Expert: Sylvia Bergthold - 5/2/2006

Question
Sylvia,

I am currently living with a roommate in a 2 bedroom apartment. Both bedrooms are fairly large (same size), decent sized living room (about 1.5 times bigger than a bedroom), small kitchen and small bathroom. We have both equally furnished the apartment.

My roommate is planning on having a friend move in with him (share his room) in a week and a half and stay until the lease is up in 4 months. I have told him that I do not expect to pay fully half of the rent as the apartment will now be shared amongst 3 people.

He claims that because he will only be around “2 weeks out of the month” once his friend moves in and that I should not get much off the rent—I doubt this however as he currently has a full time job in the city. I however work and live with my girlfriend every weekend and as such am gone Friday morning to Monday night. I work days during the week. My roommate's friend will be around pretty much all of the time, except for school.

My roommate tends to socialize often with people at our apartment (I'm not complaining), and his friend is mild mannered, agreeable, and has a steady girlfriend who will visit. I rarely have people over, as I prefer to go out.

The bottom line: It is hard enough with limited fridge and bathroom space.

What do you consider a fair rent percentage for this spilt?

Thank you.

Answer
Hi Stan

The rent is still split two ways.  The utilities are now split THREE ways.

It doesn't matter who lives in the apartment for how long, has guests, goes out, sleeps someplace else, the monthly rent is split evenly for a two bedroom place where the bedrooms are basically the same size. If he had three people sharing his room, it would STILL be split two ways. (of course the utilities would be split four ways).

The ONLY time rent is split unevenly is if the square footage of one bedroom is larger than the other.

My roommate survival guide goes into a lot more details regarding sharing space...cabinets, refrigerator, etc.

Hope this answered your question.
Sincerely
Sylvia Bergthold
www.aroommatesurvivalguide.com