My coworker and I are planning on renting a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment (both bedrooms are an en suite and are basically the same size). The arrangement we have is that we would split rent between the two of us equally for the first couple months until his girlfriend moves in. At that point, they would be sharing a bedroom and mentioned that they would split his portion of the rent and cover utilities while I cover my share of the rent.
At first, I thought nothing of it. But as we have narrowed down our housing choices and are about to apply, it has began to rub me the wrong way. They’re a couple, so naturally they would be sharing a room and they are voluntarily choosing to do so. If we split rent the way they propose, I would be paying $1,400 while they both pay $800 each. To me, this feels like a pretty big discrepancy and feels a little unfair as I would basically be living paycheck to paycheck while they save a lot on rent. While I get that they would be losing out on space in the bedroom/bath, they would in turn be using more of the common space. I mentioned this to him and he said they’d be willing to pay $200 on top to help me out, so now they would be paying $900 each, but would still put me in a relatively tight financial situation. While this does help, I still feel that an equal 1/3 split between everyone would be fair to help everyone save a little money. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be likely to want to split rent evenly.
I’m not a very confrontational person, but I feel like this would be a deal breaker for me but I don’t want to feel like I’m screwing him over by potentially bailing out right before we submit apps after about a month of searching. Any advice or past experiences would be much appreciated!
Splitting it 3 ways when they share a room and bath while you get a private room and bath is unfair to them. Splitting $3000 three ways is $1,000. Them paying $900 each, as he suggested, is more than reasonable. The current set up is $1,600 for their room and it would be $1,800 if you take his offer versus $1,200 for you.
YTA
NAH. You guys have different perspectives not an outright conflict so I don’t think this is really the right sub for this question.
Regardless, I would say their offer is fair. They are sharing the bedroom and bathroom and even offering to offset the shared common area. $200 is fair to do that. I would however insist on utilities being split 3 ways.
YTA
They’re not using 2/3 of the space, since you still have sole use of your bedroom and bathroom. They shouldn’t have to pay for 1/3 each just so you can be more comfortable financially – your finances aren’t their responsibility.
They already agreed to pay a bit more to offset the extra use of common spaces, and everyone should be splitting utilities evenly. That is fair.
They don’t have to subsidize your rent on top of that.
YTA. They are *sharing* a bedroom and bathroom; you have your own. An equal three way split to the utilities makes sense – but they are offering to cover those too! Splitting the rent equally when one person gets a whole bedroom and bathroom to themselves and the other two share is ridiculous. They may as well just get their own one bedroom apartment at that point.
Now if they are taking more of the common space, more negotiation does seem fair. But they already offered a reasonable concession for that too!
If you push the issue, I expect they will decide to omit you from the equation altogether. Then you’ll be paying a lot more to rent a place and pay the utilities on your own.
YTA. Rent has always been divided between bedrooms (proportionally if the rooms are very different sizes) and the bills/utilities by number of people, in every shared living situation I know of. It’s not reasonable to expect the two of them to each pay the same rent as you, for half a bedroom and half a bathroom when you have your own unshared bed and bathrooms.
If you narrow the search to 3 bedroom apartments, your plan seems fair. Dumb, but fair. The fact that they’re saving on space while you don’t have the same option isn’t strictly fair, but life is unfair, and this is one of the many ways. YTA for expecting them to pay equally to you while getting less.
YTA
Their income situation and what each person has left as spending money at the end of the month are irrelevant. It should make no difference whether his girlfriend has an income of her own or has zero income.
As I see it:
\* you’re sole user of one bed/bath, i.e. 40%
\* they’re also sole user of 40%
\* You’ll be using 1/3 of 20%, let’s say 6% and they 14%
So you have 46% and they have 54%.
Rent seems to be $3,000 of which after their concessions the friendly couple pay 2 \* $900 which is 60%.
They are paying more than their fair share.
Because of your jealousy at their higher combined income you are screwing yourself out of a very good deal.
Possible YTA here.
Given the circumstances, I would normally try to go for a room based cost where they pay for their personal areas at 100%, utilities at 66% and common areas (kitchen and living) at 66%
You can do the math, but my guess is with the amount they’ve offered you extra, theyre already over that amount.
Yta. This is completely fair.
ESH because neither of those options make sense or are fair.
You should pay for your room, they should pay for their room. You should pay for 1/3 of common spaces, they should pay for 2/3 of common spaces. You should pay for 1/3 of utilities, they should pay for 2/3.
This is standard where I’m from – assumed it was everywhere, but maybe I’m wrong!
YTA.
You are getting the room and they are getting the room. Why do you think that you should pay half price for the same room?
Imagine that three of you are paying for the hotel rooms. You will be charged the exact amount per room even if there are two of them.
AH status pending.
yup, 3 ways with a slight discount to them for sharing the room. His proposal (an extra $200) is reasonable though, he has accepted the premise, now you are just negotiating. You would be paying $300 more than them for your own room…seems about right, maybe a hair light but you said they are covering utilities?
And I’m sorry, but you were prepared to split 2 ways so the “relatively tight” financial situation you mention doesn’t fly. This is an equity among roomates conversation.
YTA. Rent is split by space. They don’t have more space, so why should they cover your part of the place? Find a girlfriend or someone to share your room who has to pay half of your stuff. Or if you want to make it exactly even, then look up what the sqaure foot/m\^3 price of the place is. Then do the math – every room + bathroom is the same price (so your half and their half), but the common area can be split three ways.
But utilities (water, electricity and so) should be split three ways, as it will increase with another person living there. The rent on the other hand will not increase – not if one person lives there, two, three or if he invites a whole harem of 8 girls
YTA they are saving on rent by sharing a room. If you wanted to save rent like they are by sharing a room, you can too. But that has nothing to do with them.
They offered to pay a little extra for common space, plus are covering utilities. It seems more than fair.