Sharing a Room or Your Home? Protect Yourself with a Roommate Agreement

Nov. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- Legalbargain.net, the online legal document preparation company, drafts Roommate Agreements ideally for those who are into sharing rooms and a portion of their homes such as common areas to others.  How practical is it to have a Roommate Agreement?

The housing market is very volatile. While prices of houses have dropped in most areas around the country and many of them are on short sale, not everyone can afford to buy one.  Factors to consider when buying a home include monthly mortgage payments if you are going to get one, day-to-day expenses, and repairs to make it livable.

Nowadays it’s not uncommon to simply find a room to rent and share a house with someone, the landlord being the owner of the house or a tenant allowed by a landlord to sublet. In fact, most college students and other young adults do this in order to economize.  When a person take in friends who have been evicted from their homes or have no place to stay, room sharing in the legal sense of the word unconsciously takes place.

Ordinarily such arrangements are entered into verbally especially if it is between relatives and friends. It is always nice to share especially if you have a room to spare, but sharing can also lead to misunderstandings and fights when rules are not laid out.  As the old saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt”, and how! The best way to avoid conflict is to have a written Roommate Agreement.

A Roommate Agreement is a contract that fixes the living arrangement of those sharing a house and/or a room.  It can take the form of an agreement between a landlord and a room tenant or among tenants sharing a room or common area.  The goal of the contract is to establish rules and guidelines for financial and household responsibilities and other living conditions.

The situation described above should be distinguished from a set-up where a couple in a relationship agree to live together like husband and wife under one roof, in which case a Cohabitation Agreement applies.

Roommate agreements typically contains the following: names of roommates, address of property;, portion of rent and security deposit to be paid by each roommate, portion of utilities to be paid by each roommate, house rules, household duties and restrictions, particulars on how the tenancy can be terminated, any other terms that the roommates think are appropriate, and of course the date of agreement.

Rent is normally shared equally among the parties but there is nothing in the law that prevents parties from having unequal shares as long as all parties voluntarily agree to this arrangement.  Roommates can also opt to pay directly to the landlord, or designate one roommate as the person in charge of collecting payment, writing a single check for all roommates and tendering the same to the landlord to make it convenient for the latter.  As with the rent payments, roommates need to agree between themselves how the utilities will be paid each month.  The roommate who consumes the most usually pays more than the others.

Parties to a Roommate Agreement should also have answers to the following questions before causing the preparation the document/agreement:  Under whose name will each utility bill will be in? Who is responsible for the payment to the utility company?  If some roommates do not use a certain utility, will they still be responsible for paying for it?  What responsibilities of roommates are expected in common areas?  What will be the duration of the agreement?

Cleaning the bathroom, watering the garden and doing other chores could also be an issue.  A judge of the local court is not likely to order you to do your chores, but it is best to lay out these responsibilities to ensure harmonious living conditions.  Financial agreements are enforceable by a court of law; hence, a roommate can take legal action if the other roommate refuse to comply with his part of the deal in order to avoid a bad mark on the complying roommate’s credit record.  Leaving the premises for good does not relieve a roommate from his financial obligations unless the landlord releases him from such obligation or allows assignment of rights and responsibilities to a new roommate/tenant.

Legalbargain.net believes that it is always wise to economize, and sharing is commendable but it is wiser to protect your rights by getting a Roommate Agreement.