Splitting rent

[Teaforten]

Disclaimer- I am seeking advice to give my over 18 year old DD a couple of ideas, please do not waste your time to say that over 18 year olds should not seek advice from their parents- I have already read lots of those comments on other threads

DD has just finished year 1 at a London uni and will be living with 3 other girls next year. They have found a reasonable house and are about to sign the contract and move in within the next couple of weeks. The contract will be joint and several and states only the full amount of rent due per month (over £3000- be warned prospective parents of London students) and they are trying, and failing, to agree fair rents for each room.

Three bedrooms are upstairs - two large, one medium (say 100%, 100%, 77% floor area). The final bedroom is on the ground floor- the smallest (51% area) and there is not enough room to fit the desk against the wall, it has to be in front of a built in wardrobe.

Does anyone have any tips as to how to price rooms? DD is the most budget- challenged and when house-hunting had been happy to take the smallest room to keep the price down , but cannot currently get the others to agree a price differential of more than 7% of the rent between biggest and smallest which would just not be not be worth it for a year of taking the worst room.
They need to sign and move in and are now saying that they want to all pay equal for the first month's advance rent and sort it out after they move in- DD is the lead tenant so will have to get rent off the others every month before paying the landlord so wants it all agreed before they sign.

I don't remember all this stress when I rented a gazillion years ago!

How do landlords price different rooms?

[BubblesBuddy]

I thought a student let had to have a desk in the room and it seems unreasonable that it’s in front of the wardrobe.

I would look at the floor plan of the house. Split the rent according to the actual size of the rooms then deduct a bit for the ground floor and inconvenience. The others have to pay a bit more as a result of that. I have no doubt this has arisen due to London prices. It is expensive although some posters think differently. So look at actual sizes and then look at the ratios for rent payments. I guess if your DD is the most budget conscious, this does mean the short straw.

[BubblesBuddy]

Landlords price a whole flat or house. Not individual rooms very often.

[LIZS]

Each tenant needs to set up a dd to the ll, it would be nightmarish for your dd to be responsible'for paying the total. Ds house-share this year had 4 beds, iirc the difference between a double and single was about £60 pm but will check when he wakes up!

[KirstenRaymonde]

BubblesBuddy there are no rules about what needs to be in any private rented room, even if it’s being let to a student. This isn’t a house being rented from the university.

Does the rent include any bills? If the rooms are that varied they’ll have to compromise or it won’t be fair.

[Quartz2208]

For 3000 I would do 825, 825 for the biggest 2, 750 for the medium size and 600 for the smallest - recognising that there is a difference in size but also that the areas are shared. Given that 4 equal qyas is 750 the 3rd sized room is unaffected by the change. Its also only a 10% increase for the biggest 2 rooms as well

[Pleasebeafleabite]

My dd was in a london share and the price differential was £100. She paid £850 the others were paying £950. Sounds similar hers was a double bed crammed into a single


However there was good downstairs space so she was able to work there and the house was nice in retrospect compared to what she has been in since

What we may think of as fair is not actually how the pricing works ime

[KirstenRaymonde]

Quartz2208 suggestion seems most sensible. If they were renting just the room rather than a quarter of the house it would vary by room size.

[Teaforten]

The landlord unfortunately refused to consider each tenant paying their rent direct to him, DD suggested this. He wants one payment per month for the whole house.
DD doesn't really want to be lead tenant, but also doesn't want to risk paying someone else the money and it not all getting to the landlord on time (she is the most organised and has arranged all the viewings, dealt with the LL etc.)
I assumed this was usual- it is not?

No bills are included in the £3000+, only the rent for the rooms.

They found the house via the uni listings website, but it is a private rental.

[Pleasebeafleabite]

Yes it’s usual in London to have one lead tenant with side agreements for responsibilities of the others

[Daisymay2]

More importantly she should not put herself in the position that she collects the rent each month. They need separate D D and each needs a guarantor. Otherwise your DD will be liable to make up the £3k monthly if so.eone does not pay. Otherwise set up a joint account for the rent and bills

[French2019]

I'd be really concerned about your dd taking on liability for the whole tenancy tbh. What happens if one of the other students falls out with her friends and decides to move? What if one of them fails exams and has their studies terminated? Runs out of money and stops paying rent? Or drops out due to ill health? Your dd would have to pay the full rent. Are you a guarantor? If so, you would be liable for their portion of the rent as well as your dd's. Are you ok with that?!

Tbh, I think these are bigger concerns than how they split the rent. Your dd needs to ensure that she is properly protected.

