<p>should the other pay the original half? im not really sure what to do. its a big fridge, btw.</p>
<p>One of you gets half the fridge’s value in dollars, and the other gets the fridge. You can decide just like you’d have two kids divide cake; one gets to divide, and the other gets to pick the money or the fridge. Like this:</p>
<p>x90- I’ll either take the fridge, or $100.</p>
<p>Roomie- OK, I’ll take the fridge and give you $100. [Or, give me $100 and the fridge is yours.]</p>
<p>Flip a coin to choose which person has to make the offer and which gets to respond.</p>
<p>Or you sell it on Craig’s List and split whatever you get for it.</p>
<p>Mr. Fang suggests an even more fair way. Each person, in secret, makes a money offer for the fridge. Then you compare the two offers and the person who made the higher offer gets the fridge at the average of the two prices. Like this:</p>
<p>x90 secretly writes $100 on a piece of paper. At the same time, Roomie secretly writes $80. The two secret bids are revealed. x90 gets the fridge, and Roomie gets $90, the average of $100 and $80.</p>
<p>Or you can bid for it. 60…65…70…Sold!</p>
<p>I think it would be fairer to begin by assessing the resale value of the fridge, which you could do by looking at Craigslist or whatever people use to sell such items in your locale. </p>
<p>Then, if one of you wants it, they can pay the other half of the resale value. If both of you want it, having established the price first, flip a coin. If neither of you want it, sell it and split the money.</p>
<p>Why bother assessing the retail value? If both students bid secretly for the fridge, both of them end up satisfied with the deal. The lower bidder gets more for his half than he thought it was worth, and the higher bidder pays less for the other half than he thought it was worth.</p>
<p>Does either of you WANT the fridge?</p>
<p>If so, the person who does should pay something (perhaps not half of what it cost because it is no longer new) to the person who doesn’t.</p>
<p>If neither of you wants it, perhaps you should post some signs in your dorm and other places on campus offering it for sale and then split whatever money you get.</p>
<p>Before deciding that you don’t want it, you might want to speak with your parents. If you have a younger sibling who could use it at college, then perhaps you should be the one to take it and compensate your roommate.</p>
<p>x90,
My D. offered her roommate that roommate will pay her back half of what she originally paid, and the item will be hers. To make it clear, they paid $60 each for $120 carpet which is still in very good shape, no stains. Roomate agreed to pay my D back $30 so that the carpet will belong to roomate. We though that asking back full $60 would not be fair since D has been using carpet for whole year along with her rommate. They did not negotiate, the offer was accepted right away.</p>
<p>Ditto what Miami said unless neither really want it. They aim to sell it and split the cash earned.</p>
<p>Sounds very fair, what Miami said. Actually, kids are usually pretty good about working things out on their own. S buys things, gets room mate to chip in when he feels it’s appropriate, resells what they don’t want & they work things out…they keep us out of the loop & both are happy.</p>
<p>. . .reminder not to split the cost of durable goods when you’re in a short-term relationship.</p>
<p>The 1st year, S bought some things & his room mate bought other things that contributed to their shared dorm room. When they went their seperate ways, each took what they had purchased & it worked fine. S didn’t tell me what happened last year, but I suspect they used a similar strategy with just a lot more boys. This year, he & his room mate have worked out an undersatnding that is working–I don’t ask & they don’t tell me. Graigslist is a big factor in their lives. <grin> D has purchased all the things she wants & plans to share with the girls living in her suite. Don’t believe she’s “shared” in the cost of anything.</grin></p>
<p>For future students, I recommend that each roommate purchase an item in full and the purchaser is the owner. One roommate brings the fridge. The other brings the TV. One brings a microwave (if allowed). The other purchases a cheap rug.</p>
<p>With my son the answer became the person who has the storage locker or a way to get it home or a way to store it over the summer gets the fridge…</p>
<p>agreed with nysmile: it’s best to split bringing the stuff, than split paying for the said stuff.</p>
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<p>S had a similar answer/experience at the end of his freshman year although the parting roommates did do any agreed exchange so that my S gave the roomie some smaller dorm items that the roomie could get to his home.</p>
<p>Agree with katliamom and nysmile - better to divy up with initial providing of the stuff that try and buy stuff together and divy it up afterwards. That’s what my daughter and her room mate (well apartment mate really as they share a 2 bedroom off campus apartment) did. One already had a small microwave so the other bought a toaster, dish drainer etc. One already had some plates so the other bought some glasses. They share using everything, but at the end of the day (which looks like being at the end of college as they renewed the lease - yay - no moving half an apartment’s worth of ‘stuff’ into my house) they will each leave with the stuff they brought.</p>
<p>My son is getting half of what he paid for the TV. They bought one for about $600 for their apartment. Each paid $300. Son will get $150 for leaving the TV there. Or half the cost to have rented the thing is another way to go.</p>
<p>Nysmile,
That is how D and roomate did with all other things - TV, MW. However, the rug is not cheap and it could be damamged much easier than other objects. They realized that if one person is paying for the rug and both of them are using it, the rug at the end of year might be completely destroyed or become the point of friction between them. This was the only object that they split the cost 50 - 50 at the beginning of the year. Semi-decent rug the size that they needed is usually around $100 at least.</p>