Background:

Me and 3 other guys are moving into a house together next year. We all go to university, but this year I'll be doing a work placement instead of studying. Last year three of us lived together. Friend X, who is the potential douchebag in question lived with us last year too.

I move in next week, they move in around September. We haven't picked what rooms we're going to have yet. Last year we drew our names out of a hat to see who got 1st pick, 2nd pick etc.

The house can be rented as either a 4 or 5 bedroom place. We are renting it as a 4 bedroom house. The 5th "bedroom" is a really tiny place on the top floor that isn't really a bedroom. If you paid rent for it you'd feel like you were being ****ed in the ass. This doesn't really matter since there are only 4 of us so none of us will need it.

Of the 4 bedrooms we are using, 3 are pretty much the same size, and 1 of them is maybe a third of the size. It's pokey, but completely liveable. It would kinda feel like a bit of a prison cell though. It's smallness is obviously going to be a pain in the ass for whoever gets it, but I certainly wouldn't kill myself if it were my room.

Whoever gets the small bedroom will also probably be given the 5th "bedroom" to store stuff in or use as they wish.

There are desks in each of the 4 proper bedrooms, although the desk in the small one is pretty small. I'd be fine with using it for studying. It's definitely bigger than the desks we used in highschool, or in the library at uni. If you were working from a load of books simultaneously, you wouldn't be able to keep them all open on the desk at the one time while also writing on something else. You'd have to have them overlap, or set the one you weren't using on your bed etc. No big deal.

Current:

Tonight we all went to see The Dark Knight (awesome). I mentioned to Friend X about picking rooms since I was moving in next week. He jokingly suggested that I should take the small room since I won't be studying this year and there isn't any room for studying.

After the movie I found out he wasn't joking. He seemed pretty upset about it and was pissed that I wasn't agreeing to take the small room and wanted to draw our rooms like last year. Friend Y seemed to agree with him, while Z didn't really say anything. I think X+Y had discussed it at some point.

The person who gets the small room will be paying the same rent as everybody else. It's taken out of our bank accounts automatically. I wouldn't mind the person who got the small bedroom paying less, but I'm pretty sure Friend X would be against it, since he's a huge nit about money. I don't think the idea has crossed anybody's mind anyway.

Is Friend X a huge douche?
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Cliff notes: Moving in with 4 guys, 3 normal sized bedroom, one small bedroom. We're all apparently paying equal rent and are cool with that. We haven't picked rooms yet and Friend X thinks that instead of randomly drawing rooms I should definitely have to get the small one because I'm working instead of studying next year. He's pissed that I wasn't accepting this.

I don't think douche is the appropriate term for this, but I'm on your side. If he brings it up again you should mention that you shouldn't have to pay as much rent as them since you won't be using it for studying.

I am moving into a house with 3 other guys and there is one v small room, one small room, one medium room and one large room.

One of the guys has substantially less money, so he is taking the v small room right off the bat for an agreed upon 1050 (4800 for 4 rooms)

I suggested (and the other 2 agreed) that since other 3 rooms will average 1250 per month, we each write down on a paper how much we are willing to pay for the big room, and the winner gets the room for the average of his price and the second price. So if I wrote 1350, someone else writes 1300 and someone else writes 1320 then I get it for 1335.

Then, the other two guys do the same thing for the second room.

Third guy gets the third room for whatever is left of the rent.


Seems the absolute fairest way possible to decide. You don't 'deserve' a bigger room because you have to study more, we aren't a bunch of communists. You get the bigger room either by equal chance or if you are willing to pay the most for it.

I'm not calling him a douche because he thought like this, but because he was so righteously indignant about it (if that's the right term). He was pretty pissed off and angry at me because I was even questioning his logic. He strongly believed that he deserved a bigger room than me for no significant reason and expected me to just bend over and take it.

I wouldn't have a problem paying less rent and getting the room, depending on how much less I'd have to pay. I really don't think he'd want to do that at all. This guy is a HUGE nit about money in general. He also didn't want to spend even a bit more than what we're currently spending on rent to get a better place.

If we did go that route...

Rent is £205/month each and there's 4 of us. How much do you think would be fair for the smallest room? It's at least a third of the size of the others, if not more.

i don't see how you working and them studying has anything to do with what size of room you deserve. tell him to shove it and decide who gets what in some random and fair method.

Yes, he's being a *complete* prick.

The 4th room is functionally large enough for studying, which is all that's needed to shoot down his argument. (And since when did Uni students spend much of their time studying anyway? )

I'm also less than convinced that work placement = absolute zero study time anyway. Depends on the placement I suppose.

In any case, there is absolutely no way in hell it's reasonable for him to *expect* you to sacrifice for *absolutely no* compensation. Small room should definitely be cheaper. How much cheaper? Well, that's really up to you. If there's a figure you'd be happy to voluntarily take the room for, suggest it. If not everybody agrees or you decide you really don't voluntarily want the room no matter how cheap, then you'll just have to draw lots.

Alternatively, how about agreeing to each have the small room an equal part of the year? I did this once (although it was easier since we had 2 medium rooms, 1 big, 1 small, so 2 of us agreed to split the big/small)

Its completely unreasonable for someone to be pressured into taking the smaller room for same rent without drawing straws or something.

I have a feeling your upcoming year will be a bit rocky.

For the record - tell him to go **** himself. That's not a proper reason for you to be assigned the smaller room w/o compensation.

i think this is a great idea. I also think OP won't be able to convince his roommates to do it.

OP, you are in the right, clearly. Don't get shafted!

option 1. you take the smaller room willingly, and you pay 150/mo.
option 2. you all pay the same rent and the small room is randomly assigned.

i have a friend like this... very annoying

dude i should get the last beer because i had a long day at work or some bs like that

just really gay and stupid

Yes he is a douche.

If you are still being pressured, say that you'll take it only if you have to pay 50% of what the average housemate will pay (if each housemate pays 1K/month when rent split four ways, you only pay $500). Otherwise, draw straws or some other fair luck factor.

Everyone has a friend like that. Makes you wonder why you hang out with such *******s.

OP
Your friend is a spoiled douche who hopes that by having a little hissy fit he will get his way.

why did you agree to live with taht guy? obv not a real friend

why didn't you guys agree to let the small room pay less? seems like the completely logical thing to do.

Definitely a douche. The fact that he fails to see the holes in his logic AND went behind your back and talked to the other friend about it is just ridiculous. If you're actually forced to take this room I would find new place to stay/roommates; not because of the fact that you have a small room, but because they're obviously idiots and ****ty friends.

yup hes a douche