House share - rent splitting

han2000

Hi All

I am living in a house share for the last three years with three other people, the house is in an small but expensive town in the South East and the landlord has once again decided to increase the rent.

The rent was last increased over two years ago and there was a small bit of bother trying to split it fairly between the four bedrooms.

The bedrooms of the house are as follows:
1 master bedroom with en-suite and walk in wardrobe.
1 double bedroom with en-suite
2 double bedrooms

At the time the en-suite people were arguing that they shouldn't be paying too much more for their bedrooms than the non en-suite bedrooms. I rang the landlord to try and haggle the rent a bit and he left us off with €50. So for the past few years the en-suite's have been paying €15 extra per month.

Fast forward to now and he wants to put the rent up another €250 to €1200 total. I said that I wasn't happy to just split this increase down the middle (€62.50 each) and proposed that the non en-suites increase by €50 bringing them up to €280 and the en-suites increase by €75 bringing them up to €320.

I really didn't think €40 of a difference in rooms was too unfair of a suggestion especially given they've only been paying €15 extra the past few years.

I know it may seem laughable to arguing over these kind of prices especially to people paying sky-high rent in Dublin and the likes, but fair is fair.

Anyone else's opinion would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance:)

JJJackal

Your landlord wants to increase rent by 26.3%. Therefore each tenant should have a 26.3% increase.

230 goes to 290

245 goes to 310

Where I think the difference between the ensuite and not ensuite rooms is not large enough - it is what ye agreed on originally and thus the increase should be proportionate. I also think the tenant with the walk in ward robe should be paying more than the one with just an ensuite

punisher5112

Is it a rent pressure zone?

If so they can't increase above 4%

If you feel it's above what else is out there you can appeal this through the RTB.

han2000

JJJackal wrote: »

Your landlord wants to increase rent by 26.3%. Therefore each tenant should have a 26.3% increase.

230 goes to 290

245 goes to 310

Where I think the difference between the ensuite and not ensuite rooms is not large enough - it is what ye agreed on originally and thus the increase should be proportionate. I also think the tenant with the walk in ward robe should be paying more than the one with just an ensuite

Thanks for the reply, I guess for me the ensuite is a big factor. The price was only agreed originally to keep the peace and we have never had any written agreement and since then one of the tenants left. I've been looking on accommodation websites the past hour and €50 between ensuite and non ensuite seems to be standard, although there are some above and below this.

han2000

punisher5112 wrote: »

Is it a rent pressure zone?

If so they can't increase above 4%

If you feel it's above what else is out there you can appeal this through the RTB.

No it didn't make the most recent list for the rent pressure zones and I'd say the landlord would easily be able to provide evidence of three similar houses for the price he is requesting.

JJJackal

han2000 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, I guess for me the ensuite is a big factor. The price was only agreed originally to keep the peace and we have never had any written agreement and since then one of the tenants left. I've been looking on accommodation websites the past hour and €50 between ensuite and non ensuite seems to be standard, although there are some above and below this.

I agree with you that there should be a difference. Unfortunately, when the original rent split was agreed that was not really factored in. (only 15 euro diff)

In my opinion it is now unreasonable to think that the ensuite tenants will agree to a 75 euro increase while the non ensuites agree to 50 - this means the ensuite tenants rent increase will be 50% greater than the non ensuites

han2000

But do you not think that there should be some form of being grateful that for two years they were kind of lucky by getting those bedrooms for only the €15 extra, and that the other €25 each that they saved for those two years was only saved because I rang the landlord to haggle the rent down. I mean if the landlord didn't agree at the time to reducing the rent by €50 there would have definitely have been a €40 difference in the rooms all along.

JJJackal

han2000 wrote: »

But do you not think that there should be some form of being grateful that for two years they were kind of lucky by getting those bedrooms for only the €15 extra, and that the other €25 each that they saved for those two years was only saved because I rang the landlord to haggle the rent down. I mean if the landlord didn't agree at the time to reducing the rent by €50 there would have definitely have been a €40 difference in the rooms all along.

