Creating a Roommate Agreement: What to Include

A roommate agreement should spell out each person's share of the rent, bills, and security deposit, the house rules on chores, guests, noise, and pets, and what happens when someone moves out. It is a contract among the roommates who sign it, not with the landlord: on a joint lease, the landlord can still collect the full rent or the full cost of damage from any one of you, whatever your agreement says. Write it before move-in, check every term against the lease, and have each roommate sign and keep a copy, so you have evidence if you ever need to recover money from a roommate in small claims court.

How your lease shapes the agreement

The lease decides who the landlord can hold responsible for the rent and damage. Find which of these setups you have:

• Joint lease. Every roommate signs one lease. Michigan Legal Help, a statewide legal self-help site, says leases usually make roommates "jointly and severally liable," so the landlord can demand all of the rent, or the whole cost of a repair, from whichever roommate it chooses. If four roommates owe $600 each on a $2,400 rent and one pays nothing, the landlord can collect the missing $600 from any of the other three. Your agreement decides how the roommates divide the money and how someone who covered another person's share gets repaid.
• Individual leases. Each roommate signs a separate lease for a bedroom. TexasLawHelp.org explains that each tenant is then separately responsible for following their own lease, so your agreement covers shared bills, supplies, and house rules rather than rent.
• One leaseholder. One roommate signs the lease and the others pay that person. California's Department of Real Estate tenant guide calls someone who moves in with the original tenant and shares the rent a subtenant: the original tenant still owes the landlord the full rent and acts as the subtenant's landlord. Your agreement then works as a sublease, and the lease may require the landlord's consent before anyone moves in.

To tell which setup you have, check who signed the lease and look in its liability clause for the words "jointly and severally." Our guide to joint leases vs. individual leases compares the first two.

What to put in a roommate agreement

Write each term with names, dollar amounts, dates, and day counts. Leave out anything the lease forbids, such as a pet or an occupant the landlord has not approved.

Rent, bills, and the deposit

• Rent shares. List each person's dollar amount, how you arrived at it (equal shares, room size, or income), and the date shares are due. Follow applicable rent limits: in a New York rent-stabilized apartment, a leaseholder cannot charge a roommate who is not on the lease more than their proportionate share of the rent, such as half for one leaseholder and one roommate. Without an agreement on a different split, Michigan Legal Help says roommates are usually treated as equally responsible for the rent.
• Who pays the landlord. Name the roommate who collects the shares and sends the full rent, or state that each of you pays a share through the landlord's portal.
• Bills. List each utility and service, whose name is on the account, how the cost is divided, and when shares are due. Our guide to splitting bills and expenses with roommates compares split methods.
• The deposit. Record what each person paid toward the security deposit, how move-out deductions will be divided, and who receives and pays out the refund. See splitting security deposits with roommates.
• Damage. Assign damage in a bedroom to the person who lives there, damage by a guest to the roommate who invited that guest, and shared-area damage no one caused alone to everyone in proportion to their shares.
• Late shares. State that a roommate who covers a late share is repaid within a set time, such as 7 days, along with any late fee the landlord charged because of it.

House rules

• Chores. Set a rotation for the kitchen, bathroom, trash, and floors, and describe what "clean" means for each.
• Guests. Say how many nights a guest can stay in a week or month before everyone has to agree, and when a frequent overnight guest starts paying toward bills. TexasLawHelp.org notes that a guest who lives there continuously or contributes money may become a tenant or subtenant, and the lease's guest clause may limit how long anyone can stay. See our guide to guest policies between roommates.
• Noise and smoking. Set quiet hours, for example 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights, and say whether smoking or vaping is allowed at all, within any smoking rules in the lease.
• Pets. Add a pet only if the lease allows it, and make the owner responsible for its care, any pet deposit or pet rent, and any damage. California's tenant guide explains why the lease controls: a subtenant cannot keep a pet the lease forbids, because that puts the original tenant in violation of the lease.

Moving out and replacements

• Notice. Set how many days' notice a roommate must give the others before leaving, such as 60.
• Rent until replaced. State whether a departing roommate keeps paying their share until a replacement moves in or until the lease ends. On a joint lease, moving out does not end that person's duty to the landlord. California's tenant guide says that even when the landlord approves a replacement, the original tenant stays responsible unless the landlord, the departing tenant, and the new tenant sign a written agreement releasing them, called a novation.
• Choosing a replacement. Say who looks for candidates, whether every remaining roommate must approve, and that the landlord approves the person before they move in.
• The departing roommate's deposit share. Decide whether the replacement buys it out or the departing roommate waits for the final refund.

