One room is furnished, the others aren’t
Furniture saves the person who gets it real money. Treat it like parking: a monthly value carved out of the rent and charged to that room.
Kitchen, living room, shared bath. The rest of the rent follows each room.
Closet, light, noise
Closet, light, noise
Closet, light, noise
Weights you agree on
The link holds the whole split. Nothing is stored on our server until you make it a household.
The working, room by room
| Room | People | Weight | Shared part | Room part | Extras | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furnished | 1 | 125 × 1 | $372.00 | $565.54 | $60.00 | $997.54 |
| Room B | 1 | 125 × 1 | $372.00 | $565.54 | $0.00 | $937.54 |
| Room C | 1 | 120 × 1 | $372.00 | $542.92 | $0.00 | $914.92 |
| Total | 3 | $1,116.00 | $1,674.00 | $60.00 | $2,850.00 |
Weight = floor area × the room’s multiplier (private bath and factors). Unrounded parts are shown; the “Pays” column is rounded to cents so it adds up exactly.
The numbers, step by step
Three roommates rent a $2,850 flat. The landlord leaves a bed, desk and wardrobe in one room. The household values that at $60 a month (roughly what renting similar furniture would cost them), charges it to that room, and splits the remaining $2,790 by the usual formula.
- Furnished pays $997.54: 1.01× average floor area, furniture ($60).
- Room B pays $937.54: 1.01× average floor area.
- Room C pays $914.92: 0.97× average floor area.
- Total: $2,850.00, exactly the rent.
Names and amounts are samples. Change any number in the calculator above and the result updates.
A fairness test you can run together
Fair-division research calls a split envy-free when each person feels they got the best piece “in her own estimation”, as Francis Su puts it. Ask: at these prices, would anyone rather swap rooms? If not, nobody envies anyone. Bid mode makes that a guarantee.
Keep it running
Turn this into a household: rent posts at the agreed split each month, bills split by days home, and housr works out who owes whom. Roommates join with a link and a name.
Make it a householdWhen this split is fair, and when it isn’t
Fair when
- The furniture belongs to the landlord and comes with the room, so whoever has the room gets its use.
- The monthly value is modest and grounded in what it would cost to rent or buy and resell similar furniture.
- If the person in the furnished room would rather bring their own, the furniture can go to the shared space instead, and the extra charge disappears.
Not so fair when
- If one roommate owns the furniture in the shared rooms (the sofa, the TV), that is a different question: either the others pay that roommate a small monthly amount, or everyone accepts it as a gift.
- If the furniture is worn out or unwanted, charging for it is unfair; agree to store it or ask the landlord to remove it.
- Don’t combine a furniture charge with a bid split; bids already include everything a person values about a room.
This is general information about splitting costs between yourselves, not legal advice. Your lease and your state’s law decide what you owe the landlord.
Sources
- Spliddit, Assign Rooms and Share Rent. Checked 2026-10-05.
- Gal, Mash, Procaccia and Zick, Which Is the Fairest (Rent Division) of Them All? (J. ACM 64(6), 2017). Checked 2026-10-05.
- Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College, Fair Division Calculator (historical page). Checked 2026-10-05.
Related situations
One parking spot, one driver
A parking space is a separate thing of value bundled into the rent. Put a monthly number on it, charge it to whoever uses it, and split the remaining rent normally.
Open the example Split rentOne room has no window. How much less should it pay?
Daylight changes how a room feels to live in, and most people would pay more for it. Give it an explicit weight instead of a vague discount.
Open the example Split rentBid for rooms so nobody wants to swap
Instead of arguing about what a bath or a window is worth, each person puts a price on each room. The result gives every room to someone who values it, at prices nobody envies.
Open the example