<p>tl;dr: Our 2BD/1BA apt. will be $2595 a month w/o utils/internet. We have a party of 4. 1 person will have her own room, 2 will share an equally sized room, and 1 will take the living room. How should we split rent?</p>
<p>So our party of 4 found a 2BD/1BA apartment costing $2595 a month not including utilities and internet. Originally it was agreed that we would have 2 to a room, living room shared and all costs split evenly, but now a problem cropped up and we will have one person in the living room, one with their own room, and 2 with a shared room. Now the rent splitting situation is more complicated and we have yet to agree on something we feel is fair to everyone.
Some details about the apt.: The rooms are not very large, and can fit 1 bunk bed and 2 desks snuggly. The living room has a door closing it off to the rest of the house, but it is next to the kitchen and doesn’t have natural lighting.
We want some unbiased opinions on how the rent should be split. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Can the living room be shared for 2, just curious? I assume the living room is bigger than a single room. If this is possible, then those who have single rooms pay equally the same amount, and those share the living room pay a different amount. Eg, 800+800+500+500.</p>
<p>The apt. has 4 rooms: bedroom 1, bedroom 2, living room, and kitchen. Each room is worth 2 units. Each of the “sleeping area” is worth 1 unit for the total of 5 and the common area (kitchen + 1/2 living room) is worth 3 units. There are totally 8 units.</p>
<p>The person taking her own bedroom pays 2 3/4 units (2 sleeping areas and 3/4 for the common area), each of the other three pays 1 3/4 units.</p>
<p>It works out to be 891 + 568 + 568 + 568.</p>
<p>If the living room becomes a bedroom, meaning the person taking the living room has it all for him/herself and noone else can use the living room, then the common area (kitchen) is worth 2 units, shared by everyone. The split is now 2 1/2 + 2 1/2 + 1 1/2 + 1 1/2, or 811 + 811 + 487 + 487.</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m pretty sure the 2 rooms are not identical. The room that will be occupied by two people should have the ‘bigger’/‘better’ room.</li>
<li>It seems that the person who wants to reside in the living room is the reason for all this complication, so I think it is fair to ‘penalize’ him a bit by making him pay the most.</li>
<li>Question: do you must go through the living room to access the kitchen? It sounds like it, but I want to make sure.</li>
</ul>
<p>Case 1: Living room is actually a quite good
Living room guy: $895
Person w/ his own room: $650 or $700
Rest of you: $500 or $525</p>
<p>Case 2: Living room is so-so
Living room guy: $845
Person w/ his own room: $700
rest of you: $525</p>
<p>Case 3: Living room is actually worse than the bedroom
Living room guy: $795 (he should still pay the most assuming he’s responsible for making this issue complicated)
Person w/ his own room: $700~$750
Rest of you: $525~$550</p>
<p>$1K for the master bedroom, larger closet, most privacy and largest space
$500+$500 for shared room
$600 for converted living room- combat pay for putting up with cooking smells, noises when people come in to the apt all times of day and night
To make it fair the room mates should rotate if this rent rate is a hardship
I’d pay to have the 1K room the whole lease maybe one of your room mates feels the same.
My sympathies.
Where is King Solomon when you need him?</p>
<p>I like UpMagic’s calculations (and you can reverse that around for the person who wants the single bedroom if he/she is the culprit haha). However, I think the person who ends up paying the most will complain!</p>
<p>How about you throw the guy in the living room out of the apartment and let me in on this? I can pay 900+ for his space, far more than this troublemaker can ever afford.</p>
<p>Some really good ideas here. It really is an inconvenience for there to be someone in the living room. The living room and the kitchen are connected, but they are closed off from the rest of the house. Now we have the whole matter of the person in the single not wanting to pay more, and the ones in the double not wanting to not be roommates. Fun stuff… Thanks for your inputs!</p>
<p>P.S. How much should we expect utilities to be in the spring vs in the winter for 4 people, and which internet provider/speed should we go with?</p>
<p>While it would be inconvenient for everyone else to have someone living in the living room, I think it would be even more inconvenient for the person who is actually living in the living room (zero privacy), so they should perhaps pay the least?</p>
<p>What if someone needs a drink of water in the middle of the night, or needs some drunk snacks at 2am? That would get old. They essentially do not have a room of their own.</p>
<p>Are either of the two in the double sexually active? If someone wants the room for a night or needs some privacy for a bit, the other roommate would have nowhere to go (no living room).</p>
<p>This sounds like a bad situation. The person in the single does not want to pay more? Is this the first time they have lived in an apartment? Because of course someone in a single needs to pay more!</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot of apartment situations start off complicated and rocky like this, and usually things do NOT get any better. :/</p>
<ul>
<li>One person puts a price on each bed, such that the prices add to the total.</li>
<li>The other three select beds in random order. The one who priced each bed gets the last one.</li>
<li>Anyone unsatisfied with the situation can attempt to trade with anyone else. If the someone else refuses the trade, the unsatisfied one can adjust the price of the two beds (the prices always have to add to the total).</li>
<li>Repeat the previous step until no one wants to trade beds.</li>
</ul>
<p>Out of curiosity, what was the problem that caused you not to be able to have 2 to a room? This does not sound like it’ll end well. If you can still back out of the lease, do so.</p>
<p>Sounds like a bit mess now… GET OUT… I can’t imagine what will happen once you start living with each other… And it’s right, the person who wants the single room should be paying the most out of the 4. What makes him/her think that they’d pay less than everyone else?</p>
<p>Also, $2595 for a 2br/1ba?! I’m in a super nice 2br/1ba duplex on Northside for $1950, and I thought that was a little bit on the pricey side!</p>
<p>Smells like Equity Residential or Library Gardens or something like that…which makes me wonder if you are all currently freshmen and this is your first apartment experience?</p>