I am sharing a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with 3 other people. Therefore a total of four people will be living here. Two people will share the master bed room and the 2 remaining people will have their own rooms (smaller rooms).

The apartment is 1600sq at a rate of $1795 a month. The master bedroom (closest and bathrooms) is a total of 312sq. The two remaining rooms are 200sq each. I divided the rent by the sq feet to determine a price per sq foot: 1795/1600 = $1.2 per square foot.

Therefore, I multiplied the sq footage of all rooms by the price per sq foot in order to determine the price of each room:
Master:312x1.2= $380.64
Bd 1: 180x1.2=$219.00
Bd 2: 180x1.2=$219.00

I then added the totals of all rooms which came out to: $818.64

Then, I took the total rent price and subtracted it by the total room price in order to get the total common area price: $1795-$818.64=$976.36

Now, here is my problem: Should I divide the common area sum by the number of people in the apartment (similar to utilities) because everyone is allowed equal rights to these areas (living room, kitchen, etc), or should I divide the sum by the number of rooms thereby paying a set price per room + 1/3 of the common area; therefore paying more for private space

If I were to divide it by the number of people (4) the common area distribution would be $244.09 each person. Thus the totals would be:
Master = $380.64/2 (this number is divided by 2 since it is being shared)= $190.32 per person.
Thus, each individual will pay:
Person 1: $190.32+$244.09= $434.41
Person 2: $190.32+$244.09= $434.41
Person 3: $216.00+$244.09= $460.09
Person 4: $216.00+$244.09= $460.09

This turns out to be a 24%--24%--26%--26% split. Therefore, there is only a 2% extra cost for having private space. This seems unfair for the 2 people sharing the master bedroom. But it seems more fair for the 2 people with their own rooms.

On the other hand. By using the second method and dividing the common area price by the number of rooms (3), the total per room is $325.45 + the price of the room. Therefore, there are three rooms, each with a total net worth:
Master=$380.64+$325.45=$706.09 Total price for room
Bdrm1=$216.00+$325.45=$541.45 Total price for room
Bdrm2=$216.00+$325.45=$541.45 Total price for room
Thus, each individual will then pay:
Person 1:$353.04 (Half the master)
Person 2:$353.04 (Half the master)
Person 3:$541.45
Person 4:$541.45

This turns out to be an 20%--20%--30%--30% split. Therefore, there is a 10% extra cost for having private space. This seems unfair for the 2 people having their own rooms. But it seems more fair for the 2 people sharing the master bedroom.

My questions for you is this: Which method do you think is the most fair and why?

I made a small typo on the first few lines. I meant to say that the two other bedrooms are 180sq feet each not 200. The 180sq feet was used for the calculation, I merely stated it incorrectly at first.

Sorry for any confusion.

Wow, that question made my head hurt... and I deal with numbers like that all day long!

I can not fault the way you are going about this.. but you are doing it more like an commercial lease agreement or a rental approach to value of complex property. Both of which are way too complected for this situation In my opinion.

You should ask your potential roommates what is fair. You can slice and dice the property 100 different ways, but you need their input here.

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Originally Posted by Xyzpdq0121

Wow, that question made my head hurt... and I deal with numbers like that all day long!

I can not fault the way you are going about this.. but you are doing it more like an commercial lease agreement or a rental approach to value of complex property. Both of which are way too complected for this situation IMHO.

You should ask your potential roommates what is fair. You can slice and dice the property 100 different ways, but you need their input here.

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Sorry for sounding difficult. The deal is this, 2 roomates (the ones living separately) want to split the common area by people. The other 2 roomates want to split it by rooms. I don't want to say what group I am in, in order to reduce the number of biased responses. But I just want some peoples opinions so that I can better argue for one of these options. And if more people agree on the opposite one, well maybe I will realize the option I like is, in reality, more unfair.

All I want is the most fair option.

Are the two people sharing the master related (married, BF/GF, siblings)?

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Originally Posted by Xyzpdq0121

Are the two people sharing the master related (married, BF/GF, siblings)?

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Both are Bf and girlfriend, however, everyone in the apartment wants to have their own room including the couple. The two other people asked if the couple can live together because they cannot afford a 4 bedroom. Thus, the couple is moving into the master together for financial sake. However, we have discussed this issue, and believe that the couple thing will not play a part in determining pricing situation. It is a unanimous agreement that all individuals will be treated as separate persons. Therefore, making this a most objective process. Thus, everyone will be treated as having no relation to one another (this is a unanimous agreement so please abstain from bias when providing your opinions; thanks!)

Well, I deal with this stuff all day long but "fair" is in the eye of the person having to agree to the rules.

