Hi,
I am sharing a place together with a couple. Its a 2 bedroom apartment
and during the week only the girl is here, on weekends and during his
holidays the guy life's here as well. We've always shared everything
50/50 but since the guy moved in now I think that is not quite fair
anymore. Is there a general rule / law about how rent and other costs
should be distributed. Say if they'd both be there the whole time,
would it be everything by 3, or rent 40/60 and bills by 3, or what
else would be sensible?
thanks tons for help!

This is based on the idea that he's living there permanently.

In a nutshell, there is no law about this.

When my clients ask me about this my usual advice is to consider it
from both sides. It hardly seems fair to be paying 2/3 of the rent
when you are only occupying one bedroom, (especially in this case,
when he's only occupying it some of the time.)

It is often easiest to think of the rent as half for the bedroom and
half for the use of communal areas so if the flat is £600 then a nice
way to divide it would be

Bedroom 1 = £150
Bedroom 2 = £150
Use of rest of house = £300 /3 people = £100 each

So It would be Single person = £250
Couple = £350 between them

Bills should basically always be divided by the number of people
because that is what dictates use (number of showers etc).

siobhan.mcsorley@gmail.com wrote:
> This is based on the idea that he's living there permanently.
> 
> In a nutshell, there is no law about this.
> 
> When my clients ask me about this my usual advice is to consider it
> from both sides. It hardly seems fair to be paying 2/3 of the rent
> when you are only occupying one bedroom, (especially in this case,
> when he's only occupying it some of the time.)
> 
> It is often easiest to think of the rent as half for the bedroom and
> half for the use of communal areas so if the flat is £600 then a nice
> way to divide it would be
> 
> Bedroom 1 = £150
> Bedroom 2 = £150
> Use of rest of house = £300 /3 people = £100 each
> 
> So It would be Single person = £250
> Couple = £350 between them
> 
> Bills should basically always be divided by the number of people
> because that is what dictates use (number of showers etc).
> 


There's a couple of flaws with that calculation (nice though it is).

If I was part of the couple I'd argue that we were much more self 
contained than the single bloke, and thus less likely to have friends 
around making use of/damaging the facilities. We'd also be more likely 
to be in the bedroom watching tv, than in the living room.

Also, bills are NOT as clear cut as an equal share each, couples 
generally cook for two at the same cost as cooking for one, share a bed 
and thus use less heating per person than one, share baths and showers 
;-) etc etc.

The important thing is this sort of agreement SHOULD be made at original 
move-in time, rather than trying to fix a problem when it occurs.

Blah wrote:
> siobhan.mcsorley@gmail.com wrote:
>> This is based on the idea that he's living there permanently.
>>
>> In a nutshell, there is no law about this.
>>
>> When my clients ask me about this my usual advice is to consider it
>> from both sides. It hardly seems fair to be paying 2/3 of the rent
>> when you are only occupying one bedroom, (especially in this case,
>> when he's only occupying it some of the time.)
>>
>> It is often easiest to think of the rent as half for the bedroom and
>> half for the use of communal areas so if the flat is £600 then a nice
>> way to divide it would be
>>
>> Bedroom 1 = £150
>> Bedroom 2 = £150
>> Use of rest of house = £300 /3 people = £100 each
>>
>> So It would be Single person = £250
>> Couple = £350 between them
>>
>> Bills should basically always be divided by the number of people
>> because that is what dictates use (number of showers etc).
>>
> 
> 
> There's a couple of flaws with that calculation (nice though it is).
> 
> If I was part of the couple I'd argue that we were much more self 
> contained than the single bloke, and thus less likely to have friends 
> around making use of/damaging the facilities. We'd also be more likely 
> to be in the bedroom watching tv, than in the living room.

I don't actually see why that is likely.  It could be the case that the 
couple brings two sets of friends into the equation.

> Also, bills are NOT as clear cut as an equal share each, couples 
> generally cook for two at the same cost as cooking for one, share a bed 
> and thus use less heating per person than one, share baths and showers 
> ;-) etc etc.
> 
> The important thing is this sort of agreement SHOULD be made at original 
> move-in time, rather than trying to fix a problem when it occurs.

Absolutely.  Presumably the boyfriend arrived on the scene later.  At 
that point it would have been courteous of the girlfriend to negotiate 
the division.

Whose names are on the rental agreement and are you jointly and 
severally liable?  If so there is no expectation of a 'legal' 
apportionment of rent.

fabian.conrad@gmail.com's wild thoughts were released on
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:05:05 +0100 bearing the following fruit:

>Hi,
>I am sharing a place together with a couple. Its a 2 bedroom apartment
>and during the week only the girl is here, on weekends and during his
>holidays the guy life's here as well. We've always shared everything
>50/50 but since the guy moved in now I think that is not quite fair
>anymore. Is there a general rule / law about how rent and other costs
>should be distributed. Say if they'd both be there the whole time,
>would it be everything by 3, or rent 40/60 and bills by 3, or what
>else would be sensible?
>thanks tons for help!

Has this third person signed a rent agreement with the
landlord?


--
Jan Hyde (VB MVP)

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde