Sharing an apartment with others offers an economical
alternative to living alone. The degree of sharing should be
decided as a group in advance. This discussion should begin
with basic expenses (rent, heat, electricity, and telephone) and
cover food cooking and personal belongings (TV, stereo, tapes,
DVD’s, etc). You should also discuss policies in advance such
as, but not restricted to pets, late rent, bad housekeeping, loud
music, drugs, guests, and smoking.
You can form a group in advance and search for an apartment
large enough to accommodate all of you. You may also inquire
about a vacancy in an existing group. This usually requires
an interview to establish compatibility with the existing
group. Roommate situations range from a close-knit group with
common goals to a random collection of people who go their own way
with many variations in between.
Units in houses, whether single, two or three family, often
appear to have lower rents. This may be misleading if utility
costs are not considered. As a general rule, units in
apartment buildings (five units or more per building) include heat
and hot water in the rent while other while units in houses do
not. This is because apartment buildings were generally built
on a single heating system while houses were usually built with, or
converted to individual heating systems. New and
substantially rehabilitated apartment buildings generally have
separate electric and heating systems.
People searching for housing face many choices. One you
have decided on the type of housing, the next step is the size of
the accommodations desired. Living alone in a studio or
one-bedroom apartment is probably the most expensive option.
Generally, the greater number of people sharing the apartment, the
lower the rent per person. Thus, a 4-bedroom apartment with
four people tends to costs less than a 3-bedroom with three
people. A 2-beroom apartment does not necessarily house only
2 students or a 3-bedromm, three students. Be sure to first
check with the Attorney General’s office. and the landlord to see
if the number of persons who plan to live in the apartment exceeds
the number of tenants permitted since some local laws prohibit this
practice.
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