Honest Conversation About Rent

Money can be a sensitive topic for couples, but it's important to be open and honest if you don't feel like you can afford to split rent evenly with your partner. Ask your partner when a good time to talk is and sit down with them to try and work out an agreement that is fair for both of you.

If you want to bring this up, you could say something like: "I have been looking at my expenses, and to be honest if I pay half the rent every month I'm going to be struggling to pay my other bills. Would you be willing to consider splitting the rent in a ratio according to our salaries so I'm not spending more than 30% of mine on rent?"

Split Rent in a Ratio

This method works well for couples who cohabit and want to share expenses but have significantly different incomes. Have an honest conversation about money and expenses to determine if you both agree that paying rent in a ratio equal to your individual incomes makes sense.

A good rule of thumb is to not pay more than 30% of your monthly income towards rent. If you divide the rent in half, and the number is more than 30% of one partner’s monthly salary, then this method might be a good choice for you to split expenses fairly.

If your monthly salaries are relatively close, then it might be best to just split rent 50/50. One partner can always agree to pay for more of the other household expenses, such as utilities or groceries, if they make slightly more than the other.

Add Your Gross Monthly Salary

Add together the amount of money each partner makes every month before taxes. You will use this number to help determine a fair way to split the rent based on each of your incomes.

For example, if you make $3000 a month and your partner makes $5000 a month, then the total household income would be $8000 a month.

Pay a Portion of the Rent

Multiply the monthly rent by the percentage of the monthly income you earn in decimal form. You pay this much of the monthly rent and your partner pays the rest.

For example, if you make 37.5% of the total income, and the monthly rent is $2000, multiply 2000 by 0.375 to get 750. You would pay $750 a month and your partner would pay $1251.

Conversation With Your Roommates

Sit down with all of your roommates so you can talk about the best way to split rent. Everyone will be able to provide their input this way and you can come to an agreement that everyone feels is fair.

You can do this ahead of time if you haven't yet moved in with your roommates yet or you can ask your current roommates to sit down and reevaluate how you are currently dividing the rent if you feel like something isn't fair.

To bring this up with your roommates, you could say something like: "Hey guys, I would like to sit down with everyone and talk about our rent. Since some of the rooms are not as big as the others, what do you guys think about calculating a price for each room based on size?"

A Rent Agreement Between Roommates

Write down the amount of the rent that each roommate agrees to pay and have everyone sign it. This will give you something to refer to if any disagreements about what each roommate has to pay arise in the future.

This doesn’t need to be anything complicated. Simply write down some basic details like the date, the address of the property, the total monthly rent for the house or apartment, and what each roommate has agreed to pay.

For example, "Jeremy agrees to pay $1,230 or 41% of the total monthly rent of $3000."

You could look for a legal template online for such an agreement to help you make it more formal if you want to. However, this isn't required.