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?

Or they all pay a pound less!

@Phonicshaskilledmeoff no bids if no one wants the big rooms though! My DDs found smaller rooms and less rent tended to be the popular ones. Sometimes people stamped their feet and refused to have a bigger one! So to keep the group intact, there needs to be someone who gives way!

When I was at uni we all paid the same and we drew straws for the rooms. It sucked because I got the worst room but if no one wants to pay extra for the better room then in my opinion it does make sense.

Yep, even in the north of England, halls cost that much. I think a lot of people with younger kids will get a nasty shock at how much uni costs now. DS's student loan was £6k, his first year room in halls (self-catered) was £10.5k.

This seems a good pro rata split of the rent that recognises the additional exclusive space in the two bigger rooms , and that the rest of the accommodation is shared.

I also suggest some house share agreement if anyone vacates during the year and has to find a substitute house mate, and tight if house mates to first refusal of the bigger rooms if they are vacated) including some house rules about cleaning up common parts and rules for kitchen use/washing up as well.

I think I’d work out square meter age of whole house because they aren’t just renting a room. Divide all the communal space by 4 and then work it out on a percentage basis. Bigger rooms will still pay more but on the basis of say 35 v 25 rather thsn double.

Bidding is a great way of doing it, starting with the best room and moving down. It means everyone utility function is best satisfied.

If people don’t care much about room size or en-suite, the premium will be small. If someone cares deeply, they can pay up and get it.

In any event no one can feel ripped off because they all had the same opportunity.

Wow - guess how much it cost in 1980? About 30 quid a week during term and 15 a week during the holidays.

Do a basic auction.

Rent split 4 ways is £866.50.

Is anyone willing to pay £875 for example for Room 1? Let’s say two people are.

Between those two only, who is happy to pay £885? Let’s say both are.

Keep going up in small increments. £895? £905?

Eventually, one of them will decide that the premium is too high.

If for example, Bidder 1 is gaming it to push the price higher with no intention of taking it, then stop the bidding and they have to take the room at the price they agreed. If they back out, then it goes to the previous price for Bidder 2.

The difference is taken off the rent paid by the smaller rooms.

For example
Room 1 - £966.50 is the price reached by the bidder happiest to pay more (£100)
Room 2 - £866.50
Rooms 3 and 4 - £816.50 (£50 of the premium off their rent)

Room swap is the fairest way rather than trying to split the prices.

Based on the fact that the largest room with the en-suite is almost a bedsit why not research the cost of renting one and use that figure as a starting point for a pro rata configuration of rental charges. “You want the better room, you pay the higher rent”…….simple.

@TISSHA ,

That is a very weird and far from basic auction!

For starters you cannot know if someone is ‘gaming’ it or genuinely bidding, so you can’t randomly stop the auction.

And, after the first room is auctioned, the second one, which is still twice the size of the other two, can also be auctioned.

You can either then split the other two smaller rooms equally or auction them as well if one has an advantage.

And you do have to know and trust the people enough before you do this or have some kind of contract drawn up. Otherwise, there is a danger of it being games and when they win saying ‘only joking’ and not paying up.

My DD was in a very similar type of house, and they did pay different amounts although the sums involved were smaller - I think something like 480 for the two small rooms, 520 for the bigger but not ensuite and 540 for the big ensuite room.

20 m2 room with ensuite: £1,485
20 m2 room: £990
10 m2: £495
10 m2: £495

20 m2 no-ensuite room is twice as big as 10 m2 room, so they should pay twice as much.

20 m2 room with ensuite pays 50% more than the other 20 m2 room as they have twice as much room as 10 m2 rooms + the luxury of their own bathroom, which the other 20 m2 room does not have.

How much a month crikey. My view the 20 room pay double the 10 or rent gets split equal by 4 and you swop halfway through

And if the person in the bigger room refuses?

This is crazy. £1000 more! No one will agree to take the bigger room.

Where is this house? At £1485 you could rent a whole flat to yourself in most places. Possibly even a two bedroom place.

Rent is £3466 a month

I think I'd split it the £3000 four ways for a basic bedroom and use of common rooms, then £200 extra for bigger bedroom £266 for the biggest with ensuite

So £1016 , £950, £750, £750

Well, if it's as cheap as some of you have suggested, everyone will want it. If you get twice as much space AND your own bathroom, it SHOULD come with a much higher price tag. You can't treat tiny rooms and a room that has to share a bathroom as almost the same. The disparity is huge, so should the price difference be. Unless ensuite person is willing to share their bathroom equally. But then they still get twice as much space as the tiny 10 m2 rooms. So should pay twice as much.

So they can go do that, if it's so attainable.

And then the rest of the group have to pay more or find a last minute flatmate replacement they possibly won’t get on with? They could all do that or they could have less difference between rooms so they stay as their group and everyone is happy.

Divvying up purely by bedroom size ignores the fact they will be making equal use of kitchen and sitting room spaces

On a student house a significant amount of that total cost will be for utilities, which they will all share equally, so it isn’t as simple as splitting by square footage. The en-suite is a bonus but realistically the difference between the other three rooms isn’t worth falling out over. They should draw lots for the rooms, with whoever gets the en-suite paying a premium of £40 per week.
then apart from the en-suite they all pay equally.

Is it the same housemates as last year? They can’t really change the rent split now if it is whe he didn’t get a reduced rate for a lesser room last year. They need to pay the same and draw straws if no-one is fussed what room they get.