[Daisymay2]

Sorry slow typing. My experience over 7 years, 2 students first and second degrees is that each pays separately sometimes Monthly and sometimes 3 times in the year, i.e. when loan comes through.
Be careful what the lease says. My guess is that the lead tenant is responsible for the entire rent. If she is concerned that they may not manage to make the payments when given the money she needs to think carefully what happens if they run out of cash.

[KirstenRaymonde]

This sounds like a LL who didn’t intend to rent to students. I’ve heard of this situation but should your daughters friends fall out or anything your daughter could be left liable for it all which is very risky. No bills at all either would concern me, have they discussed how these will be split?

[Teaforten]

They found the listing on their uni website, which apparently has minimum requirements before allowing LLs to advertise there e.g. HMO licence so he would definitely have planned to rent to students.

The tenancy agreement names all four of them, so all equally liable, though DD is listed first, but one of the clauses states that the rent must be paid by one monthly payment, not 4 separate ones.

DD did request separate payments but LL said no- is this unusual then? Perhaps she can go back to him. The trouble is they are all new to this so it's hard to know what is reasonable.


I also have reservations as I can see problems ahead if the others are short one month.

[Quartz2208]

I always paid my money directly to the landlord when flatsharing so yes I would push back on that. And get them to agree to the slight change in rent

Bills however all split equally

[OrchidInTheSun]

The fact that your DD is getting the smallest, crappiest room and they are suggesting they split the rent equally for the first month and then sort it out later, are unhappy about your DD receiving a discount for the crappy room PLUS your DD being responsible for getting the rent together every month is ringing massive alarm bells here I'm afraid.

If they can't get it sorted before they move in (and I'd go with Quartz's suggestion) then they need to find somewhere else. Your DD stands firm or she's going to have a bloody miserable 2nd year

[Pleasebeafleabite]

What you have said above is usual OP in London

[TisNowt]

It's not unusual to have one payment for the whole house even outside of London and it's also normal to have a lead tenent.

All the tenents being liable for the other tenents is also normal. It's sucks but it's normal.

With the room splits I think the split of £825 x2, £775 and £600 sounds ok but the £600 sounds like a bargain and I can't see the other girls in the bigger rooms agreeing.

A closer band of payments would 780, 780, 740 and 700. That's looks more reasonable.

At the end of the day it's up to them to work out what the rooms are worth to them.

[AsleepAllDay]

There's a website that calculates rent split based on room dimensions - forget what it's called but search for rent split calculator or similar

[AsleepAllDay]

Also this sounds expensive and will have bills on top? Can your dd look elsewhere too?

[Teaforten]

Thanks for all your suggestions- Quartz228 s seems very sensible and a far bigger differential then is currently being suggested by DD's friends.

The bills would be separate and split equally.

My original thoughts were similar, that they should agree room rents based on the floor area with a bit less for the worst room being ground floor and so small the desk had to be moved to open the cupboard.

If they can't then decide who wants which room they should draw lots and be done with it. But the advance rent needs to be paid before they get the keys, and the others say they can't agree prices before seeing the house again, so a Catch22.

Maybe the LL will allow them another viewing before the contract is signed.

[OrchidInTheSun]

Here's the website Asleep mentioned: www.splitwise.com/calculators/rent

[MsSquiz]

I work in property management and for most of the properties we have, the tenants each have a standing order to pay us their share of the rent.
If one was to move out. The remaining tenants are then responsible (joint and several) to either move out, share the leavers rent or find another tenant.

Could the girls set up a joint bank account to all pay their shares of the rent into each month and then have that full payment go to the landlord?

That way they will have a record of it on a statement if someone doesn't pay in their share, but the landlord still just gets one payment?

[OrchidInTheSun]

Room Suggested rent
Room #1 $833.39
Room #2 $833.39
Room #3 $741.76
Room #4 $591.46

That's with the 2 biggest rooms being 'generous', room 3 being 'normal' and 4 being 'small' with 'awkward room layout'.

Also - what's the bathroom situation? Is there a downstairs loo or is your DD going to have to go upstairs if she wants a wee in the night?

[Teaforten]

Sorry, I posted before I read the latest comments.

It does seem expensive but is pretty average for the area they're looking in. The others are better off than DD and were happy to pay more when they were looking and DD to pay less for the smallest room- the problem has arisen when it seems their idea of "less" is only £10 a week.

It is of course up to DD and her friends to sort out but I thought I'd check what others have done in the past. Whatever happens I think that "sorting it out later" after they've all paid equal rent upfront to the LL on signing the contract is a very bad idea.