Moving with Roommates in Montreal: Splitting Costs & Responsibilities

Planning a Move with Roommates

Moving with roommates adds a layer of coordination that solo moves don't have. The key is clear communication from the start. Before anything else, sit down together and align on the basics: moving date, budget, who's handling what, and how costs will be divided.

If you're all moving from different locations into one new apartment — common among students near McGill, Concordia, or UdeM — you might need multiple pickups. At Up & Out, we can coordinate multi-stop moves, picking up each roommate's belongings and delivering everything to the new address. It's often cheaper than booking separate moves.

Create a shared document or group chat dedicated to the move. Use it to track tasks, share important info (building access codes, elevator bookings), and make sure nothing falls through the cracks. Google Sheets or a simple WhatsApp group works perfectly.

Splitting Moving Costs Fairly

The fairest way to split moving costs depends on your situation. If everyone has roughly the same amount of stuff, dividing the total bill equally is simplest. For a typical Montreal 5½ move costing $600–$900, that's $200–$300 per roommate for a three-person household.

If one roommate has significantly more furniture (a full bedroom set vs. just clothes and a laptop), consider splitting based on volume or weight. This is less common but fairer when the difference is substantial.

Don't forget to discuss shared items. Who bought the couch? Is the kitchen table a joint purchase? Decide before moving day whether shared furniture stays, goes, or gets sold. Nothing causes roommate friction faster than ambiguity about who owns what.

Dividing Responsibilities on Moving Day

Assign specific roles for moving day. One roommate handles the old apartment (final cleanup, landlord walkthrough, key return). Another manages the new place (meeting the movers, directing furniture placement). A third handles logistics (parking permits, elevator bookings, refreshments for the crew).

Pack your own rooms individually, but collaborate on shared spaces — kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Decide who packs what and label boxes by owner with a colour-coding system. This makes unpacking dramatically easier.

If one roommate is unavailable on moving day, they need to pack completely in advance and leave clear instructions about where their boxes go in the new apartment. Our Up & Out crews can follow a floor plan and box labels to place everything correctly, even without the owner present.

Setting Up the New Place Together

Before the first box arrives, agree on room assignments. In Montreal, room sizes in shared apartments vary wildly — the room off the kitchen in a Plateau 5½ might be half the size of the front room. If rooms aren't equal, adjust rent accordingly: the roommate with the larger room pays a bit more.

Set ground rules early: cleaning schedule, quiet hours, guest policies, and how shared expenses (toilet paper, dish soap, internet) will be split. Apps like Splitwise make tracking shared expenses painless.

Finally, set up utilities together. Put internet and Hydro-Québec under one name, with a clear agreement that everyone pays their share monthly. At Up & Out, we've seen many roommate moves, and the ones that go smoothest always have one thing in common: open communication and clear agreements from the start.