Expert: Sylvia Bergthold - 2/27/2006

Question
Hi Sylvia,

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my friend and my boyfriend.  My friend has her own room and my boyfriend and I share a room.  Her rent is paid with a housing scholarship that is paid directly to the landlord.  Our total rent is $895.  It was $845, but when my boyfriend moved in the landlord raised the rent by $50.  

We are not on a lease; we pay month-to-month.  All I've seen as far as paper work goes is an application where my roommate put her name down as the tenant, and she added me as the co-tenant.  She signed the bottom of it, but it really wasn't any type of formal agreement.  All it had was names, jobs, and references. I'm pretty sure there was no formal agreement she signed.  My boyfriend wasn't on the application, but the landlord is aware that he is living here.

As far as dividing the rent and utilities goes, my roommate wants to split everything in thirds.  Even though she wouldn't get any of her scholarship money back because it is paid directly to the landlord, she wants my boyfriend and I to pay her the difference if we split everything up into thirds.  Utilities are about $250/month, so in thirds would be about $83.00.  And the rent split into thirds would be about $300/month.  So her portion would be $383, and she wants us to pay her the difference between $490, her scholarship amount, and $383.  

My boyfriend and I don't think it's fair, so my boyfriend told her that he would pay he could only pay her $50.  He and I both don't think we should have to pay, but just to please her demanding self, he decided to give her about half of what she wanted.  But she desperately needs money right now so she told him that she will find another roommate.  In other words, she wants us to move out if we don't give her the money.  But this will not solve her problem.   If she were to get a roommate, everything would be split in half, so she would end up paying money out of her own pocket for the utilities.  

She is the main person on the application, but can she just kick us out when she wants?  She acts like this is her place and we rent it from her.  Another thing, her boyfriend is here every day, comes and goes at the same time she does, keeps his food in our fridge, showers here, stays here and sleeps while she goes to her morning classes, uses her computer and tv, and washes his clothes here.

I read a comment you posted to another girl about a similar issue and you said rent should be in half since there's two rooms and utilities should be in thirds.  If I followed your guidelines, she would owe us money.  But then again, she would use the excuse that she doesn't even want cable or internet, as she did before when we talked about this issue.  I think we are doing her a favor by paying the remainder of the rent, $405, and $250 for utilities and don't think we should have to pay her any money.

Please help me resolve this issue fairly!

Thank you,

Lisa

Answer
Hi Lisa

Since you (and your boyfriend) never signed anything with the landlord, and your roommate is the only one written on the lease, she is in one sense the boss.  You and your boyfriend are subletters.

Now as I have previously mentioned, rent is split by bedrooms. So the rent should be split in half with your boyfriend paying the landlord the extra $50 that the landlord tacked on when he moved in.

The utilities should be split FOUR ways.  Her boyfriend needs to start paying HIS share of the utilities because he basically has taken up residency in the apartment. He is using the water and electricity just like the rest of you.

She does have the authority to kick you out because she is the only one on the lease agreement. She needs to give you a WRITTEN 30 day notice to vacate.  Of course as you pointed out, this will NOT solve her financial problems but that is her problem NOT yours.  AND....technically, IF you decided to pay  the extra 1/3, you should send the money to the scholarship people because they are still paying 1/2 instead of 1/3. Or notify them that the amount has changed and they should not be paying the 1/2, just the 1/3.

I also think that this friendship is going down the toilet in a hurry.  As you are probably aware if you have read any of the postings in this column, the number one rule in my Roommate Survival Guide is NEVER roommate with a friend.  If you cherish this friendship, I suggest that you and your boyfriend find another place to live because I don't feel this arrangement is good for you or your roommate.

Hope this helped some.

Sincerely
Sylvia Bergthold
www.aroommatesurvivalguide.com