Joint Leases vs. Individual Leases for Roommates

On a joint lease, every roommate signs the same lease, and each of you is usually responsible for the entire rent and any damage, whatever share you agreed to pay. If one roommate stops paying, the landlord can collect the shortfall from any of the others and can try to evict everyone. On individual leases, also called by-the-bed or per-bedroom leases, each roommate signs a separate lease for one bedroom and owes only their own rent.

What joint and several liability means

Michigan Legal Help, a statewide legal self-help site, says leases usually make each roommate "jointly and severally liable," which means each roommate is fully responsible for the rent and any damage to the home. If the landlord files a court case, it can ask any one roommate for all of the rent or other damages. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid describes the same rule for co-tenants (roommates who signed the same lease) in Texas.

Here is how that plays out when three roommates rent a $2,700 apartment, agree to pay $900 each, and one of them pays nothing in March:

1. The landlord can demand the missing $900 from either of the other two, plus any late fee the lease allows, subject to state and local limits on the amount and timing. If none of you paid, it could demand the full $2,700 from any one of you.
2. If the rent stays unpaid, the landlord can file an eviction case against all three, even though two paid their shares.
3. If the other two cover the missing $900, they can try to recover that payment from the third roommate, in small claims court if the amount is under that court's limit.

Michigan Legal Help points out that all of this holds even when the roommates agreed that each would pay only a share, because that agreement binds only the roommates. Damage works the same way: if one roommate's guest breaks a door, the landlord can charge the repair to any roommate on the lease. If a share is already missing, see our guide to what to do when a roommate is not paying rent.

What happens if a roommate moves out or breaks the lease?

One roommate leaving does not end the lease for anyone, including the person who left. The roommates who stay still owe the full rent each month, and the one who moved out remains liable to the landlord until the lease ends unless the landlord agrees to release them. Get any release in writing. California's Department of Real Estate explains in its tenant guide that a landlord's agreement to a sublease or an assignment does not by itself free the original tenant. That takes a written agreement, called a novation, in which the landlord, the departing tenant, and the new tenant agree that the new tenant alone is responsible.

Your options when a roommate wants out:

• Replace the roommate on the lease. Find a replacement the landlord approves, then sign a new lease, or a written amendment, that removes the departing roommate and adds the new one. See our guide to removing a roommate from a lease.
• Sublet the room. If the lease allows it, the departing roommate can sublet the room to someone who pays them, but they stay liable for the rent and for any damage the subtenant causes.
• Cover the share and settle up. The roommates who stay pay the full rent and seek the departing roommate's share from that person directly.

New York's Roommate Law (Real Property Law section 235-f) gives tenants there one more option. When one of the tenants named on the lease moves out, the remaining tenants can replace that person with a new occupant (someone who lives there but is not on the lease) without the landlord's permission, as long as the total number of tenants and occupants, not counting occupants' dependent children, is no more than the number of tenants named on the lease. You must tell the landlord the occupant's name within 30 days after the person moves in. The newcomer is not a tenant, has no right to stay if the tenants leave unless the landlord agrees in writing, and does not take the departed roommate's place on the lease.

If the whole household moves out before the lease ends, each of you can be held responsible for the rent through the end of the term, subject to your state's rules on early termination and on the landlord re-renting the unit. Our guide to breaking a lease early covers those rules.

How individual (by-the-bed) leases work

With individual leases, each roommate signs a separate lease with the landlord for one bedroom plus shared use of the kitchen, living room, and other common areas. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid explains that each tenant in the unit is then separately responsible for following their own lease, so one roommate's unpaid rent is a matter between that roommate and the landlord.

Texas State University's Attorney for Students, which reviews student leases, describes other terms that usually come with these leases:

• Rent is set per person. Your rent stays the same whether the unit has two roommates or six.
• The landlord picks your roommates. Most of these contracts give the landlord sole discretion to assign bedrooms, roommate requests are usually not guaranteed, and the landlord can move residents, even splitting up people who applied together.
• Common areas are a shared responsibility. All residents share the common areas, so damage or violations there by one resident can be charged to the others.
• The year's rent may be owed from the start. Many individual leases are installment agreements: you commit to the full year's rent when you sign and pay it monthly, rent is often not prorated, and moving out early does not by itself reduce what you agreed to pay.

Joint vs. individual leases compared

Which lease should you choose?

Choose a joint lease when you know your roommates' payment habits, accept the risk of owing the full rent for the remaining lease term, and want to decide who moves in. Choose individual leases when you are moving in with people you do not know, could not afford to pay another person's rent, and are willing to let the landlord fill empty bedrooms.

If a parent or other guarantor is signing for you, check the guaranty before you decide. Penn State's student affairs office warns that a guarantor takes on the same obligations as the tenant, including joint and several liability, so on a joint lease a parent may be guaranteeing the rent of every roommate on the lease as well as their own child's. Our guide to having a cosigner on your lease covers what a guarantor owes and for how long.

Before you sign either type, find the liability clause and look for the words "jointly and severally," then read what the lease says about a roommate who wants to leave or be replaced. Our guide to understanding your lease terms explains the other clauses to check.