Roommates

A bad roommate can make living in even the most beautiful apartment horribly unpleasant. When your roommate exhibits bad hygiene, you have to balance avoiding hurting his feelings with getting the point across. Is Poor Hygiene a Consistent Problem? Everyone gets bad breath occasionally. Workouts can make even the sweetest-smelling flower smell a little less […]

You’ve met somebody. You’ve fallen in love. You move in together. This chain of events may sound familiar, but it’s worth stopping it before it gets to the third step. Just because you’ve found that certain someone doesn’t mean that you’ve found the best roommate ever. Maybe you’ve landed a girlfriend who completely refuses to […]

When it comes to deciding whether your significant other is going to move in with you, it’s a matter for some discussion between the two of you—and your landlord. That’s because your lease almost certainly has a clause regarding occupants, along the lines of this clause in a sample lease from MrLandlord.com: “Guest(s) staying over […]

Taking on a roommate can be a fast way to reduce your expenses: suddenly, you are only responsible for half the rent and utilities. But you still have to collect your roommate’s share and make sure that it makes its way to the landlord or utility company. If you split other expenses with your roommate, […]

Finding a great roommate can be a crucial part in your quality of life. A bad roommate can make living downright miserable. A roommate that you can’t trust can add unwanted stress to your life. Finding a trustworthy, fun roommate is much easier than in the old days where you had to put an ad in the newspaper or hang a flyer on a bulletin board with your phone number on 15 tabs of paper. There are many websites that can assist you in finding exactly what you are looking for.

It’s every renter’s nightmare. You walk into your apartment and get a whiff of a strange smell. It’s hard to identify, but it’s bad. You follow your nose, and unexpectedly, it does not lead you to the kitchen garbage. Instead, your nose takes you straight to your new roommate’s room. Uh oh. You’ve got a problem. Cleaning out a smelly refrigerator or recycling bin is an unpleasant but manageable task. Talking to your roommate about how bad he smells is another thing altogether. We spoke to renters about how they handled their smelly roommates–read on for their stories and the lessons they learned.

At first glance, living with a friend can seem like a safe choice. You care about one another, enjoy each other’s company and share similar tastes. What could go wrong? Plenty. Many friendships don’t survive the transition to roommate-hood. The very factors that drew you together may push you apart when you share a roof. Marisa remembers what made her want to live with her friend Rebecca during their senior year in college. “Rebecca had the kind of energy that drew people to her; everyone wanted to be around her, including me. I figured that our senior year apartment would be a really fun place to be.” The apartment was fun–maybe a little too much fun. “We had crazy parties that Becca organized. She always had the energy to plan the party, but never to clean up. She didn’t seem to mind if the apartment was always a terrible mess. Or maybe she didn’t know it because I was always cleaning it.” By the end of their senior year, Marisa came to feel that she was being taken advantage of. “It really spoiled the friendship. I talk to her once in a while on IM, but it’s really not the same.”

Dirty dishes, late-night noise, unwanted guests: These roommate conflicts pale in comparison to disputes over paying rent. When you first move in to a new apartment, or if new roommates join you in your current place, you’ll have to work out the best way to split the rent among all the tenants. Resolving this issue amicably and openly sets the stage for good roommate relations in the future. Unfortunately, there is no blueprint for how rent should be split. The lease given to you by your landlord will usually indicate the total amount of rent due each month but will not provide guidance on how to split the rent. Here are some typical ways tenants divide rent and some other factors to consider.

When you get that email message from your boss telling you that you’ll be traveling out of town for several weeks or more, one of the first things you need to think about is your apartment. Your rent is probably your most significant expense. You won’t want to continue to empty your bank account for your landlord if you don’t have to. Instead, you can find someone to sublease your apartment while you’re away. Here are some tips to finding the perfect sublettor for your apartment.