3 bedroom apartment issues - we originally had 3 roomates, but now it's 4

[erikiksaz]

So we have a 3 bedroom apartment. Originally it was myself with two other friends--each person gets their own bedroom. I'll say that rent is 1500 dollars, so it would have been 500 dollars w/o utilities to each person.

BUT

Now there's one more person adding in to the mix. They will share a room with roommate #3. I thought that it'd be best to first split 1500 into 3, which is 500. The #3 and #4 roommates will then split that one third.

BUT

Roommate #2 says that #3 and #4 don't only share a room, they share a house, so they should pay a wee bit more, say 25 dollars more every month.

I generally would agree, but the fact that Roommate #3 was with us when we got the apartment and was just nice enough to allow roommate #4 to crash with him proves to me that changing this would be VERY unfair to him.

Is it fair or unfair?

 

[MikeMike]

I would say, split it up like...

450, 450, 600

then they pay 75$ more, as the 4th person is obviously living there, yet they pay less combined thanthe two of you.

MIKE

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
I would say, split it up like...

450, 450, 600

then they pay 75$ more, as the 4th person is obviously living there, yet they pay less combined thanthe two of you.

MIKE

That makes sense!

 

[kyparrish]

We used to live in a 4 bedroom place back in college. There were 4 of us, but one roomate had a girlfriend who basically lived 6 nights out of 7 in our house. Let's just say that some of the other roommates always resented paying the same amount of rent as the guy who had his girlfriend over. The argument was that she was using up hot water when she took showers, and was using a computer, or watching TV, which theoretically made the power bill go up.

I'd squeak out a little bit more from the combined rent of three and 4, even if it meant letting the original #3 pay ~$250, and the new #4 ~$275 (which would make 1 and 2 rent go down by $12.50/month).

Ah, it's so nice to be out of school and not worrying about crap like this anymore

EDIT: I still think it's completely fair for the first 2 roommates to have to pay a bit more, since they get to have their own room...don't forget, you'll need to kill kittens every once in a while.

 

[dirtboy]

In some ways, it is fair to charge more, in other ways it isn't. Let's say you charged $500/room. If one person had two rooms, it is fair for them to pay $1,000.

I'd be inclinded to leave the rent as it is and divide the utilities by 4. I'm sure two people in one room isn't that great and the 4th person won't be there indefinitely.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

<total rent> / <number of occupants> = <individual rent>

What's so wrong with that?

 

[Pathogen03]

I say 20% over the current charge split between them, plus utilities split by 4. All utilities, power, water, cable, internet.


IE:

If rent is $100(1), $100(2), $100(3)

make it: $90(1), $90(2), $60(3) $60(4)

and all utilities split even.

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: FFMCobalt
<total rent> / <number of occupants> = <individual rent>

What's so wrong with that?

roomate #3 and #4 dont have separate rooms. they share a room and should pay less than the ppl with their own room, but more than if #4 didnt live there.