Housemate’s boyfriend moving in-split rent?

[Lampyshady]

I live in a flatshare with 3 others. One of the girls has a much bigger room and an en-suite and pays a bit more rent and the other 3 of us share a bathroom and pay a bit less. Girl with big room has asked if her boyfriend can move in and share her room for about 6 months, and said we’d split the bills by 5. We all said we’d think about it. He’s here a lot anyway and has been going through a very hard time and we get on well so it wouldn’t be so bad-and we’d still be sharing a bathroom between 3 so it wouldn’t add to bathroom waiting times.
We suggested that he should pay rent and the girlfriend said oh he’s going to pay half of my rent so it’s fair. I think this is unreasonable, since there will be 5 of us in the house/using the kitchen etc so I think the rent should be split by 5 and the rent should be lowered for the rest of us too as a result of having one more flatmate.
I think it’s unfair that they will get to live in a nice house, in a big room in an expensive city for half the market rate, with the convenience of having their partner with them, while the rest of us pay nearly double and have the inconvenience of living with more people.
Their argument is that the rent is per room and it is only 1 room they are renting so as long as that room is paid for it’s none of our business/their finances are up to them.
Who is being unreasonable? And is this even legal-we weren’t planning on telling the landlord he’s moved in because it’ll (probably) only be for a few months.

The boyfriend moving in makes it a HMO and both landlord insirance and your insurance becomes invalid if this is not declared. The landlord would have to follow different building regs (fire doors etc) for an HMO.

@iwishu

I think it should be split into 5 paying rent It's not just the room he's using, it's water, gas, electricity he's using. Even in hotels it's per person, you don't share the cost of a room.

That's nonsense.

Hotels are almost always by the room. Never per person.

The splitting bills between 5 is neither here nor there - he will be using electricity, etc and may be a big user, potentially cosing the others more. Decades ago, a girl I was sharing with moved her boyfriend in (no consultation!) and he liked taking long, deep baths and having her make him big roast dinners. The electricity bill went through the roof.

It's also the fact that the communal spaces are being shared between 5 people but the other 3 are still paying the same amount of rent.

It will be horrendous. He will be getting somewhere to live at half the price and absolutely none of the legal responsibility. Once he moves in he will ,to put it crudely, stick like shit to a blanket. You won't be able to talk to your landlord or letting agent about getting him out because ,realistically, he doesn't exist.

[quote Embracelife]It may already be an hmo eg in lambeth hmo is more than three
beta.lambeth.gov.uk/housing/landlords-and-licensing/houses-multiple-occupation-hmos[/quote]
It can't be a licensed HMO if it only has four bedrooms. All shared houses are, legally speaking, HMOs - but aren't licensable until you have five tenants.

Clearly unreasonable. Why should they pay the same as you when they're sharing a room and you've got a room to yourself?

If he’s only paying half her rent then he doesn’t get to use any of the facilities - no cooking, heating, lighting, washing machine etc.
Here’s a suggestion.
Calculate the difference between her rent and your rent. Eg £50 pm. Subtract that from the total amount of rent you all pay - eg 500 x 4 + £550 = £2550 - £50 - £2500
Divide that figure by 6 (current tenants + boyfriend) = £417
New rents - everyone pays £417 but couple pay an extra £50 between them.

@TheRealityCheque

The difference is the hotels price their rooms assuming full occupancy, but if it’s under occupied they don’t reduce the rate.

@OpheliaThrupps

Clearly unreasonable. Why should they pay the same as you when they're sharing a room and you've got a room to yourself?

They have an en-suite, and will use double the amount of utilities, wear and tear etc (which IS factored into the rent)

Please don't bury your heads in the sand on this.

If something happens, insurance will be invalid.

You'll be in a very tricky situation.

You will be allowing someone who is not a legal tenant to have a key to your home. If you are all away and he leaves a window open or allows a mate he doesn't really know to stay, and that 'mate' takes your things, you will have no insurance. Or you will have to lie to your insurance company about who was at home. That is fraud.

I bet OP will be back here in 6 months or more with thread title 'We let our housemates boyfriend move in and it's a PITA now in the house now he's here - how can we get him out?!'

As long as the LL is happy for him to move in, I don't see the issue with him paying half her rent and then paying his fair share of the house bills

I agree with her/him. 5-way split of utilities, but they split the rent for the one room between themselves.

Very cheeky to think he should subsidise your rent, unless he gets to sleep in your room too!

What are the actual amounts you all pay?

Instead of her paying more now for her bigger room can you not just split the total rent between 5 instead of 4? They have the extra room because of the ensuite so that seems fairer to me. Then she’s paying slightly less too but he’s paying a fair share and the rest of you aren’t out of pocket

@Gonnagetgoing

I bet OP will be back here in 6 months or more with thread title 'We let our housemates boyfriend move in and it's a PITA now in the house now he's here - how can we get him out?!'