What I would do is:

Take the 1,795 sqft and divide it by the total sqft of the private areas. $1,795 / 672 Sqft = $2.67 per private area. That leaves each of the 180 sqft rooms paying $480.85 and the master paying $833.30. Common areas are shared and thus should not be calculated.

You left out, what I assume is, a shared bathroom between the smaller rooms. This space should be added at 1/2 the space of the total area and divided into the cost of the other two rooms. So lets say that this bathroom is 100sqft. This would make each roommate having a total "private" area of 180 + 50 sqft and thus a rate of $2.33 per sqft. Each roommate in the smaller rooms would pay $535.90 and the master would pay $726.96. With this, you might end up over paying your rent by about $3 or so because of the .005 rounding but then you either a) put that money in a sink fund for toilet paper or something else you need like repairs when you move out or b) give a rebate back each month.

This is the most fair way to do it. But common areas do not need to be part of the equation since they are shared between all people in the unit and are needed to live in the unit. (A kitchen is a must and can not be separated out of the unit.)

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Originally Posted by nhlgoducks

Both are Bf and gf, however, everyone in the apartment wants to have their own room including the couple. The two other people asked if the couple can live together because they cannot afford a 4 bedroom. Thus, the couple is moving into the master together for financial sake. However, we have discussed this issue, and believe that the couple thing will not play a part in determining pricing situation. It is a unanimous agreement that all individuals will be treated as separate persons. Therefore, making this a most objective process. Thus, everyone will be treated as having no relation to one another (this is a unanimous agreement so please abstain from bias when providing your opinions; thanks!)

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In this case, you need to figure out the price of the master (as stated above) and then divide that price by the two people living in that area.

I think the first option is more fair because each person will have equal access to the common area regardless of the sleeping arrangements. So in my opinion, it makes sense to divide that portion up equally amongst the roommates.

The second method is almost like "double taxation"- in a way, 2 of the roomies are paying one premium for the room (which is smaller) and paying a second time for having a private room. That doesn't seem fair.

It seems simplest to for each person to pay for the square footage of their room (or shared bedroom in the case of the bf/gf) and then to pay equally for the common area.

The first question I have is who is on the lease and/or who owns the unit?

If you are going to go to the lengths you have to calculate a fair division of the rent, then choose one method and stick to it. But the person who is responsible for the unit makes the decisions.

^^^ He is right, I assumed that each person is on the lease (and should be) but that might not be the case.

Listen, You are making this way more complicated then it needs to be. Your option one accounts for the fact that two people are sharing one room, and thus a concession of 2% is granted to them. From a legal aspect, the common areas are just that, common areas. The bedrooms can not exist without the common areas and the unit can not exist without the common areas. So as such, the common areas do not need to be part of the formula, just the private areas. That is the master bes, the master bath, each additional bedroom and bathroom associated with the additional bedrooms. That is it.

If you are being this way about the price per sqft then I hate to see how you are going to divide up the fridge!! ("Your 2% milk takes more energy to cool then my soy milk, and if the cost to cool is $.25 per degree then you owe $.63 in additional energy costs... But wait, my milk was in there longer then your milk so maybe we should divide by the total time the milk was in the fridge and multiply that by the time that the door stayed open....")

Seriously, unless someone is sleeping on the couch as their room or unless the GF is changing rooms in the middle of the night (which makes for a whole different set of concessions), then you just need to worry about the rent per area of private space.

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Originally Posted by Xyzpdq0121

Well, I deal with this stuff all day long but "fair" is in the eye of the person having to agree to the rules.

What I would do is:

Take the 1,795 sqft and divide it by the total sqft of the private areas. $1,795 / 672 Sqft = $2.67 per private area. That leaves each of the 180 sqft rooms paying $480.85 and the master paying $833.30. Common areas are shared and thus should not be calculated.

You left out, what I assume is, a shared bathroom between the smaller rooms. This space should be added at 1/2 the space of the total area and divided into the cost of the other two rooms. So lets say that this bathroom is 100sqft. This would make each roommate having a total "private" area of 180 + 50 sqft and thus a rate of $2.33 per sqft. Each roommate in the smaller rooms would pay $535.90 and the master would pay $726.96. With this, you might end up over paying your rent by about $3 or so because of the .005 rounding but then you either a) put that money in a sink fund for toilet paper or something else you need like repairs when you move out or b) give a rebate back each month.

This is the most fair way to do it. But common areas do not need to be part of the equation since they are shared between all people in the unit and are needed to live in the unit. (A kitchen is a must and can not be separated out of the unit.)

