Neeja

At the moment I'm in the process of moving into a 3-bed house with two of my friends, one I currently live with and another guy whose tenancy runs out within 5 days of ours. Made the decision for more room and more money between us.

My current flatmate found out that a house just across the road from ours was going on the market, as one of his exes lives there, and would be ideal for us (3 double-bedrooms+large garage). After weeks of prodding, he finally got the name of the lettings agency that the house was under from her.

She moved out on Friday, so I was on the phone to the lettings agency on Monday. Had a long conversation with them trying to sort things out, then they said there'd be someone inspecting the property later that day, and that I could view it and discuss things with her then. Did that, and managed to negotiate on her with rent to keep it the same as it has for the past year (whereas our property's rent is going up £50), and as a result of this we're now £100/mo under our rent budget, which is a massive bonus.

Today I drove around in a thunderstorm getting bits and bobs, getting money together to put down bond+admin fees to make sure we get the house, paying for all three of us in one go as the other two have no money till payday.

After doing all this, I decided I should get something back (particularly since I can't do anything till payday now, having shelled £150 on admin fees for the other two guys), so said that I'm having first pick of the bedrooms in the new house. The guy who's not living with me right now was fine with this. My flatmate, however, kicked up a massive fuss, saying that it's not fair for me to just declare the room I'm having, and that we should draw straws. I mentioned that I was putting myself out, and he retorted with the fact that he could have got money together anytime by borrowing from his dad and sorted it all himself. My counter-argument was that, if that was the case, why didn't he do this before I put myself in my overdraft.

All our friends don't want to get involved with this argument to avoid being stuck in the middle, so wise .org, is it unfair of me, having stumped up a total of £475 and done a shedload of work to have first pick of rooms?