"My flatmates boyfriend had his drunken rugby mates round for the evening . Someone has kicked a hole in the wall. The LL wants to charge the rest of us £500.00. Her boyfriend is refusing to pay. What do I do".

@mumwon

& what happens when they have arguments & they will! or break up or if you all decide to move out & he doesn't & you will all be liable for the extra rent - not him - because he is not on the agreement

@mumwon - from my experience - I lived with a couple (I did move in though) who had a town house which they rented out. All fine at first until suddenly the wife stopped working and sacked the cleaner (which we all paid for) without telling us saying 'oh you can all clean the house yourselves'. She then didn't like the fact that I wanted to iron downstairs and wanted to make me drag the ironing board up to top floor (where I lived), I refused.

Another place, I lived in a house share and like OP a boyfriend started staying over more, we decided as we all got on that it was fine if he moved in. Big mistake, he was into cycling, surfing and rugby and left sports equipment everywhere, he hogged the kitchen, refused to clean up after himself and also hogged the bathroom too and never cleared up (hair in plugholes) and had lots of his mates over too who'd stay over on the sofa and they rarely asked us if that was ok. Occasionally he'd take the rubbish out but made a big deal about it. The GF stuck to his side like glue, they'd hog the living room sofa being lovey dovey. It was funny when they broke up but not when he turned up at gone midnight and they got back together. After a while we all moved out and left them to it. Funnily enough they were fine about paying rent and bills. The fridge was a joke though, if we ever bought milk or butter etc it'd be gone in a trice.

If he moves in the insurance will be invalidated. Gonna be in yours and the landlords best interests if he doesn't move in.

As others hav3 said. Stop giving op advice on how to split. This could breach the tenancy agreement, the landlords insurance and the landlords register with local council. It is a matter for the landlord to decide if he can get approval for it. He may not be able to or want to in which case this the boyfriend an illegal tennant
The flatshare folks need to wise up that this is not how it works

Very cheeky to think he should subsidise your rent, unless he gets to sleep in your room too!

What if they fall out and he sleeps on the sofa? What about the fact he is using the kitchen and other rooms, I hated a shared house because sometimes I would have to wait an hour to cook my tea, more people means more time to wait and more inconvenience. Only the GF is benefitting from him being there, why should the others be inconvenienced and get nothing out of it?

[quote Soontobe60]@TheRealityCheque

The difference is the hotels price their rooms assuming full occupancy, but if it’s under occupied they don’t reduce the rate.[/quote]
In fact they increase it. Single supplements make holidays very expensive for lone travellers.

When we were in uni my boyfriend (now DH) and I shared a room in a 4-bed flat with 3 others and we split the rent equally five ways. The caveat was we got first choice of room and we would each get an equal vote if anything was to be decided in the flat. Also the landlord knew and we were both on the lease. We were all friends beforehand though so that possibly made a difference as part of the reason we did is so that we could all afford a bigger/nicer flat in a good area.

@Hont1986

I agree with her/him. 5-way split of utilities, but they split the rent for the one room between themselves.

Very cheeky to think he should subsidise your rent, unless he gets to sleep in your room too!

But the rent isn’t just for the room it’s to live in the property which has a shared kitchen, living room, furniture and appliances and is priced according to location. No he won’t be sleeping in my room, but he’ll be doing more than just sleeping in the one room-he’ll be using the kitchen, fridge, washing machine, bins, sofa etc.

@mathanxiety

I know you are reluctant to do this but the landlord, who owns the house, needs to know who is living there.

There may be maximum legal occupancy numbers due to fire codes or to prevent the neighbourhood being overrun with flophouses.

The plan you have outlined, with the BF retaining his parents' address officially, and his name not on the tenancy, is 100% skewed in his favour.

He could cause damage that the rest of you would be liable for.
His mates could make your home theirs.
He is going through hard times and you might not see a penny of the money he says he will pay toward utilities.
There will be a bathroom squeeze.
There will be negotiations wrt mess in the kitchen and the shared bathroom.

Assuming you ignore this advice and let him move in without alerting the LL, he should pay one fifth of the rent because he will be using the communal spaces. Anything less is cheeky fuckery. He is a moocher.

All of this The only thing I'd add is that, if they're keen to live together, why aren't they looking for their own place?

@Babiesandboardgames

I think you should meet in the middle somewhere . Let's say you all pay 400 each and she pays 500. Under your proposals , it would be 2100/5 which would be 420 for each of them , or 840 for their room which is too high . Equally, 500 for 2 people (not 1 and that's an extra person sharing the living space ) isn't fair either I would suggest together they pay 600 so that the 3 others pay 33.33 less each and bills are lower because you have an extra person paying them I think that's fair :)

That seems fair to me too.