Roommate Agreements: What They Cover, and the One Thing They Can't

The one thing it can't do

Nearly every residential lease signed by more than one person makes them jointly and severally liable. The phrase is doing a lot of work. "Jointly" means the tenants owe the obligation together. "Severally" means each one of them also owes the whole of it, individually.

The practical result: rent is $3,000, three roommates, $1,000 each in your heads. One moves out in March and stops paying. The landlord is owed $3,000 and is entitled to pursue any one of you for the full amount. The landlord does not have to try the person who left first, does not have to split the claim three ways, and does not care what your roommate agreement says about shares. If your name is on that lease, the landlord can take the whole thing from you — and then you are the one who has to go get $1,000 back from someone who has already left.

That is not a defect in roommate agreements. It is the point of understanding them: the agreement is what turns "he owes me, morally" into a signed, dated, specific obligation you can take to small claims court. It works after the landlord has been paid, not instead of paying them.

A roommate agreement that does not say this plainly is worse than no agreement at all, because it leaves three people believing they are each responsible for a third of the rent when the law says otherwise.

Which one are you?

Before anything else, work out your actual legal position. People use "roommate" for all three of these and they are not interchangeable.

Two practical notes. Subletting almost always requires the landlord's written consent, and doing it without consent is a lease breach that can put the original tenant's tenancy at risk. And a person who is on the lease is far better protected against being pushed out than one who is not — which is worth weighing when someone offers to move in "informally" to keep things simple.

What to put in the agreement

1. The lease it sits under. Its date, the address and unit, and the names of everyone on it. Then the sentence that matters: this agreement is between the roommates only, does not amend the lease, does not bind the landlord, and does not change anyone's liability to the landlord.
2. Rent shares that add up to the full rent. Each person's amount, the date it is due, who it is paid to, and how. If one person pays the landlord and collects from the others, say so and set their deadline earlier than the landlord's.
3. Unequal rooms, unequal rent. If one bedroom is twice the size or has the only ensuite, write the split you actually agreed. Almost every roommate dispute about money starts as a dispute about square footage nobody wrote down.
4. Utilities and shared costs. Which accounts are in whose name, how bills are split, when they are settled, and what is shared beyond utilities — internet, cleaning supplies, a streaming subscription somebody is paying for.
5. The security deposit. Who contributed how much, that the landlord will likely return it as a single payment to one person, and how it is divided at the end — including how a deduction caused by one person's damage is charged to that person rather than shared.
6. Guests and overnight stays. A number and a duration, because "my partner is staying over a lot" is the second most common source of roommate conflict and the one people are least willing to raise verbally.
7. Quiet hours, cleaning, shared space, food, parking, pets, smoking. Specific and dated. A rota beats "we'll all pitch in".
8. Moving out. How much notice to the others — 30 or 60 days is typical — and that the departing roommate remains responsible for their share until a replacement is approved and on the lease.
9. Replacing a roommate. Who finds them, who has to approve them, and the explicit acknowledgment that the landlord must consent to any change in the tenants named on the lease.
10. What happens if someone doesn't pay. The roommates who cover the shortfall are entitled to recover it from the one who defaulted, with interest if you want it, and the agreement is evidence of that debt. Say it explicitly — it is the clause you would actually take to court.
11. How disputes get handled. A house meeting first, then mediation, then small claims. Low stakes, but it stops a $200 argument becoming a moving-out argument.
12. Signatures from everyone, dated, with each person keeping a copy.

When a roommate stops paying

The order of operations matters, because the expensive mistakes happen in the first week.

1. Pay the landlord. This is counterintuitive and it is right. Withholding to make a point puts every tenant on the lease into default, including you, and a judgment or an eviction filing follows you into every future rental application. Cover it, then recover it.
2. Write it down immediately. What was owed, what you paid, on what date. A short message to the roommate stating the amount and asking for it starts a record.
3. Do not lock them out, and do not touch their belongings. Self-help eviction is unlawful and the damages for it routinely exceed the rent you were arguing about.
4. Send a demand. A short written demand with the amount, the dates and a deadline resolves more of these than people expect, and it is what a court will want to see. Our guide to demand letters covers the structure — the same one works for a roommate as for a client.
5. Talk to the landlord about the lease, separately. If the roommate has gone for good, the fix is a lease amendment removing them and adding someone else, which needs the landlord's consent. Do not assume a departure notice to you is a departure notice to them.
6. Small claims, if it comes to it. Your roommate agreement, the payment records and the demand letter are the case. This is the moment the agreement earns back the twenty minutes it took to write.

Write it while everyone still likes each other

Roommate agreements have a reputation for being awkward, and the awkwardness is entirely front-loaded. Twenty minutes at the kitchen table before anyone moves in, when nobody is angry and nobody has a position, is a completely different conversation from the one in month seven.

Two things to do at the same time. Read the lease you are all signing — our guide to what must be in a residential lease covers the clauses that are void regardless of signature, which is useful to know before you sign one. And document the condition of the place on move-in day with photographs, because the deposit you split at the end is the last shared expense and the one most likely to end badly.

This article is general information about how contracts commonly work, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws differ by jurisdiction and change over time. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before relying on any agreement.