Rent Shares

As a house we are committed to supporting each other and to furthering equity as a community. We come to The Hive with differing financial resources and class privilege.The following is an attempt to address and redistribute our resources to recognize those differences, as well as a system that can better support us when we hit a financial low point.

Rent split

• Base: The rent owed is split in half and then evenly split among the housemates to form a base rent payment.

• Room adjustment: each person’s base rent is adjusted up or down based on the room they have. 

• Shares: the remaining half of the rent is split between the housemates based on the number of rent shares each chooses to take.

Rent shares

• A rent share costs half the rent divided by the total number of shares.

• Each housemate begins with 3 shares. From there they may choose to increase or decrease their shares depending on their need and ability

• If a housemate wishes to increase or decrease their share, they should send a message to the whole house with the following:

  • Number of shares increasing or decreasing

  • How many shares they will have after the change

  • When they want the change to take effect

• After a housemate changes their share amount, the person managing finances for the house will send an email with everyone's updated rent amounts.

• A housemate wishing to increase their rent share can do so at any time.

• A housemate wishing to lower their rent share should send a message at least one month before the next rent email is sent out (rent emails are sent out on the 24th. For example, if someone wants to lower their rent share for March, they should  send a message no later than January 24th)

  • If a different housemate finds that they need to lower their rent share in response, they should do so within 3 days of when the rent split update is sent out.

• When a new housemate moves in, they are expected to pay the original rent for the first 3 months, after which they can join the rent share system. The house can decide to invite them to participate sooner.

Opt out

We would like everyone to participate in this system. The more people are involved the less burdensome any change becomes, and the better we can support each other. However, if a housemate feels that they are unable to participate in this system, they can choose to pay double the base rent and zero shares, which is the same as paying the original rent amount.