How should we split rent fairly in a four-bedroom student house?

[Kopfkino]

Can anyone give us some ideas of how to split the accommodation costs of a shared uni house.

House, 4 bedrooms;
1 large bedroom with ensuite (20m sq)
1 large bedroom (20m sq)
2 bedrooms (10 m sq each)

Shared kitchen/ diner, garden, bathroom

Rent is £3466 a month

Some differences of opinion of how this should be split including biggest room paying double!

Any ideas?

Everybody writes down how much they are willing to pay for each room. The total of each persons bids must add up to the total rent cost. The person who bids the highest for each room gets that room, but pays the average of all the bids for that room. That way everyone ends up with a room they were willing to pay more for and everyone should be happy. The ones wanting your DS to pay double can’t force that, because if they bid higher than him they have to take and pay for the larger room.

edited to make the maths work 😆

This. If it's the same group of people, it's totally unreasonable to change the rules now.

DS has a similar set up, they're all paying the same and were able to just agree among them who got which room. He's got a small one but he's not bothered as he's fairly minimalist and spends a lots of time outdoors.

750, 750, 900 and 1066 - pull from a hat. If someone has a room they don’t want they can negotiate with who got that room.

I can't get over how much STUDENTS are expected to pay for rent.
That's it. No further comment.

700,700, 900, 1166

or something similar. If everyone wants the bigger rooms then draw straws and maybe swap rooms partway through.

The fairest way is to split by room size and add a reasonable ensuite premium. The two small rooms are half the size of the big ones, so they shouldn’t pay the same, but the big rooms shouldn’t pay double either.

Using the standard student‑let formula, the split comes out roughly:
Ensuite large room ~£1275 Large room ~£1155 Small rooms ~£578 each.
It’s objective, avoids arguments, and reflects the actual space each person gets.

This is how I have calculated the above

Split by room size + ensuite premium. Total house rent: £3466/month
Room sizes:

• Room A: 20m² + ensuite
• Room B: 20m²
• Room C: 10m²
• Room D: 10m²

The two small rooms are literally half the size of the big ones. The ensuite is a meaningful premium. So yes, the big rooms should pay more, but not double.

Most landlords and student unions recommend (Room size ÷ total bedroom size) × total rent

Ensuite premium (usually £100–£150/month) so I did the maths as follows

Total bedroom space = 20 + 20 + 10 + 10 = 60m²
Base rent per m² = £3466 ÷ 60 = £57.76 per m²

Now apply it:

Room A - 20m² + ensuite Base: 20 × £57.76 = £1155.20 Ensuite premium: £120 (typical) Total: £1275/month
Room B - 20m² Base: 20 × £57.76 = £1155.20
Room C - 10m² Base: 10 × £57.76 = £577.60
Room D - 10m² Base: 10 × £57.76 = £577.60

Bid for it.

either start with a price that everyone is willing to pay. Increase the price by say £10/month until you are left with only one person who gets the room

or

sealed bids - highest bidder wins.

edited to add that when you increase the
cost of the biggest room, the other room prices get reduced.

1200, 1040, 613,613.

Usually there’s one who can afford to pay more and one who wants to pay less and doesn’t care about room size etc…

I know, you can rent a 3 bed semi where I live for less than one small room in a student house - they really are being ripped off.

Auction them. You can be the auctioneer. Auction the en suite room first, they have to bid more than 3466/4, the one prepared to pay most gets it, at that price. Then auction the other big room. Then calculate how much rent still needs paying in total for the last two rooms, divide by 2, ask if either wants to bid more than that for either room (there may be meaningful differences other than size), if not they toss for it.

"But that's unfair, the one with most money to spend gets the best room." Yes, or maybe the one who actually wants it the most. But by paying more, they're subsidising their flatmates, who are now paying less. So this seems fine to me: the richer are subsidising the poorer. This is assuming that the smaller rooms are perfectly acceptable. If not, the house was a poor choice in the first place.

Yes exactly. This is going to cause resentment.
How different were the rooms last year? If only a small difference then fair enough, all pay the same, but doesn't sound like it with the ds ending up with a box room.

I don't think the ds should have gone along with the arrangement last year if his room was significantly smaller than the rest.

If nobody is willing to pay more for the best room then the alternative is they split the rent equally and pick out of a hat.

@Kopfkino has it
this year in DCs house one person spent a ton on time & effort to secure the house (nightmare securing a house, they were going within minutes of coming up - they said it was like the hunger games 🤣) anyway organiser got first dibs then the rest drew straws and all paid the same. All happy

Btw the point of doing it by auction, rather than following some sort of rules as others are doing on this thread, is that we don't know what the flatmates are willing / able to pay, and how much they actually want a bigger room. Eg the 1200, 1040, 613,613 split won't work if they all say "no thanks" to 1200. Then you're back to the drawing board. Just ask them what they're prepared to pay: this is exactly what an auction is.

They have to sort this out for themselves I'm afraid.

DS in a similar position and they thrashed out room choices and rents before they even signed the contract.

FWIW he got eh worst room (pot luck) and is paying about 60% of the rent the guy in the large en suite is.

My three boys have had similar

I suggested they halve the rent for the ground floor / communal rooms and each one pays equally for that

Then in your case
the bedrooms are worked out by area for the other half of the rent
so

3466/ 2 =1,733

£1733 / 60 m2 (total bedrm area )
=£ 28.8833 ( cost /m2 )

then simply x by each room area

so
10m2 rooms are £288.83
20m2 rooms are £577.67

Adding on the cost to each of communal space @ £433.25
( £1733 / 4 )

10m2 rooms £433.25 + £288.83
= £722.08
20m2 rooms £433.25 + £577.67
= £1010.92

( If you want they could take off the pennies at the end for the person with the en-suite to pay )

Biggest room pays double. BUT could house a couple.
2nd biggest pays maybe 1/3 more than the 2 small rooms because it doesn't have an ensuite.

If its the same group of friends, I don't understand why the need to change the arrangement this year. Surely its split equally as it was before regardless of room size. Or if the ensuite is the thing making them think there should be a different split, then I'd suggest deciding a nominal amount for the bathroom and the one with the ensuite pays slightly more for the priviledge.
If that were me though, I'd then be being very clear that nobody else was to use it since I was being made to pay more.... (Which I imagine won't be popular - shower time was valuable in my day, especially before going out - having an extra bathroom available for everyone would be incredibly useful for everyone....)

How much time are they spending in their rooms anyway? When I was at uni we all pretty much only slept (or 'slept' if we were lucky) in them, and occasionally did a bit of work (but mostly did that in the library as I didn't have a computer, or in a housemates room that did have a computer).

Everyone has a computer these days
When I was a student I spent most of my time in my room working as I needed the drawing board
My boys only occasionally work in the libraries, generally only if they have group projects

Value of ensuite = E

total rent - E = X

X divided by 70 (the total number of square metres available) = y

Room with ensuite: 20y + E = rent
Big room without ensuite: 20y
1st small room:10y
2nd small room: 10y

They will be prepared to pay more, the question just how much. For an extra £1 per month even the poorest student would probably prefer the en-suite.

Great idea. That decision is final, but if it happens that two of the students want to swap rooms later, then fine, but they mustn't draw the others into it. The student who sorted out the rental shouldn't get any privileges, except along the lines of being treated to a curry.

Could you tell your DC you're happy to pay X amount towards his accommodation and then if he wants a bigger room, en-suite, etc, he pays the extra? Then leave them to figure it all out.

Not necessarily. My DS would much prefer a smaller cheaper room and have more money to spend on beer.