October 4, 2025 at 10:22 am

She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasn’t There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

by Michael Levanduski

Roommates arguing

Shutterstock, Reddit

When you sublet a room with other people, you need to make sure everything is clear in regards to who pays for what.

What would you do if you agreed to pay 1/4 of the utilities, but for part of that time, only three people were living there?

That is the situation the roommates in this story found themselves in, and this young lady thinks she should still only pay 1/4 of the total and the others disagree.

AITA for only paying 1/4 of utilities?

I signed a sublease agreement to rent 1 room of a 4 bedroom house for June, July, Aug.

Sublease specified utilities would be split amongst the 4 people staying there.

The person in charge of paying utilities (Jane) sublet her room for the first 2 months but did not find a subletter for Aug.

This makes sense.

Another housemate left for vacation for about a month. Jane is saying we should split utilities based on the number of weeks we were living in the house.

So for Aug, Jane would not have to pay at all and her subletter would cover costs for June and July.

Person on vacation would not have to pay utilities for when he was gone. It’s even more complicated bc our billing is not on a monthly cycle.

I think Jane should be responsible for Aug utilities even though she wasn’t there. I don’t mind paying an extra $50 to resolve the issue but it’s more about the principle.

The WiFi is a little different since it is the same price whether you use it or not, so I agree that it should still be split four ways.

Jane also wanted us to split August wifi 3 ways but to me that is a fixed cost you agree to if you’re on the lease (regardless of if you’re there or not)?

I paid 1/4 of the utility bill.

AITA for not wanting to pay more?

People who aren’t there shouldn’t pay for gas, electric, etc since they aren’t using it, though splitting the WiFi even if they aren’t there could make sense.

Read on to see what the people in the comments say about it.

I didn’t think of it this way, but this commenter is correct.

comment 1 14 She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasnt There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

This commenter might be right.

Comment 2 14 She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasnt There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

Yeah, there is more to a bill than the usage fee.

Comment 3 14 She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasnt There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

Apparently this is not a common way of doing things.

Comment 4 4 She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasnt There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

This commenter makes a good point, it isn’t just about the usage.

Comment 5 4 She Signed A Roommate Agreement And Agreed To Pay 1/4 Of The Utilities, But When Another Roommate Wasnt There For A Month, They Thought She Should Pay 1/3 Instead

They have a contract, they can follow it.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.