Roommate Agreement Template printable pdf download

ROOMMATE AGREEMENT

(Revised 1 Aug 2008)

Why is a roommate agreement important?

A lease generally defines only the legal relationship between the tenants as a whole and their

landlord—not the relationship between the individual tenants. For example, your lease might require

only that a certain total amount of rent be paid—not how rent is to be divided between you and your

roommates.

Additionally, your lease (typically) will not govern your behavior towards each other. As

long as your behavior isn’t unlawful or a violation of the lease or the landlord’s rules, you can

basically do anything you want.

BUT: What if someone wants to have an overnight guest? What if that overnight guest turns

into a permanent guest, sharing utilities and space? What if your roommate decides to start

smoking? What if your roommate decides to engage in criminal activity in the apartment? What if

your roommate decides to stop bathing? What if your roommate leaves the apartment and never

returns, leaving you to pay all the rent and utilities?

A roommate agreement can assist you in forestalling many of these problems. It can also

help you decide what you should do if a disagreement occurs. Keep in mind that a roommate

agreement isn’t binding on your landlord. It only governs the relationship between roommates.

About the attached sample roommate agreement:

The attached sample agreement is meant to provide you with some guidance when you and

your roommates draft and sign an agreement. It probably contains more terms than your situation

actually requires and maybe not have everything you need. You should tailor the agreement to suit

your needs and add specific provisions to govern any situations that you want to be addressed. Read

the whole thing, first. Where alternative terms are provided, pick one and delete the others or at least

mark through those that don’t apply. All mark outs and changes should be initialed by all of the

roommates. Note that this sample doesn’t cover the situation where each roommate has an

individual lease. In such a case, be sure to modify the agreement appropriately.

As always, YOU SHOULD SEE A LICENSED ATTORNEY FOR ANY LEGAL ADVICE

OR QUESTIONS ABOUT LANDLORD-TENANT LAW and to ask questions about current laws

that might apply to your tenancy and your roommate agreement.

Curly brackets {} indicate optional or alternative terms. Select only one of the options and

remove (or mark out) the other option. Words in italics are instructions or comments and should be

removed (or marked out).

Roommate Agreement Template