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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

Splitting rent

52 replies

Teaforten · 19/06/2018 07:47

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 Wink

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
Teaforten · 19/06/2018 09:53

There is a downstairs loo (just loo) and an upstairs bathroom with shower.

Thanks for the app suggestions- that looks like a fair way to work it all out and a joint bank account might be a good idea. I'll pass all this on to DD.

Maybe she should push back again about the one payment per house requirement. I can see it being miserable and stressful chasing late/ non-payers.

OP posts:
senua · 19/06/2018 10:06

the problem has arisen when it seems their idea of "less" is only £10 a week.

In which case, DD says that she is no longer willing to take the smaller room - for that small a reduction she wants one of the big rooms!

Agree with the proposal for a joint bank account.

OrchidInTheSun · 19/06/2018 10:12

Yes I agree that setting up a joint account is the best idea. She sounds like she's being a bit bullied by the others tbh

LIZS · 19/06/2018 10:21

Ds tells me the 3 doubles paid £415 each , the single £385. One of the doubles was gf.

AsleepAllDay · 19/06/2018 10:26

OP your daughter will be paying about £100 on top for bills, again I caution against her paying so much :(

KirstenRaymonde · 19/06/2018 11:27

If they’re not willing to make a reasonable reduction for the smaller rooms then your DD should say well I want a bigger room then. Taking the small room was to save money, if she won’t be saving there’s no incentive to take the small room and they might as well pick names out of a hat.

senua · 19/06/2018 11:32

if she won’t be saving there’s no incentive to take the small room and they might as well pick names out of a hat.

... and they will rotate rooms every term to make sure that everyone has a good chance of getting the teeny room.

KirstenRaymonde · 19/06/2018 11:43

Yep, moving between semesters would also be fairer

KirstenRaymonde · 19/06/2018 11:44

There’s only 2 semesters (terms) at most universities, so there’s only one chance of a move.

French2019 · 19/06/2018 11:45

The issue isn't really about how the landlord is paid. It's the fact that they will be joint and severally liable. Much better to negotiate individual liability for student lets if at all possible.

Needmoresleep · 19/06/2018 16:27

I am a London LL who sometimes lets to students.

All sounds normal. Lead tenant, single payment. Indeed it is common to expect tenants to pay six months in advance. Both groups of students I have at the moment do.

They have to sort room equality out between them. Your dd should suggest

  1. A reasonable split. Say £100 less for the box room or
  2. they draw straws perhaps rotating each term. (I dont know why pp suggests there are only 2 terms. London Universities almost always have 3.)

When faced with a box room the others might become more generous.

Then set up a bank account for rent and bills. Each might take on one of the bills. Good for their credit records.

Not sure why pp suggests student rooms need to be of a specific size. The house would not pass HMO licensing if rooms were not of a minimum size, but there are no additional rules for student tenancies. Indeed my current tenants will have bought their own desks as I did not provide.

Whether the landlord is happy with another viewing may depend on how good his relations with current tenants are. There is no obligation on.them to allow viewings, regardless of what the contract says. His priority may be to maintain good relations with them.

Needmoresleep · 19/06/2018 16:30

They have about nil.chance of negotiating individual liability. Demand for larger properties in London remains high so tenants are not in a position to negotiate.

Fed · 19/06/2018 16:52

Those prices are eye watering! This should serve as a warning to parents who's DC are looking at London unis.
I've had two through uni in last 5 years, fortunately not London, in every tenancy the tenants paid the LL individually and there have been desks and chairs in each room.
DD currently pays £340 including bills and has a huge room in a nice house.

LIZS · 19/06/2018 17:06

Don't rely on room swapping each term. We had one single, a twin and bed-in-lounge arrangement which was supposed to switch around. Girl in single immediately acquired pt live-in boyfriend and room swaps never happened.

UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea · 19/06/2018 18:17

It doesn't bode well for the house share if they can't agree.

But tbh the bedroom is only one part of the house. Presumably your DD has equal access to the rest of the house?

Sounds like your DD is fixating on room size because she is more financially constrained.

What about this:

Everyone agrees fair prices for each room BEFORE deciding who gets which one.

Names in a hat to decide room allocations.

