Prorated Rent Calculator for Renters

You’ve found your dream place within your budget, and you’re ready to sign the lease. But what if you need to move in after the first of the month? In many cases, you won’t pay full rent for that month; instead, you’ll pay what’s known as prorated rent.

What is prorated rent?

Prorated rent means you calculate your payment based on the number of days you lived in your unit in a rental month instead of paying rent for the total month as you usually would. Life can be complicated, and you can’t always actually move in on the first day of a billing cycle. That’s where prorated rent comes in.

When would a renter receive prorated rent?

You might need prorated rent for a variety of reasons:

• Your previous lease expires in the middle of a month
• You’re searching for a place to live on short notice
• You want the move-in date for a new place to match up with the start of a new job or school year
• You need to move out of a unit before the end of a month

However, prorated rent actually isn’t required by law in most places. While most landlords will agree to prorate your rent if you move in at some point after the first of the month, many may have an issue with prorating your rent for a move-out date before the end of a month.

You have a few possibilities if you’re going to move in or out of the unit after the first day or prior to the last day of a month:

• You might have a section about prorated rent in the lease agreement you sign
• Your area’s laws could cover prorated rent

If neither of these things applies to you, you can always ask your landlord for a prorated rent price. If they agree, you should get this agreement in writing. Keep in mind, however, that your landlord is not required to offer prorated rent if it isn’t covered by local laws or stated in your lease. 

Again, while most landlords tend to agree to prorate rent for the move-in date, they are less likely prorate rent if you move out earlier than the lease expiration date. You can notify your landlord if you plan to move out earlier, but since you already signed a lease, you likely won’t get a refund for the prorated amount. Your landlord may require you to pay the entire amount of rent for the month you committed to when you signed your lease.

How to Use a Prorated Rent Calculator

If you pay rent on the first of the month, you can use a prorated rent calculator that relies on a few key pieces of information:

• Your move-in date
• Your monthly rate
• The day of the month your rent is due

A simple prorated rent calculator uses the following 3 steps:

1. Figure out how many days there are in the month for which you need to prorate the rent. For instance, if you’re moving in February (28 days) you’re going to end up with a slightly different calculation than if you’re moving in July (31 days).
2. Take the monthly rent rate, then divide that figure by the number of days there are in your current month. That will get you your unit’s cost per day.
3. Multiply that cost per day by the number of days remaining in your billing cycle.

That full calculation gets you the total amount of prorated rent you’ll need to pay. Say your monthly rent is $1,500 and you’re moving into your unit on April 12th. If your billing date is the first day of every month, you’ll calculate your prorated rent like this:

• $1,500 divided by 30 days in April equals $50 per day
• $50 per day times 19 billable days (the days left until you reach the first of the next month) equals $950

In this example, you would owe $950 of your $1,500 monthly rent for the month of April.

How to Prorate Rent When You Don’t Pay on the First of the Month

The simple steps that go into a prorated rent calculator need to be adjusted if your rent is not due on the first of the month. For example, your rent may be due on the 10th or the 15th of every month.

If that’s the case, you’ll calculate your prorated rent following a few more steps:

1. Divide your total monthly rent by the number of days in your current month to get the cost per day for the first month.
2. Multiply the cost per day for the first month by the number of days left in that month. That gives you a prorated amount for the days in that first month.
3. Repeat the process with the days of the next month.
4. Add the prorated amount for the days in the first month to the prorated amount for the days in the second month. That gets you your total prorated rent amount.

Alternate Ways to Calculate Prorated Rent

While prorating your rent based on the number of days in the current month is the most common way to make this calculation, you’ll find a few alternate ways to prorate rent. After all, the rent amount will change slightly depending on the month (think February vs. April vs. July). Other ways you can calculate prorated rent include:

• Using the number of days in an average month.
• Using the number of days in a “banker’s month” (30 days).
• Using the number of days in a year.

Now that you understand how to prorate rent, you can approach your landlord with the confidence you need. Ready to find a new place? Search thousands of apartments on Zumper and find one that works for you.