Dividing the Rent Among Roommates

If you are going to differ the rent upon square footage, you would take the square footage for the size of the personal living space and divide it by the total square footage of the home. This will give you the percentage of personal space per renter. You will add the percentages and subtract from one hundred to get the percentage of the community space. The community space number is divided by the number of renters and added to the value of the original percentage by the personal square foot. 

Bedroom Sq. Ft./Total Home Sq. Ft = Renter % of Personal Space

100% - (Total % of all Renters Personal Space) = Total % for Community Space

Total % for Community Space/# of Renters = % Community Space per Renter

% Community Space per Renter + Renter % of Personal Space = Total % of Rent per Renter

Total % of Rent per Renter * Rent = Their Monthly Rent Due

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For instance, say that the square footage of the entire property is 1,800 sq. ft. there are three bedrooms and three roommates. The two smaller rooms have the square footage of 132 each. The master bedroom has a square footage of 210 due to the closet being triple the size and a private bathroom. The person occupying the master bedroom would be responsible for 12% while the other two would be held for 7% each. 

The total percentage for the personal space would be 26%, and the other 74% would be for the total portion of the community space. Since there are three roommates, you would divide the 74% among them, resulting in 25% community space. If you add the total personal space and community space, you will get 32% per renter for the smaller rooms and 37% for the renter occupying the master bedroom.

Now that you have the total percentages due for each renter, you can take those percentages and multiply them by the cost of the rent. With a $1,675 monthly rent, this scenario rent is $530.41 for the smaller rooms and $614.16 for the master bedroom. 

This rent division is excellent if the number of roommates you have differs from the number of rooms you have. You may have a three-bedroom home and four roommates or a three bedroom and only two roommates. The rent would be equal across the board, regardless of living situation. 

The math is elementary if you choose to base the rent equally among all roommates. You take the total amount of the rent and divide it by the total amount of roommates. The rent of $1,670 split among three roommates would be $558.33 per renter.

Equally dividing the rent based on the number of bedrooms is the most straightforward method of sharing the rent among roommates. This method does not consider the size of the rooms or the number of people living in one bedroom. If the master bedroom is twice the size of the other rooms, the rent would still be the same as the other renters. If four people live in a three-bedroom home, they will split the overall rent three ways, and the people sharing the bedroom will split their portion in half. 

If the rent were $1,675 and was split evenly by the number of bedrooms (in the scenario, three bedrooms), the rent per room would be $558.33. If one of the bedrooms had two occupants, their portion would be $279.17 for rent.