Expert: Sarah - 1/20/2007

Question
Hi--
We are splitting a 4 bedroom apartment by 6 people. Four of these people will be sharing rooms (2 occupants in a room), and 2 girls will get single bedrooms.  All of the bedrooms are relatively the same size.  Rent is 4,000 a month- should each bedroom be 1,000 a month, and then for the girls splitting the bedroom, should each pay 500? Utilities will be split evenly amongst the 6 of us. Thanks

Answer
Hi
Yes it is normal for rent to be "by the room" rather than per person.
However if the rooms being shared are bigger than the rooms that will be occupied by a single person then it would be normal to charge more for the bigger rooms.  A certain portion of the rent must also be taken into account for the fact that they will have equal access to the kitchen/bathroom and other facilities.
If all the rooms are approximately the same size or the shared rooms are only slightly bigger then I would suggest that it would be fair to have those sharing pay 600 per month each and those not sharing pay 800 per month each.
Sarah