A three-bedroom flat let room by room often earns more than letting it as a whole. The trade-off is more organising: more tenants, a shared kitchen, shared bills. If you set the rules up front, renting by the room can run smoothly.
One contract or several?
There are two ways to do it:
- A separate contract per room. Each tenant pays for their own room and they share the common areas. If someone moves out, you only need to re-let their room.
- One joint contract. One contract, several tenants. Simpler paperwork, but if one person leaves, it affects the whole group's contract.
As a landlord, separate contracts per room are usually more flexible. For the tenant's side of things, see our article on renting with flatmates.
What goes in the contract?
Everything in the usual ten points, plus:
- Exactly which room is the tenant's, and with what furniture.
- Which areas are shared: kitchen, bathroom, living room, balcony.
- How utilities are split: equally, by room size, or as a fixed flat fee.
- House rules: cleaning, guests, quiet hours, smoking.
Splitting the utilities
This is the trickiest part. The simplest option is a fixed monthly utility fee per room, which you adjust to the real costs once a year. If you split actual consumption, make the formula clear and calculate it the same way every month. The basics are in our article on utility billing.
The shared areas
Most conflicts start in the kitchen and the bathroom. A simple cleaning rota and a shared group chat go a long way. If something breaks in a shared area, fixing it is usually your job, and the cost is split as the contract says.
Deposit, moving in and moving out
A separate deposit per room is the clean solution. At handover, record both the room and the shared areas, because the condition of the shared spaces affects everyone later. Our handover article walks you through it step by step.
Who lives with whom?
When you rent by the room, your tenants also live with each other. Feel free to ask at the viewing about daily routines, work and smoking. But your choice must not be based on gender, ethnic origin, religion or any other protected characteristic. We wrote about this in our article on comparing applicants.
FAQ
Is renting by the room worth it?
For bigger flats near universities or workplaces, often yes. Expect more admin and more frequent tenant changes.
Can I let the living room as a bedroom too?
If it can be locked and is fit to live in, yes. But then there's less shared space left, and tenants will notice.
What if the tenants fall out?
House rules and a clear contract are the best prevention. In serious cases, the termination rules in the contract apply.
Rentkey
In Rentkey, rooms are set up as separate units within the flat. Each has its own tenant, contract and payments, and you can split shared bills between the rooms.
