AIBU in how I suggested we split rent?

[Storkpelican]

For context we are in a houseshare. There are 3 rooms: one at 9.9 (with a double bed that nobody wants), a room at 11.1m2 and a room at 13m2. Jess, Elle and I are all friends. Previously there was some drama deciding rooms and rent which I won't dive into where Elle moved into the 11.1m2 room ignoring the idea of spinning a wheel to allocate rooms as she had a chronic condition which would make the 9.9m2 room "unliveable". I won't dive into this so much but Elle said she was out of line to me privately. Jess also had to move in and ended up taking the 13m^2 room.

When I raised we should talk about splitting rent, Elle said she would pay £600 and the rest should be worked out amongst Jess and I which I protested. I used this formula:

((Communal space/ 3) + room size) multiply by rent/ square metre to decide how much rent each person pays coming out to £550 for the smaller room and £650 for the larger room.

Jess who had been quiet on the chat the whole time said that she would pay £630 max as last year she had a room much smaller than mine and paid £595/ month so she thought I should pay a lot more. I sent her my working out and she replied she didn't think it was fair and my method only considered floorspace. She didn't find it fair she had to pay £50 more than Elle as she didn't have a desk (despite having a baywindow, a sofa, a coffee table) and me having neither of those things.

The past 3 days had been rough for me because everything I said something both of them would act like I was out of line (and Elle and her boyfriend expected me to go into my medical history as to why I would not thrive in a smaller room as according to them my issues could not be worse than Elle's) so agreed to pay £570 (which would be the minimum rent for my room according to Jess). I don't know if I was being unreasonable so I wanted to hear your thoughts. I definitely will not room with them and see the yealg £240 as a penalty for being too trusting.

The algorithm is a bit arbitrary because floor space isn’t everything but the figures you got sound fair to me - if you want a bigger room with better features, you should pay for it! If they don’t want to pay more, they can swap rooms with you 🤷🏼‍♀️

They sound like CFs to me

Rooms should be drawn out of a hat with larger room charged the most and smaller room charged the least.

We decided on the price of the rooms, then drew lots to see how for 1st then 2nd choice. Some folk chose the cheaper room over “the best” room.

Honestly, you should have sorted this when you viewed the property and definitely before you moved in. If I've understood it correctly, you in the smallest room are paying £570pcm, the mid-sized room £600pcm, and the biggest £630pcm. That seems fair. The smallest room at 9.9 m2 isn't really that small, but if you can't eg fit a desk or wardrobe in, then it's fair that those go in a communal area. But my advice to you, as someone I think older than you who has had many many flatmates over many many years, is that you all have to live together for I'm guessing a year. Let this go, move on and it'll be a much more enjoyable year.

I would start with no one assigned to a room.

have each person place a value on each room that sums up to the required rent using whatever method they want. It can be completely random and have no logic. It just needs to add up to the correct total.

then use a linear regression to determine the rent for the 3 rooms based upon the valuations provided.

one of two things is likely to happen. Either the rooms will all get valued relatively closely or someone will realize this method is open to manipulation if they are willing to take a risk. It’s possible to get the smallest and largest rooms valued fairly far apart even if the person does not value them that way.

now the fun begins. Draw rooms at random. The default is everyone gets their room at the assigned price. There is nothing stopping people from negotiating though. How much of an adjustment in rent will it take to get someone to switch rooms. This is when the true value of the rooms will be revealed.

Thank you. I proposed that before we moved in we sprtes out rooms using a spin the wheel/ name out of the hat whixh Jess agrees and bwfore rhis decide on how rent is split. "Elle" decided to go against what Jess and I voted for because she thought that as she had a chronic condition (which was more important than the chronic condition I disclosed during this conversation for her according to her) she moved in and then said she would pay £600.

The 9.9m^2 room despite not being small is smaller than the other rooms and lacks many of the "features" that come with the other room which I outlines above. Additionally, I have no space for an airer or a desk.

What Is in the tenancy agreement, as unless they others agree then that’s what stands?
or do room swaps every month.

Gosh what a lot of drama already, not sure how well this flatshare is going to go OP. TBH when I was flat sharing back in the day we always just split the rent evenly regardless of who had the bigger room and drew straws for the ‘better’ rooms, or sometimes the guys would offer to take the smaller rooms as they had less clothes, but if the others weren’t willing to take the chance of ending up with the smaller room I can see why you want to pay less rent. You should have agreed all this upfront though or otherwise not picked a flat with different size rooms. Im also struggling to see what chronic health conditions has to do with the size of the room.

I think this is how you rely to comments? Yes she has a chronic pain condition which means she should get a larger room as the smallest room (which she repeatedly said I should get as I am moving into later) would be inhabitable. She said she needs a larger room whilst I only want it I don't expect anything for my conditions but I told her that I also have some needs and it's unfair she is pushing me into the larger room. She and her boyfriend called up Jess telling her they expect me to prove it...

Apparently because I was annoyed and did not automatically say she can have a larger room I am a bully and will ignore me. Jess is busy comforting Elle as Elle said she was hurt Jess agreed with me even though Jess said that she thought Ellie was bullying me. After I talked about rent and Jess told me she didn't want to pay much she wrote a message saying we need to be kind.

Anyway sorry that's some backstory. I can't believe suggesting that we toss a coin to assign rooms caused this much trouble.

Split the rent 3 ways?

Don’t move in. Sounds like a nightmare and you don’t get on very well.
would you be happy to pay £650 for the largest room?

There is too much disparity in the rooms. The rent splitting equally would also only be fair if the rooms were allocated by chance however the fact Elle moved into whichever room she wanted meant we had to do rent splitting.

Yeah I would if I had the money. Since I don't, I took the smallest room.

@Storkpelican but it’s not just room you’re getting it’s the whole place kitchen, bathroom, living area etc

Yep which is why I also considered communal space. I divided the communal space by 3 then added on my room size.