How to Write a Roommate Agreement

Joint and several liability is the background rule

Where everyone is named on the lease, each co-tenant is usually liable for the whole rent, not just their share. If one roommate stops paying, the landlord can pursue whichever tenant is easiest to collect from, and the agreement between roommates does not change that.

What the agreement does is give the roommate who covered the shortfall a written, enforceable claim against the one who caused it — with the share, the due date and the payment history all recorded.

When only one person holds the lease

Then that person carries the whole obligation to the landlord, and the others are their subtenants or lodgers rather than the landlord's tenants. In most states those occupants have tenancy rights against the leaseholder, including the right to a court eviction rather than a lock change.

Nearly every lease also requires the landlord's written consent before anyone not named on it moves in. Without it the leaseholder is in breach and the occupant has no security at all — so consent, in writing, comes before the roommate agreement.

1. 1.Write down the rent share for each person and an internal payment day several days before the landlord's due date.
2. 2.Record who contributed what to the deposit and how it will be split when it comes back.
3. 3.Decide how utilities are held and reimbursed, and by when.
4. 4.Agree the rules that actually cause friction: guests, quiet hours, cleaning, smoking, pets.
5. 5.Set the notice a departing roommate must give and who finds a replacement.
6. 6.Sign, give everyone a copy, and write down any later change.

The clauses that earn their place

Rent shares and the internal payment day. Deposit contributions and how deductions caused by one person are borne by that person. Utilities: whose name they are in, how they are split, and when reimbursement is due. Bedrooms and shared space. Guests, with a night limit and no keys. Quiet hours. Cleaning. Smoking and pets.

Then the exit: how much notice, who finds the replacement, and what the departing roommate owes until one moves in. Most roommate disputes are about the exit, not about the dishes.

Removing a roommate

If the roommate is named on the lease, only the landlord can act — the other tenants cannot evict a co-tenant. If they are not on the lease, the person who let them in is usually their landlord and must go through the courts.

Either way, changing the locks, removing belongings or shutting off utilities is unlawful self-help in almost every state, with statutory damages attached. A written agreement makes the money claim straightforward; it does not create a private eviction route.