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This is actually very helpful and I appreciate your time! I do have a few questions, however:

1) How did you get the $2.33/sqft? I'm confused because you said $2.67/sqft at first.

2) This biggest disagreement here, as I am sure you know, is the common area split. My question for you is: Since the common area is shared by all people, shouldn't the square footage of the common area then be split by all people? (Is this based upon the notion that if it is not private area then it should not be included?)

3) In the end this will turn out to be a 20%--20%--30%--30% split (this is after the master is divided by 2) Is this a fair split? If yes, why?

4) Thank you for your help! You do not have to answer this question, but I would like to reference you when discussing this with the group. Since you said you "deal with this stuff all day long," could you tell me if this is related to your job? Like I said, you do not need to answer this question if you feel uncomfortable in any way!

Thanks for the help!

Everyone is on the lease.

Also, I know how anal this argument is. But certain people (not me) have to have it precise. Forgive me for any frustration this might cause.

Also, none of us owns the place, we are renting the apartment from a real estate place.

Then tell the landlord to figure it out. This should be negotiated as part of the lease, not between the tenants. The landlord can just say divide the rent by 4 and that's it.

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Originally Posted by nhlgoducks

This is actually very helpful and i appreciate your time! I do have a few questions, however:

NP, I just recieved great help from someone on here and thought I would return the favor.

1) How did you get the $2.33/sqft? I'm confused because you said $2.67/sqft at first.

The $2.33 is a hypothetical since you did not give the sqft of the shared bathroom. I assumed it was somewhere in the area of 100sqft. If you can give me the sqft of the bathroom, I would be more then happy to run some real numbers. The $2.67 was off of the numbers you provided. (180 sqft for each small bedroom and 312 sqft for the master bed and bath.

2) This biggest disagreement here, as I am sure you know, is the common area split. My question for you is: Since the common area is shared by all people, shouldn't the square footage of the common area then be split by all people? (Is this based upon the notion that if it is not private area then it should not be included?)

It really should not matter since each person will just pay the sum of the parts. Since the common area should be shared by all people equally, why do you even need to worry about it?!? Each person will have the same rights to that area correct?!? It is not like you are saying that three of the roommates get to cook in the kitchen twice a week and the fourth only once a week. Not to get to technical but it gets into the bundle of rights theories of real estate and the gross rent multipliers for a property. Believe me, if rent were ever to be challenged in court at a later time, picking apart rent for common areas would be the first thing I would do.

3) In the end this will turn out to be a 20%--20%--30%--30% split (this is after the master is divided by 2) Is this a fair split? If yes, why?

Get me numbers for that bathroom, then we will break it down.

4) Thank you for your help! You do not have to answer this question, but I would like to reference you when discussing this with the group. Since you said you "deal with this stuff all day long," could you tell me if this is related to your job? Like I said, you do not need to answer this question if you feel uncomfortable in any way!

No, I have no problem stating what I do. I am a real estate appraiser by trade, currently I contract out to the FBI, Department of Consumer Affairs, and the State Atty General of Georgia as a mortgage fraud investigator and court expert witness. And I am going through the confirmation process right now to be candidate for an appointed as the Assistant Secretary for the Department of HUD for the South East Region.

Thanks for the help!

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See the above red text...

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Originally Posted by Xyzpdq0121

See the above red text...

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Thank you so much! The shared bathroom for the other two individuals is 40sq feet total.

Also, out of curiosity, if no rooms have a bathroom, and there is one shared bathroom, should we just call that common area and disregard it from the equation?

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Originally Posted by nhlgoducks

Thank you so much! The shared bathroom for the other two individuals is 40sq feet total.

Also, out of curiosity, if no rooms have a bathroom, and there is one shared bathroom, should we just call that common area and disregard it from the equation?

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Wow, that is a small bathroom! :) Ok lets get to the numbers first:

180 sqft + 20 sqft (half the bathroom space) = 200 sqft

So the total private area in the unit is 712 sqft. $1,795 / 712 is $2.52 per private sqft.

200 x 2.52 = 504.00
312 x 2.52 = 786.24

So your total contribution toward rent (504 + 504 + 786.24) is $1,794.24. So tack on an additional $.19 from each person.

Person 1 in the smaller room pays $504.19.
Person 2 in the smaller room pays $504.19.
Person 3 in the master pays $393.31.
Person 4 in the master pays $393.31.
For a sum of $1,795

Yes person #3 and #4 pay smaller amounts but they share a common space. So what if they are BF and GF, you want to treat each person as equal and as such, you have to grant a concession to them for not having a "private" space like the two smaller rooms do. In this example, the two smaller rooms are more desirable then the master on a price per sqft of personal space approach. Unless the GF is hot, then you might charge the guy more because he gets to share a room with her, but that is a different conversation! :) But if the two are treated as separate and equal, then the space they share is discounted and the bundle of rights in that room, and for that room, are on different terms then the two smaller rooms.