People can then swap. But prices are the same.

OrchidInTheSun · 19/06/2018 18:37

Also there are 4 of them and only 3 terms.

ZenNudist · 19/06/2018 18:40

Good advice here. Your dd needs to toughen up and say she will go in the draw for full size room. Yy to separate joint account which everyone dds an amount for rent and bills.

We had one of our friends play "mum" and sorted all this. We were incredibly grateful to her and didnt argue. Real nightmare situation for your dd if this goes wrong.

BubblesBuddy · 19/06/2018 21:55

I think this has been brewing for a while and it’s partly because the op’s DD has less money available than the others. It has put a strain on the house share search already, I understand. Therefore if she cannot afford a bigger room, or pay nearer to what they want, the others might flounce off and drop her altogether if they have to pay significantly more to accommodate her. It’s a bit of a tightrope walk.

I thought student landlords in other university cities provided desks. Cannot see why London LLs don’t even if it’s not required. However, if Op’s DD argues too much, she really has everything to lose. £825 - £600 isn’t going to be accepted by the others, I would have thought. The difference is just too big. I forgot there should be communal areas taken into account.

The others might say they don’t need or want a big room, so are not going to pay a premium for it. If she needs to be with these friends, then a bit more negotiation is needed.

Regarding the rent. Everyone pay it into another account. Also use it for bills. Or each student takes responsibility for a bill.

Fortysix · 20/06/2018 20:27

How easy is it for four people to share a bank account? Do many banks offer that facility?

TisNowt · 20/06/2018 22:01

I THINK ...

One advantage of being lead tenant is that you will get the deposit returned to you. This means that you can deduct an money that the other tenets owe you. 😏

HeddaGarbled · 20/06/2018 22:16

I don’t like the sound of this OP. She’s taking on all the liability and risk and they are being difficult and evasive about a fair split of rent. I think she could end up getting shafted.

When I’ve shared in places with vastly different room quality, we’ve all paid equally and swapped rooms each term.

BubblesBuddy · 21/06/2018 19:19

I think most don’t swap rooms. They differentiate with the rent. DD did it twice and no arguments. This seems very difficult to sort and there will have to be compromises. The bottom line is going to be: can the others can find another tenant if the op’s DD walks away? How much do they need her? Enough to negotiate downwards for DD: much more then they have already. She then has to find somewhere cheaper if she cannot accept the rent. And with whom? This may up being very stressful. I guess you have to trust university friends but I don’t think expecting a room to be hundreds cheaper then the others will work.

argumentativefeminist · 21/06/2018 19:29

I have been lead tenant in my group of student housemates this year - it's fine so long as you're organised and make sure everyone knows exactly when they have to pay and you dont take any shit. I set up my own bank account seperate to my day to day spending which they paid into, so I had clear records of all the payments.

Original poster
Teaforten · 22/06/2018 07:02

Update:
Good news: they have all managed to finally agree rent for each room and who is going where having looked at apps, viewed the house again and DD saying that unless there was a bigger difference she would go into the mix for the big rooms. DD's rent is now £25 per week cheaper than a quarter of the total house rent.

Not such good news:
Two of the three others have signed the tenancy agreement and sent DD the full payment of 6 weeks deposit and initial rent ready for the deadline tomorrow. The third girl (who has form and is a year older than the rest) has gone to Europe, says she doesn't have enough and her parents couldn't (wouldn't?) pay. She has signed the agreement though.

The mother of one of the others has now stepped in and paid the lot!!
Yes, I know, I have told DD in no uncertain terms that this is a massive red flag and doesn't bode well for the future and they shouldn't sign and pay.

I hope that this is just an initial blip and all will settle down. I did say discuss with DD that the friends who are fantastic fun in first year may not necessarily be the right ones to live with in second year when it comes to the boring day to day stuff of rent, bills and cleaning but it looks like they may all be learning that the hard way.

OP posts:
TisNowt · 22/06/2018 08:29

The room spilt seems fair. 650 rather than 750.Smile

However the forth tenent not paying is very worrying. She must have known the rent was coming up 🙀🙀🙀

Hopefully it will all work out ok and that it's just her being a bit flakey but I'd be nervous.