Renter’s Advice and Resources

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.

Living with another person is never easy, but with rents increasing in many cities, it may be a necessity. Whether your roommate is an old friend or a stranger you met off of Craigslist, it can be hard to avoid conflict. Anticipating problems before they erupt can help keep your home life harmonious. Here are some of the top roommate disputes and how to handle them.

As a youngster, you never understood why you had to do chores—couldn’t dishes and things just take care of themselves? Some people never grow out of this stage, and have difficulty cleaning up after themselves. Others never learn to respect boundaries or really listen to what people are telling them. If you’re in the unfortunate situation of having a roommate who’s dirty, incommunicative, lazy, or who just doesn’t get it, here are some strategies for resolving major issues. First, let’s lay down the ground rules for dealing with difficult roommates.

You’ve finally found the perfect apartment—the right amount of light, the right number of bedrooms, the right kind of shower head, and the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of. Now you just need a perfect roommate to complete the apartment experience. Unfortunately, all of your friends have housing already, and you’re either single or not ready to move in with your significant other. What’s to be done? You might have to resort to advertising for a roommate, either online or in print. But with all the roommate horror stories out there, how can you avoid selecting a psycho or a sadist as your roommate? This article contains tips and tricks for finding the perfect roommate, and for not getting in trouble while doing so.

Your rent is steep and you want to alleviate the financial burden by letting someone sleep in the guest room or a corner of the living room. One of your roomies suddenly bailed or moved on to an exciting job opportunity in another state. Your or your roommate’s significant other is moving in (a big step!). Whatever the reason, you’re taking another big step—adding a roommate to the lease. What factors should you consider when doing so? How much might your landlord raise the rent? This article gives a brief overview of the options available when adding a roommate to the lease.

You think you have a bad roommate? My best gal pal lived with, what I consider, one of the worst roommates I have heard about. Within three months there were older men hanging around the apartment, her roommate was lying about the bills and stealing money right in front of my friend’s face.