The Student Room Group

What's the fairest way to share rooms in this house?

So me and 5 others (we are 3 boys, 3 girls) have a house for next year. Unfortunately there's significant disagreement on how the rooms should be shared.

The rooms are as follows:

Room 1: Ground floor, spacious, room for double bed, well lit.
Room 2: Ground floor, okay size, room for double bed, well lit.
Room 3: 1rst floor, less than okay size, single bed room only, awkward shape, not well lit.
Room 4: 2nd floor, spacious, room for double bed, not well lit.
Room 5: 2nd floor, spacious, room for double bed, well lit.
Room 6: 2nd floor, very cramped, single bed room only, well lit.
Sitting Room: 2nd floor, very spacious, room for double bed, well lit.

As it stands, the girls all say they should have the double beds as they have boyfriend's and we are all single. One girl says she should get a ground floor room as she is still recovering from some walking impediment or other that left her on crutches. And I've suggested that I need a room that has enough room for a desk big enough to do my large scale drawings required for my coursework. The other two guys unsurprisingly seem unenthusiastic about the two smaller rooms.

While I think that one person wanting a ground floor room due to their walking difficulties is fair enough, I think everyone else (myself included) making various excuses to get a big room is a bit lame. I get that it's uncomfortable sharing a single bed with your boyfriend, but it's also uncomfortable having to live in a tiny room all year. The same goes for my large scale drawings (yes it's uncomfortable doing them on a tiny desk, but it's also uncomfortable to get stuck in the tiny room all year just because you're not on a design based course.)

I personally would be happy in any room but the tiny one, and have been trying to think of some fairer ways of sharing the rooms out.

- Get the people in the larger rooms to pay more than those in smaller rooms. Seems an obvious good decision, regardless of who ends up where, but the two girls living in cheaper accomodation than the rest of us at the moment would be bound to complain.
- Bid for the rooms. Again, complaints would be made.
- I suggested swapping the sitting room with the tiny room, making another spacious bedroom. We've all survived fine this year without a sitting room, and while everyone complained at this idea, it's very easy to complain about losing your sitting room when you know that you won't be the one who gets stuck with the **** room. If someone wants to keep the sitting room, they should volunteer for the smaller room. This idea would work best in conjunction with varied rents, to reward anyone who would take the smaller room to keep the sitting room.

Has anyone got any other ideas on how to split the rooms more fairly than everyone just whinging about why they need a big room. Am I being insensitive to those of us in relationships? How would you split the rooms?
If you can't come to a fair agreement, I think you should pick keys (assuming you have room keys) at random on the first day. Perhaps arrange it so that the girl who needs a ground floor room gets random choice of the ground floor rooms.

I think that if the other girls were that fussed about having a double bed, they should have looked to rent somewhere with all spacious rooms. You can't predict what might happen over the course of the year, some of the boys might get girlfriends and some of the girls might break up.

Also, if everyone has random chance of getting the tiny room, they might all agree to swap out the sitting room.

Alternatively, if you can't come to a compromise over this, are you sure this is the best living situation to be going into in September. It will be much easier to get out now rather than get out later.
Original post by jumblehunter

Has anyone got any other ideas on how to split the rooms more fairly than everyone just whinging about why they need a big room. Am I being insensitive to those of us in relationships? How would you split the rooms?


Most people have this issue, everyone I know splits the rent according to how good the room is then any further arguements are settled by drawing lots

the only valid reason anyone has given for you as far as I'm concerned is that one girl has a physical problem which would stop her getting up the stairs (although surely this means she can never go in the living room? if she can get up the stairs I'd say she loses the right to the nice room)

I would say that those in the big rooms pay Β£10-30 more depending on what your rent is per week and then if there are still arguements then pull names out of a hat, having a boyfriend is not a reason to get a big room as they could break up and you get into a relationship, I assume if that happened they wouldn't want to swap! You may well find that once the prices change people will fit into different rooms better as there will always be people short of money, and don't get fobbed off with the girls complaining, it's a fair way to do it as you shouldn't be paying the same amount for a tiny box room as they do for a massive room!
Reply 3
Last year me and my housemates had a similar problem, two decent sized doubles, one massive double and one tiny single. Luckily it didn't cause any arguments, though it was awkward trying to figure out who went where. In the end, we all drew straws.

Long and short of it is, you all knew what you were getting in to when you signed for the house. If some of the rooms aren't as spacious as the others then I guess that sucks, but be serious and think about how much space you all actually need.
The best and fairest way to do it in my opinion is to draw straws, under an agreement that you split the rent slightly differently with regards to who's got the smaller/larger rooms. Or those in the larger rooms pay for the internet/TV licence/water bills and those in smaller rooms don't. However you swing it, you have to make sure those in the smaller rooms don't feel like they're being cheated price wise - this could cause some major housemate tension which is the last thing anyone needs.
I think you should give a ground floor room to the girl on crutches - it's pretty legitimate (I ended up on crutches with a bedroom on the second floor in second year... nightmare) and people don't normally want a ground floor room anyway due to the risk of burglary.

Beyond that do the girls with boyfriends have boyfriends who have double rooms?

I tend to think that the rest of you should either pick keys out of a hat, or (as I did one year) all state your first choice room, and where more than one person states the same first choice, you have to draw lots. If only one person picks a particular room, they get it. Then people who lost when you drew lots can go for the second round of lot drawing from the remaining rooms.

Or pick numbers out of a hat - the person with number 1 gets to pick first, person with number 2 picks second etc.
Reply 5
write the door number on a piece of paper, put it in a bag and get everyone pick out the paper from the hat.
Reply 6
If you falling out BEFORE you've moved in, imagine what it will be like after.

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