New York gives tenants one more option. Its Roommate Law (Real Property Law section 235-f) lets the remaining tenants replace a departing tenant with a new occupant, someone who lives there but is not on the lease, without the landlord's permission. The number of tenants and occupants, not counting occupants' dependent children, cannot exceed the number of tenants named on the lease, at least one named tenant or that tenant's spouse must still live there as a primary residence, and the landlord must get the occupant's name within 30 days after that person moves in. For the rest of what changes when someone leaves, see what happens when a roommate moves out early.

Disputes

List the steps you will take before anyone goes to court: raise the problem at a house meeting, put it in writing and cite the clause, try mediation, and file in small claims court only if money is owed. Michigan Legal Help points to community dispute resolution centers, which may charge on a sliding scale. Our guide to resolving roommate conflicts covers the earlier steps.

Roommate agreements for couples

A couple sharing a rental with other roommates should settle these points before move-in:

1. Per room or per person. Decide whether the couple pays one bedroom's share or two people's shares. In a three-bedroom apartment renting for $3,000 with four residents, a per-room split charges each bedroom $1,000, so the couple pays $1,000 together. A per-person split charges each resident $750, so the couple pays $1,500.
2. Bills that rise with use. Count the couple as two people for water, electricity, and any shared groceries.
3. Who is on the lease. If only one partner signed, the other may still be a tenant under an oral agreement or a subtenant of the leaseholder, depending on state law. The landlord may have to approve that partner living there.
4. A breakup plan. Decide who keeps the room, how much notice the partner who leaves gives, and who pays that partner's share until someone replaces them. If both partners signed the lease, both stay responsible to the landlord after a breakup unless the landlord releases one of them in writing.
5. Partners who move in later. Agree on whether a single roommate's partner can move in during the lease and how the rent and bills would change if one does.

If a partner becomes abusive, a court protective order can keep that person out of the home. In California, a tenant with a protective order that excludes a co-tenant can ask the landlord in writing to change the locks, attaching a copy of the order, and the landlord has 24 hours to do it; the excluded co-tenant still owes rent under the lease. Under MCL 554.601b, Michigan tenants who reasonably fear present danger from domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault can seek early release from rent obligations by sending the landlord written notice and qualifying documents by certified mail. Monthly rent generally remains due through the month following notice, and the obligation continues if the tenant has not moved out.

What a roommate agreement can and cannot enforce

A signed agreement can:

• Support a claim for money. If a roommate does not repay a share you covered, or leaves owing for a bill or damage, you can sue that roommate. Small claims courts hear these cases up to a set limit, such as $12,500 for an individual in California, and Texas justice courts hear claims up to $20,000. TexasLawHelp.org notes that you have to prove what the roommate owes by showing each tenant's contribution, so bring the agreement and your payment records.
• Show what everyone agreed to. A mediator or judge can read the signed terms instead of weighing competing memories.

It cannot:

• Bind the landlord. A term binds the landlord only if the landlord signs it. California, for example, lets the landlord and all adult tenants sign a written agreement on how the deposit refund will be divided (Civil Code section 1950.5).
• Override the lease. A clause allowing a pet, an extra occupant, or a sublet that the lease forbids does not protect anyone from a lease violation.
• Remove a co-tenant. If your roommate or partner is on the lease, you cannot evict them or lock them out, even after a breakup. Michigan Legal Help says the eviction process is available only between a landlord and a tenant, and TexasLawHelp.org says a co-tenant "has as much right to occupy the space as you do." A roommate who is not on the lease may still have become your tenant or subtenant, and in Texas only a court can order a tenant evicted.
• Turn house rules into court orders. California's courts describe small claims as a way to sue someone you believe owes you money, so a chore or quiet-hours clause helps in court mainly when breaking it cost you money, such as a cleaning charge taken from the deposit. Otherwise, settle those disputes at house meetings or in mediation.

How to write and sign the agreement

1. Read the lease first. Mark its clauses on rent, guests, occupants, pets, subletting, and liability, and write nothing that conflicts with them.
2. Draft it together. Use specific terms, for example: "Each roommate pays $800 of the $2,400 rent to Sam by the 27th; Sam pays the landlord by the 1st."
3. Sign before anyone moves in. Every roommate signs and dates it, and each keeps a copy.
4. Pay in ways that leave a record. Use bank transfers, checks, or payment apps rather than cash, so your payment history backs up the agreement.
5. Update it in writing. Revise it when someone moves in or out or the rent changes, and have everyone sign the new version.