The Student Room Group

Awkward second year housing situation :/ (Uni)

Hello,

Me and my friends today went and had out inventory check on our house. Theres four of us and we all get on quite well, its our second year and we all lived together last year. Its 3 guys and a girl (and because she is the girl she apparantly should get the VERY large en suit room with fitted wardrobes)

My issue is, that room is massive, like twice the size of mine, and and en suite on top. The other two rooms are much much larger too. I have the smallest room, and im not usually one to complain - but I begrudge paying the same amount of money (125 a week without bills) for a room that is a third of the size of everyone elses, especially when some of them have en suites...

A lot of my friends are grading the rooms on size and adjusting the rent accordingly... do you think this is a fair thing to propose? If it was only a little bit smaller I wouldnt mind, but it is really quite significantly smaller, and it seems unfair that I should pay the same when im getting a third as much as everyone else :frown:

Do you think this is a fair proposal? My other friends in other houses are adjusting rent on larger rooms accordingly..? Thoughts guys:frown:(
(edited 9 years ago)
Sounds fair enough. Many of the student houses we looked at, the landlord had already stated that the person in the smallest room pays less rent. It's certainly a common occurrence.
It's definitely fair to want to do that. My boyfriend and his housemates did when they moved into a house in 2nd year because one of the rooms was a lot smaller than the others, and they drew names out of a hat (or equivalent) to allocate the rooms, which I think was also fair, especially as one of them thought he was entitled to a bigger room because he'd done more cleaning when they lived together in first year, so you might want to think about doing that too if you haven't moved in properly yet - just because she's the only girl doesn't mean she needs a bigger room! My boyfriend ended up with the smaller room and it was annoying because it was tiny (if there was anything on the floor it was hard to move around the room) but it also saved him a good £12 a week in rent so that outweighed the disadvantages.

Just make sure your housemates are ok with it and discuss it with your landlord because you'll have to get the contract altered - if you've all already signed it it could be too late though, I remember my boyfriend & his housemates didn't sign theirs until it had been rewritten to account for the adjustment :s-smilie:
Reply 3
See we've already signed on 125 a week :/ The thing is we have to pay it as a lump sum, so the fact is we could adjust it ourselves. Our parents came down to brighton with us, and my mum was so angry - especially since the person with the en suite and fitted wardrobes was the one complaining about what shes getting for her money and complaining that it's tight for cash! I blatantly said I would pay more for the en suite, but everyone boo hooed that idea because im the guy and as shes the only girl she should get the en suite...
Original post by Chriswhjay
See we've already signed on 125 a week :/ The thing is we have to pay it as a lump sum, so the fact is we could adjust it ourselves. Our parents came down to brighton with us, and my mum was so angry - especially since the person with the en suite and fitted wardrobes was the one complaining about what shes getting for her money and complaining that it's tight for cash! I blatantly said I would pay more for the en suite, but everyone boo hooed that idea because im the guy and as shes the only girl she should get the en suite...


You could sort it out yourselves then, but I would still talk to your landlord anyway - it should be ok so long as he/she gets all the money but they'd probably want to be told about it. Have you all talked about it together to try and sort it out? If you haven't then do because otherwise there's always going to be a bit of resentment there. Have someone there to mediate the discussion if you don't think it's going to go well.

See to me £125 a week without bills is very expensive, but I think Birmingham is just a cheap place to live as a student & I forget that not everywhere is like that :tongue:
I agree that it's not unreasonable to expect a discounted rent if the difference in room size is that great.

However..

The time to sort that out was really with your landlord and before you signed contracts.

The people you're moving in with are expecting to pay a certain rent, and if the landlord's not willing to budge post-contract signing, then the only way for you to get a cheaper rate is if your housemates agree to pay more than they were expecting to, which is actually rather unfair on them.

I would be annoyed if one of my housemates approached me just after signing a contract to ask if I could pay more rent so that theirs could be reduced because they didn't raise it beforehand.

I personally feel it would cause friendship issues, but that may be a risk you're willing to take and play it as diplomatically as you can.
Stop being such a pushover and demand that you either pay less if you want to stay there or get your money back and live someplace else. Lolz, I swear in two years time these people will be a distant memory.

Just do you boo xoxo.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 7
Yeah, its common where im living in brighton for adjustments on rent because its done on a flat rate, everyone pays x amount for a house. You pay your lump sum all together to an agent, which then gets transferred to the landlord.

Ive spoken to three other houses, all of which have said if someone has a by far bigger room, they should pay more for it - thus lowering everyone elses costs.....

It just seems unfair :/ Especially when this person is complaining about how much the house is when theyre inthe best bedroom of everyone! Urghhh Im sick of living there and i havent even moved in yet :frown:
Reply 8
Original post by DarkWhite
I agree that it's not unreasonable to expect a discounted rent if the difference in room size is that great.

However..

The time to sort that out was really with your landlord and before you signed contracts.

The people you're moving in with are expecting to pay a certain rent, and if the landlord's not willing to budge post-contract signing, then the only way for you to get a cheaper rate is if your housemates agree to pay more than they were expecting to, which is actually rather unfair on them.

I would be annoyed if one of my housemates approached me just after signing a contract to ask if I could pay more rent so that theirs could be reduced because they didn't raise it beforehand.

I personally feel it would cause friendship issues, but that may be a risk you're willing to take and play it as diplomatically as you can.


Thats what im thinking, and i dont want to start the year with a **** load of animosity :/ They were all so awkward about it all, but the fact is we are moving in - and i suggested it before but they all said oh we can discuss that after - now nothings been sorted and im in the small bedrooms basically subsidising the en suite and larger rooms :s-smilie::s-smilie:
Original post by Chriswhjay
Thats what im thinking, and i dont want to start the year with a **** load of animosity :/ They were all so awkward about it all, but the fact is we are moving in - and i suggested it before but they all said oh we can discuss that after - now nothings been sorted and im in the small bedrooms basically subsidising the en suite and larger rooms :s-smilie::s-smilie:


I guess you could open it with, "I remember us saying we could talk about it after..." and then go into it, so that you remind people politely that you raised it as a concern earlier and that they put your mind at ease at the time.

I still think it would cause issues, but it depends on the type of people you're living with I suppose.

Also, I've just realised your rent level - £125 without bills. Where do you study? I'm paying £65/week here with water included and it's only a 5-minute cycle to uni!
Reply 10
Original post by DarkWhite
I guess you could open it with, "I remember us saying we could talk about it after..." and then go into it, so that you remind people politely that you raised it as a concern earlier and that they put your mind at ease at the time.

I still think it would cause issues, but it depends on the type of people you're living with I suppose.

Also, I've just realised your rent level - £125 without bills. Where do you study? I'm paying £65/week here with water included and it's only a 5-minute cycle to uni!


Sussex, and we're living in a good location really near brighton centre
Original post by Chriswhjay
Sussex, and we're living in a good location really near brighton centre


Ouch, I guess I forget how lucky I am to find cheap rents :s
Reply 12
Original post by DarkWhite
Ouch, I guess I forget how lucky I am to find cheap rents :s


damn northerners with their cheap rents.
Original post by Chriswhjay
damn northerners with their cheap rents.


Nottingham is totally midlands :P:
Well it is awkward because this sounds completely unfair however it's like a bit late to rearrange an agreement on rent if you ask me. It really should have been decided before you got your contract, so you could say that you weren't happy to accept a smaller room at the same price and then you could either choose to view other houses or you could cop out of sharing with them. Now everyone is ready to move in soon I imagine, and they all have it in their head they'll be paying a certain amount, it's a little bit iffy for you to try and change it now.

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