And yet they probably arent grateful and now will not want to pay more

o1s1n

han2000 wrote: »

But do you not think that there should be some form of being grateful that for two years they were kind of lucky by getting those bedrooms for only the €15 extra, and that the other €25 each that they saved for those two years was only saved because I rang the landlord to haggle the rent down. I mean if the landlord didn't agree at the time to reducing the rent by €50 there would have definitely have been a €40 difference in the rooms all along.

Are they good housemates? You're all paying pennies relatively speaking, if there's a good overall vibe to the place then is it really worth causing hassle over?

Bigger picture and all that.

Always Tired

I think what you have proposed is fair, a 40 euro difference is a 5er a week which I would gladly pay for use of an en suite over a shared BR.

I would talk to the non ensuite tenants and see if they would prefer an ensuite room at the price proposed as the current tenants in it are unhappy to pay that amount. If they say yes, offer the ensuite tenants to trade rooms.

If the non ensuite tenants dont want to trade I'd tell them just to pretend that they do anyway and bluff the ensuite tenants, they'll not want to change rooms especially if they have a walk in closet!

han2000

I know and I honestly feel stupid writing the post when I see the prices mentioned in other posts. It's just compared to the other three people in the house I earn peanuts, no nights out or holidays ever and they know this, so it's just kind of like a slap in the face that they still wouldn't agree to take more of a chunk at this stage.

han2000

Always Tired wrote: »

I think what you have proposed is fair, a 40 euro difference is a 5er a week which I would gladly pay for use of an en suite over a shared BR.

I would talk to the non ensuite tenants and see if they would prefer an ensuite room at the price proposed as the current tenants in it are unhappy to pay that amount. If they say yes, offer the ensuite tenants to trade rooms.

If the non ensuite tenants dont want to trade I'd tell them just to pretend that they do anyway and bluff the ensuite tenants, they'll not want to change rooms especially if they have a walk in closet!

Not a bad idea at all actually! Although I'm fairly sure I know the response I'll get already:rolleyes:

cruizer101

Its a bit awkward now you are far into living there but one suggestion I have seen in the past for splitting rent in a house share is as follows.
Split the rent according to how many rooms in house and then let people bid up from that, like an auction, on the best room in the house, this means whoever gets it has agreed themselves to pay the increased rent, if they don't want to pay extra they don't have to.
Repeat for remaining rooms and whatever is left is paid by last room (or split of two rooms are deemed to be equal).

So in your case the rent is 1200 total for 4 rooms, split it thats 300 each.
The room with en-suite and wardrobe is best so take turns bidding how much you would be happy to pay, lets say it goes to 350 (50 quid extra would seem reasonable), next room bid goes to 330, that leaves 520 to be split between the last two rooms 260 each.
That way people only have to pay what they want, someone will always want to pay a bit more then the even split for an en-suite.

Might be hard to do but it would be fairest if you could agree to that with you housemates even now.

bucketybuck

han2000 wrote: »

It's just compared to the other three people in the house I earn peanuts, no nights out or holidays ever and they know this, so it's just kind of like a slap in the face that they still wouldn't agree to take more of a chunk at this stage.

Sounds like your problem, not theirs. Since when did your personal circumstances mean that they have to pay more?

The time to sort out the allocations was back when you moved in, forget that "keeping the peace" guff, if you felt the en-suite people should pay more then that was the time to sort it.

The idea of going to the ensuite people now and asking them to pay a bigger share or swap to a smaller room seems very naive to be honest.

antix80

I think.. it's a percentage increase and that's how it should be passed on. Everyone pays the same additional percentage.

If anyone isn't happy with how the €50 was passed on, well, that's just too bad. Don't make the same mistake again. Stick with percentages and don't worry about rounding to the nearest 10.

han2000

Thanks for all the replies! Lesson definitely learned, from now on I'm just gonna be the most inconsiderate b***h from the outset. It will save me in the long run.

In all honesty from searching websites the last while the price difference is actually fairly clear so I think I'm gonna use that as my reference.

antix80

han2000 wrote: »

In all honesty from searching websites the last while the price difference is actually fairly clear so I think I'm gonna use that as my reference.

It costs nothing to ask. You might even decide to move out if you found cheaper elsewhere.. in which case they might have to reduce the rent on that room to attract a new tenant.

It's not about being inconsiderate. If that landlord decided to rent out the rooms individually, something tells me you'd still have ended up paying what you're paying.