As for the bathroom, Yes, an argument can be made that since anyone can use that bathroom it could be considered common area. But in that case anyone can technically use the master bath too, albeit by going through the master bedroom. The primary use of that bathroom is by the two smaller rooms and thus the "ownership" goes to the two smaller bathrooms. Now, you could say that guests use that bathroom too and that means the guests of the people using the master bedroom will be using that bathroom and thus the people in that master bedroom should pay for part of that space. I can tell you you are splitting hairs at that point and if the people you are sharing the space with want to split hairs that much, you should look for different roommates! If that is a problem, then the guests of the people in the master bedroom MUST make their guests use the master bathroom (and the roommates in the master must ALWAYS use the master bath) or the two people in the smaller rooms must just get over it!

But in your question you said "Also, out of curiosity, if no rooms have a bathroom, and there is one shared bathroom, should we just call that common area and disregard it from the equation?". In that example, then the bathroom is shared equally among each person and is needed to make the whole space livable and thus would be common area to all involved. At that point you could leave it out of the formula as common area, because that is what it would be. Now, if you start asking if "person one should pay more because she has long hair and person two does not and thus uses more time in the bathroom", then I am leaving this conversation! :)

So to get back to your % that you are trying to break it down by...

Smaller rooms would make up 28.1% of the rent and the master would make up 21.9% (rounded to the nearest .1% and the master is calculated by person.) So you are giving a 6.2% concession to the people sharing a room for the inconvenience of having to share a room with another person. This this is too much?! Then either: A) you share a room with the GF or B) divide the rent by 25% and make everything equal. There is really no other way to split it up!

I am married... believe me, I would pay an additional 6.2% on my mortgage to have a room separate then my wife!! ;)

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Originally Posted by Xyzpdq0121

Wow, that is a small bathroom! :) Ok lets get to the numbers first:

180 sqft + 20 sqft (half the bathroom space) = 200 sqft

So the total private area in the unit is 712 sqft. $1,795 / 712 is $2.52 per private sqft.

200 x 2.52 = 504.00
312 x 2.52 = 786.24

So your total contribution toward rent (504 + 504 + 786.24) is $1,794.24. So tack on an additional $.19 from each person.

Person 1 in the smaller room pays $504.19.
Person 2 in the smaller room pays $504.19.
Person 3 in the master pays $393.31.
Person 4 in the master pays $393.31.
For a sum of $1,795

Yes person #3 and #4 pay smaller amounts but they share a common space. So what if they are BF and GF, you want to treat each person as equal and as such, you have to grant a concession to them for not having a "private" space like the two smaller rooms do. In this example, the two smaller rooms are more desirable then the master on a price per sqft of personal space approach. Unless the GF is hot, then you might charge the guy more because he gets to share a room with her, but that is a different conversation! :) But if the two are treated as separate and equal, then the space they share is discounted and the bundle of rights in that room, and for that room, are on different terms then the two smaller rooms.

As for the bathroom, Yes, an argument can be made that since anyone can use that bathroom it could be considered common area. But in that case anyone can technically use the master bath too, albeit by going through the master bedroom. The primary use of that bathroom is by the two smaller rooms and thus the "ownership" goes to the two smaller bathrooms. Now, you could say that guests use that bathroom too and that means the guests of the people using the master bedroom will be using that bathroom and thus the people in that master bedroom should pay for part of that space. I can tell you you are splitting hairs at that point and if the people you are sharing the space with want to split hairs that much, you should look for different roommates! If that is a problem, then the guests of the people in the master bedroom MUST make their guests use the master bathroom (and the roommates in the master must ALWAYS use the master bath) or the two people in the smaller rooms must just get over it!

But in your question you said "Also, out of curiosity, if no rooms have a bathroom, and there is one shared bathroom, should we just call that common area and disregard it from the equation?". In that example, then the bathroom is shared equally among each person and is needed to make the whole space livable and thus would be common area to all involved. At that point you could leave it out of the formula as common area, because that is what it would be. Now, if you start asking if "person one should pay more because she has long hair and person two does not and thus uses more time in the bathroom", then I am leaving this conversation! :)

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Thank you for your generous help! I am sure this will help in making a decision!

This makes it a 22%--22%--28%--28% split, so it seems that it will average at around 20-20-30-30. Is 10% a good pay difference for private space?

I promise this is my last question!

Thanks again!