Sharing Rent/Mortgage with Brothers

[Altaira]

Do family members split the house bill (mortgage, computer, garbage, utilities, groceries, water) be split evenly or proportionately?

 

I was underemployed for some time after quitting due to harassment in the workplace. A brother makes 18 per hour twice as much as I make hourly. Once I was working when this same brother was unemployed and I would buy him things and would not collect his full share or "tab" him into debt, the way he is doing to me.

 

The house belonging to our dad who lives away (mom passed years ago) was recently refinanced by our father and some of the money was used to "transfer" my debt to this one brother onto the refinancing account/my dad. Which my brother is still keeping in track of and sends me periodic statements of debt. This brother does the accounting for the family and our dad gave him power of attorney and access to the refi account. I never see the actual bills that I'm paying for or being charged for.

 

The chores are not evenly divided. I do much more, in my opinion because my chores which are cooking, grocery shopping, and kitchen clean are DAILY tasks and I also do more general housecleaning plus this one brother never cleans the bathroom. He is not willing to let my housework be used to relieve my debt (used to credit towards the money I owe) and argues (we have gotten into screaming fights whenever I've brought this up in the past) that his chores count as much because they are as time consuming.

 

This younger brother's chores (I don't mention the older 2nd brother because he is nice to me and isnt treating me in a cold manner like this one) : driving me to the get groceries and when needed rides to and from work, occassional errands. His other "tasks": computer repair when it's d own (he hasn't done this in a long, long time and I don't use the home computers that much (I'm at the library now), also running errands to pay bills, and accounting. He also leaves his trash on the floor and I end up picking up after him.

 

If things were reversed, I would let my sibling pay what he can and push them to get a higher paying job but I would NOT put them in debt or demand they pay the same amount as me if I made much more. And I would allow t hem to use extra chores as payment.

[Guest]

I have to rewrite some typos to clarify the meaning of what I wrote:

 

SHOULD family members split the house bill (mortgage, computer, garbage, utilities, groceries, water) EVENLY OR PROPORTIONATELY?

 

I was underemployed for some time after quitting ONE JOB due to harassment in the workplace. A brother makes 18 per hour twice as much as I make hourly. Once I was working when this same brother was unemployed and I would buy him things and would not collect his full share or "tab" him into debt, the way he is doing to me.

[leftcoastrider]

It depends on if you had an initial agreement among the family members. If there is a wide disparity in income, then a proportional share might be more fair as long as everyone has a job, but that could also let a slacker off the hook if there was someone who did not have a work ethic. Usually, whoever has the master bedroom pays the most, and others pay equal amounts, the same way it would be if you rented a room somewhere.

 

As far as chores, if you do more, you should ask to pay less rent. If they say no, then stop doing more than they are doing. I would think that you have a right to see the bills, and I would never pay a bill unless I knew what I was paying for. BTW, what is the debt that was "transferred?" Do you mean that you owed one of your brothers or your father some money? Also, are you all adults? Could you move out?

[SoleMate]

Of course, the rule is that each member pays whatever they have all jointly agreed. It's a matter of opinion as to what is "fair". I suggest an open discussion and negotiation.