate your rent with your landlord using the word 'fair' and see if they don't laugh in your face. The unfortunate reality is that if "it's not fair" is the only argument you have in the real world, you don't have an argument. OP's housemate accepted rent happily at a certain rate, nothing has changed about their room, therefore there's no reason for them to think they're entitled to reduce their rent.

Think about it this way: if you got a property at a low ebb of the rental market so it's a great rate and your landlord wants to scrap your lease and raise it to a high market value, saying "it's not fair! I could get more money for this!" Would you take him seriously? No, in that case you'd see how flimsy the notion of fairness is in a negotiation.

Now if the roommate was to turn around and say "I can get a room like this for cheaper and am willing to leave if I don't", that's a stronger argument that might get somewhere. However, even then if I was the OP, I'd be like "good luck then sorry to lose you, but we'll find someone for the room at that rate."

Paddy Cow

leggo wrote: »

Where are people getting these notions that fairness comes into play when talking about stuff like rent or wages though? Like try and renegotiate your rent with your landlord using the word 'fair' and see if they don't laugh in your face. The unfortunate reality is that if "it's not fair" is the only argument you have in the real world, you don't have an argument. OP's housemate accepted rent happily at a certain rate, nothing has changed about their room, therefore there's no reason for them to think they're entitled to reduce their rent.

Think about it this way: if you got a property at a low ebb of the rental market so it's a great rate and your landlord wants to scrap your lease and raise it to a high market value, saying "it's not fair! I could get more money for this!" Would you take him seriously? No, in that case you'd see how flimsy the notion of fairness is in a negotiation.

Now if the roommate was to turn around and say "I can get a room like this for cheaper and am willing to leave if I don't", that's a stronger argument that might get somewhere. However, even then if I was the OP, I'd be like "good luck then sorry to lose you, but we'll find someone for the room at that rate."

People renegotiate their rent/wages all the time. I moved into a one bedroom apartment that was advertised as €120 p/w. I got it for €100p/w. I did this by asking. If I hadn't opened my mouth the landlord wouldn't have offered. Before that I lived in an apartment where I negotiated a €50 p/m reduction in rent. Another of my flatmates did the same. The one who didn't ask, didn't get his rent reduced. If you don't ask, you don't get.

The op asked for opinions and that's what they're getting. If they don't want to reduce their housemates rent, then why not let the housemate move to a bigger room (that's a reasonable request) and rent out the small room to another stranger who won't know any better? Like I said, we don't know how much the flatmate wants to reduce his rent which would be a big factor. It might be easier just to reduce it so he stays. There doesn't seem to be any issues with him as a housemate. What if he leaves and someone else moves in who is an absolute nightmare? Sometimes it's better to have a good housemate paying a bit less that someone who causes havoc but pays more.

leggo

Oh his housemate has every right to ask, just the OP has no obligation to give. And just citing fairness isn't a strong case. In any negotiation, you need some kind of leverage, and the OP has all the leverage here. So to say the OP is being unfair is way harsh, his housemate agreed to rent at a certain rate then came back down the line (despite no circumstances changing) and wanted someone else to pay more so he can pay less.

Rent isn't worked out on a per square metre basis, or on fairness, it's a market so it's worked out on what you can get at that particular time. And often in house-sharing arrangements, once you open the door to re-negotiating anything, then you risk opening the floodgates to re-negotiating everything with everyone. The OP shouldn't have to be guilt-tripped into changing a financial balance that's working for him unless his hand is forced, and right now his housemate has zero moves with which to force his hand.

Katgurl

I would say "listen thanks for raising that with me. I haven given it some thought and i am afraid i am not prepared to move room. My thinking is that you agreed to rent the room at that rate. My rent was already negotiated before you moved in."

Are you worried there will be a bad atmosphere afterwards?

Paddy Cow

leggo wrote: »

Oh his housemate has every right to ask, just the OP has no obligation to give. And just citing fairness isn't a strong case. In any negotiation, you need some kind of leverage, and the OP has all the leverage here. So to say the OP is being unfair is way harsh, his housemate agreed to rent at a certain rate then came back down the line (despite no circumstances changing) and wanted someone else to pay more so he can pay less.

Rent isn't worked out on a per square metre basis, or on fairness, it's a market so it's worked out on what you can get at that particular time. And often in house-sharing arrangements, once you open the door to re-negotiating anything, then you risk opening the floodgates to re-negotiating everything with everyone. The OP shouldn't have to be guilt-tripped into changing a financial balance that's working for him unless his hand is forced, and right now his housemate has zero moves with which to force his hand.

He's not just asking for less rent though. He's asked to move room which is reasonable. This could be a middle ground solution. Let him move to a better room and rent out his room to a stranger.

leggo

Paddy Cow wrote: »

He's not just asking for less rent though. He's asked to move room which is reasonable. This could be a middle ground solution. Let him move to a better room and rent out his room to a stranger.

Sorry, it's been a week since I read the OP so I gave it a re-read there. Does he want the OP's room or the soon-to-be emptied room? If it's the latter, I don't see why that's not an amicable solution if the rent all stays the same.

convert

Any house share I've lived in, we've always paid the rent equally, regardless of room size, and in one place there was a big difference between the biggest and smallest rooms. There was no en suite, though. I think it works out easier than people paying different rents for different rooms. especially if there's a rent increase and it needs to be divided per room size rather than shared equally.

When someone moves out, there's always the chance that there will be some room changes as someone in the smallest room may move to the bigger room that's become free, and then their room is the one that's advertised, I don't think there's any issue in that. However, if your housemate is looking for your room, then that would be very different.

Mr. Incognito

"Fair" is subjective


He knew the rules when he moved in.

If he doesnt want to adhere to them he can move out.