When one bedroom is bigger, has an attached bathroom or gets the balcony, splitting rent equally quietly annoys someone every month. Here’s a method most flats can agree on in ten minutes, with a full worked example.
Why equal rent often isn’t fair
In most Indian flats the bedrooms are not the same. The master bedroom is usually 30–50% bigger, often has the only attached bathroom, and sometimes the balcony. The third bedroom may be next to the kitchen or have no proper window. If three people pay exactly a third each, the person in the smallest room is subsidising the person in the biggest, and they know it. That resentment shows up later in arguments about cleaning, guests and electricity.
At the same time, a lot of what you pay rent for is shared: the hall, the kitchen, the common bathroom, the parking, the location. Nobody should pay double just because their room is a bit bigger. A fair split has to respect both facts.
The method: shared part + room part + extras
- Decide the shared percentage. Take part of the rent for the shared spaces and split it equally. Most flats pick between 30% and 50%. Use more if the hall and kitchen are big and used a lot, less if people mostly stay in their rooms.
- Split the rest by bedroom area. Measure each bedroom (length × width in feet is enough) and split the remaining rent in proportion to the area.
- Add premiums for real extras. An attached bathroom, a private balcony, a built-in wardrobe or an AC that came with the flat. Agree a fixed rupee amount for each, add it to that room, and take the same total off the others equally.
- Round and check. Round to the nearest ₹50 and make sure the shares add up to the full rent.
Worked example: a 3BHK at ₹45,000 a month
| Room | Size | Extras |
|---|---|---|
| A (master) | 12 × 13.3 ft ≈ 160 sq ft | Attached bathroom |
| B | 10 × 12 ft = 120 sq ft | None |
| C | 10 × 12 ft = 120 sq ft | None |
Step 1. Shared part (40%): 40% of ₹45,000 = ₹18,000, split equally: ₹6,000 each.
Step 2. Room part (60%): ₹27,000 split by area. The total bedroom area is 400 sq ft, so A has 40%, B 30% and C 30%. A gets ₹10,800, B ₹8,100 and C ₹8,100.
Step 3. Attached bathroom premium: the flat agrees it’s worth ₹1,500 a month. A pays ₹1,500 more; B and C each pay ₹750 less.
| Room | Shared | By area | Premium | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ₹6,000 | ₹10,800 | +₹1,500 | ₹18,300 |
| B | ₹6,000 | ₹8,100 | −₹750 | ₹13,350 |
| C | ₹6,000 | ₹8,100 | −₹750 | ₹13,350 |
| Total | ₹45,000 |
A pays about 40% of the rent for a room that’s 40% of the bedroom space plus the only private bathroom; B and C pay about 30% each. Most people look at that table and agree it’s fair, which is the whole point. Try your own numbers in the rent split calculator.
How big should a premium be?
There’s no official number, so use a market test: what would this extra cost if you rented it separately? Some rules of thumb that flats use:
- Attached bathroom: 5–10% of one person’s share. Not having to queue for a bathroom every morning is worth real money.
- Private balcony: 3–5% of one share.
- AC provided by the landlord: some flats add a premium; others leave it out of rent and handle it through the electricity bill instead. Don’t charge for it twice.
- A room with no window or next to the kitchen: a discount works the same way as a premium, in the other direction.
Couples and shared rooms
If a couple shares one bedroom, the room part is per room, but the shared part is usually per person: they use the kitchen, hall and bathroom twice as much as a single person. In our example, if B were a couple, you might split the shared ₹18,000 four ways (₹4,500 per person) and leave the room part per room. Agree on it before moving in; it’s much harder to change later.
When someone leaves
When a flatmate moves out, the person who takes their room usually takes over their share as it is. If nobody replaces them and the remaining flatmates cover the rent, recalculate with the empty room’s area split equally until someone moves in. For half-month stays, see prorated rent.
Set it up once in ttmm
Add rent as a recurring monthly bill in your flat’s group and choose Amounts with the shares from your table. ttmm adds it every month with the same split, so nobody has to remember or recalculate. See recurring bills.
Questions
Should the bigger room pay more rent?
Usually yes. Split part of the rent equally for shared spaces and the rest by bedroom area. That way the bigger room pays more, but not double.
What premium is fair for an attached bathroom?
Many flats use 5–10% of one person’s share. The best test is what the flat would cost without that bathroom.
What percentage should be shared?
Most flats use 30–50%. Use more when the hall and kitchen are big and used a lot.
Is it fair to split rent equally?
Yes, when the rooms are about the same. When they differ, a shared + area split avoids resentment.
Originally published on ttmmsplit.in. ttmm is a free bill-splitting app for flatmates, trips and friends — settle up on UPI in one tap. Try it free.
Top comments (1)
One check before locking the shares: add them back up after rounding, because rounding each room to the nearest 50 can leave the total a little over or under the actual rent. Put the difference on the largest room, and write the final numbers plus the date next to the lease so a later disagreement has something to point at. If the bigger room has the AC, keep that cost on the electricity bill rather than also in the rent premium, so it is not paid twice.