Adding a Roommate to Your Lease: Process and Considerations

To add a roommate to your lease, ask your landlord in writing, have the new person apply and pass the landlord's screening, and then have the landlord and every tenant sign either an amendment that adds the person to your current lease or a new lease. Moving someone in without required approval can violate the lease and give the landlord grounds to try to evict everyone on it, unless your state lets you add an occupant without permission, as New York does for one extra person when only one tenant is named on the lease. Once the new roommate signs, they share responsibility for the full rent, and you cannot take them off the lease without the landlord.

Do you need your landlord's permission?

Check your lease's clauses on occupants, guests, subletting, and assignment (transferring your lease to someone else). Any of them can require the landlord's written consent before someone moves in. State and program rules can change the answer:

• Texas. Texas Property Code section 91.005 says a tenant may not rent the leased home to another person during the lease term without the landlord's prior consent. TexasLawHelp.org advises getting that permission in writing before you sublet your space.
• California. If your lease prohibits subleasing or assignment, you need the landlord's permission first. California's Department of Real Estate tenant guide treats a person who moves in with you and shares the rent as a subtenant, and it lists subletting in violation of the lease among the at-fault reasons a landlord can use to end a tenancy.
• New York. The Roommate Law (Real Property Law section 235-f) makes a lease term that limits occupancy to the named tenant and immediate family unenforceable. If you are the only tenant named on the lease, you can add one occupant, plus that occupant's dependent children, without the landlord's consent, as long as you or your spouse lives there as a primary residence. Tell the landlord the occupant's name within 30 days after they move in. The occupant is not a tenant and has no right to stay if you leave unless the landlord agrees in writing.
• Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8). Federal program rules require the housing agency to approve everyone who lives in the unit, and the family may not sublet it. Ask the agency before anyone moves in.

How to add a roommate, step by step

1. Screen the person first. Check identity, income, rental history, and credit before you involve the landlord; see how to find and screen a compatible roommate.
2. Check the occupancy limit. Your household has to fit the local housing code and any reasonable limit in the lease. Under a 1998 policy statement, HUD treats a landlord's limit of two people per bedroom as generally reasonable under fair housing law. See occupancy limits in rental housing.
3. Ask in writing. Email or write the landlord with the person's name, the planned move-in date, and whether you want them added as a tenant or approved as an occupant. Ask for the application, any fee, and the screening criteria.
4. Have the new person apply. The landlord can check their credit, rental history, and income as it would for any applicant; see your rights during tenant screening. In California, a landlord that lets married couples combine incomes to qualify must let unmarried roommates combine theirs too.
5. Get the decision in writing. An email from the landlord approving the person, with any new terms, is your proof.
6. Sign the paperwork. The landlord and every tenant sign the amendment or the new lease, and each tenant keeps a fully signed copy. Our guide to lease addendums and amendments explains how to sign a change so it holds up.
7. Settle shares among the roommates. Write the newcomer's share of the rent and bills, and what they pay toward the deposit, into a roommate agreement.

Amendment or new lease: what changes?

An amendment adds the new person to your current lease and keeps its other terms unless the landlord and tenants agree to change them, subject to applicable law. A new lease replaces the current one, and everyone signs it.

During a fixed-term lease, California's tenant guide says the landlord cannot raise the rent unless the lease allows increases, so a landlord that wants more rent for the extra person needs terms you agree to, subject to applicable rent limits. For California units covered by Civil Code section 1947.12, adding a roommate and signing a new lease does not remove the rent cap while an existing tenant remains. Read a proposed new lease for its rent, end date, and fees before you sign. You can decline, but the landlord may then refuse to approve the roommate, except where a law like New York's lets you add the person anyway.

If the landlord asks for an additional deposit, any increase must comply with your state's limit, if it has one. In California, most landlords may demand or collect a total deposit of no more than one month's rent, and certain small landlords up to two months' rent. These caps do not apply to deposits collected or demanded before July 1, 2024, so a lawful older deposit can remain above the current cap when a roommate joins an existing tenancy (Civil Code section 1950.5(c)(6)).

In a California unit covered by the state's Tenant Protection Act, adding an adult tenant can delay just cause protection, the rule that a landlord needs a legal reason to end a tenancy. If an adult tenant is added before an existing tenant has lived there 24 months, the protection applies only once all the tenants have lived there 12 months or one has lived there 24 months (Civil Code section 1946.2).

Tenant, approved occupant, or unapproved roommate

Adding the person as a tenant spreads responsibility for the rent, but it also gives them the same right to live there that you have. TexasLawHelp.org notes that a co-tenant "has as much right to occupy the space as you do," so you cannot remove them on your own; see removing a roommate from your lease. Keeping the person as an approved occupant leaves you answerable to the landlord for all of the rent and any damage they cause.

What happens if you move someone in without approval?

• The landlord can act on the lease violation. California's tenant guide lists violating a material lease term, often after a written notice to correct it, and subletting in violation of the lease among the at-fault reasons a landlord can use to end a tenancy. Michigan Legal Help notes that a landlord can try to evict all the roommates over one roommate's lease violation.
• You carry the costs. TexasLawHelp.org says you are responsible for unpaid rent or property damage caused by a person you sublet to, unless that person signed a separate lease with the landlord.
• The person can be hard to remove. Someone who has lived with you continuously or paid toward the rent may have become your tenant or subtenant, and in Texas only a court can order a tenant evicted.

If someone has already moved in, ask the landlord for approval in writing now rather than waiting for a notice.