How to Add a Roommate to Your Lease

Getting Your Landlord's Approval

Read your current lease. Your current lease may have clauses regarding the procedure for adding new tenants. Your lease may include a clause that sets forth the requirements for new or additional tenants. If you see such a clause, make sure your prospective roommate meets those requirements. If your lease doesn't have that clause, you can get a good idea of what your landlord requires in new tenants by thinking back to what was required of you when you applied to rent your unit. There probably is an occupancy limit for your unit. If it's not included in your lease, you should make sure you ask your landlord before you make any commitment to your potential roommate.

Set an appointment with your landlord. You should find a time when both you and your prospective roommate can talk to your landlord about your possibilities. Make sure to set up a meeting with your landlord before your prospective roommate moves in, otherwise your landlord may consider you in violation of your lease. If you're not on close terms with your landlord, you might consider writing him or her a letter explaining what you want to meet about. Briefly explain that you want to add a roommate to your lease and provide a little background information about your prospect.

Complete the application requirements. Your landlord likely will want to complete the same process with your prospective roommate as he or she did with you. Most landlords have a screening process that includes a credit and income check and may require a background report. You may want to talk to your potential roommate before the two of you go to see the landlord and find out this information for yourself. If your potential roommate's background, income, and credit history compare favorably to your own, he or she most likely will be approved by your landlord.

Find out about additional costs. If another adult will be moving into your unit, your landlord may want to increase the monthly rent or require an additional deposit. You may want to find out if your landlord is willing to accept separate checks for the rent so all are not penalized if one person is late. Although most landlords are not willing to do this, it doesn't hurt to ask. If your landlord asks for an additional security deposit from your roommate, compare the amount to the amount you paid when you moved in. If they both are equal, this can make things much easier when you move out. However, if your roommate is being asked to pay more, you will have to take this into consideration when you and your roommate decide how to divide any refund after you move out. Your landlord may ask for additional rent in part because you're signing a new lease, or because more people living in the apartment means there will be more wear and tear to the property. Even if your security deposit was already at the maximum allowed by your state's law, it may go up if your rent goes up, since the maximum typically is set as a multiple of the monthly rent.

Creating a Roommate Agreement

Decide how to divide rent. Depending on the floor plan of your unit, it might not be as simple as dividing the total amount evenly. For example, if one of you has a larger bedroom than the other, you may want to portion out the rent so that the person with the larger bedroom pays more rent. You can do this easily by dividing the total rent by the total square footage of the apartment to get the rental cost per square foot, and then finding the difference between the square footage of the two bedrooms. Your rent section should include the total monthly rent and the day on which it is due each month. If your landlord only accepts a single payment, you may want to structure the agreement so that, for example, your roommate pays you by the first, and you pay the landlord the total by the third.

Make provisions for utilities and other shared expenses. Take into consideration how each of you use the living space when dividing the monthly bills. Keep in mind that if the utilities are in your name, you are considered legally liable for the entire amount each month. You may want to make your roommate's portion of the bill due to you several days to a week before you have to pay the utility company. If you have additional shared living expenses such as cable and internet, how you divide these may be based on how each of you uses these services. For example, if you have cable but you only have a TV in your room and your roommate doesn't own a TV, it may not make sense for your roommate to be paying half the cable bill since he or she obviously doesn't use it.

Outline the living arrangements. You can avoid future disagreements by carefully delineating which spaces are shared and which are private. Keep in mind that even mundane chores such as taking out the trash or washing the dishes can turn into significant battles if not dealt with properly. While it may seem like overkill to discuss these sorts of things before you've even moved in together, doing so can eliminate misunderstandings and confusion about responsibilities. Creating a schedule for chores is one way to keep things fair. However, you should include a provision for special cases or events. For example, if your roommate has a dozen friends over for dinner while you're at work, it probably should be her responsibility to do the dishes afterward – even if it's technically "your night" according to the schedule. Particularly if one or both of you is in school, you may want to designate specific hours each night or each week as "quiet hours" during which excessive noise or guests are prohibited. If either of you wants a period of time in which you're guaranteed to have the apartment yourself, these times should be scheduled and agreed upon in advance.

Establish a guest policy. To ensure privacy for both of you, come to an agreement on when and under what circumstances each of you can have guests. At a minimum, you probably want to require a certain amount of notice to the other roommate of an overnight guest. No one enjoys their roommate's latest paramour walking in on them standing in the kitchen eating ice cream in their underwear. You may want to establish longer notice periods for friends or family members visiting for a longer period of time. Keep in mind the longer someone will be staying, the more of an imposition they potentially will be. You also may want to set rules for how many days in a row, or how many days in a month-long period, any particular guest can stay over. This sort of thing may also be covered in your lease. For example, many leases have clauses stating anyone who stays for more than two weeks must be on the lease.

Address how to handle violations of the agreement. While you may naturally begin the relationship believing everything will be wonderful, having a plan in writing for what to do if a violation occurs can eliminate a serious dispute if something happens. Consider providing for mediation before either of you are allowed to sue the other. Mediation gives you more control over the outcome of the dispute and can help the two of you compromise and preserve your friendship. You typically can find mediator services through the clerk's office of your local courthouse. There also may be clinics at a nearby law school. Additionally, many universities have mediation services to assist students with roommate issues.

Set rules for moving out. In addition to division of any returned security deposits, you should plan who will be responsible for cleaning which parts of the unit. Your agreement should spell out what happens if one roommate leaves early, and his or her responsibility for paying rent and finding an acceptable replacement roommate. Account for the amount of the total security deposit paid by each roommate, and how any amounts withheld by your landlord to cover damages will be distributed. For example, although it may make sense to divide costs for damages equally in shared living spaces such as the living room or the kitchen, each roommate should be individually responsible for any damages to his or her own bedroom.

Sign the agreement. Because oral agreements can be forgotten over time and are too easily amended, your agreement should be put into writing and signed by all roommates. You don't have to use legalese or a complex contract structure – a simple outline is fine to create a roommate agreement, as long as its terms are understood. Many universities and tenants' rights organizations have sample roommate agreements online that you can use to guide the formation and structure of your agreement, or you can draft your own. You might want to consider signing the agreement in front of a notary public for added formality. Notaries often can be found in banks or private package delivery companies such as UPS, and will notarize your agreement for a small fee. Once the agreement is signed, make sure each of you has a copy of it. You also might consider providing a copy to your landlord. Although most of the provisions of a roommate agreement likely won't be enforced in a court, a judge likely will enforce any provisions related to money or your mutual obligations under the lease.

Signing a New Lease

Read the new lease carefully. Make sure you understand any added provisions to your lease, as well as the responsibilities you and your roommate have. Don't let the landlord intimidate you or pressure you into rushing through the agreement or reading it later. Your signature on the lease makes it legally enforceable against you, so you have the right to read it and understand it fully before you sign. Since roommates are both equally liable for the entire rent, your landlord likely will make you both sign a new lease. This protects you by making it clear that you both have the same rights and responsibilities under the lease.

Ask your landlord to explain any new provisions to you. Even if you think you understand something, it can be worthwhile to learn your landlord's interpretation of key clauses. If your landlord's interpretation differs from your own, it can be helpful to repeat what you understand the landlord has said. If he or she agrees that you've heard correctly, you can be certain both you and your landlord are on the same page. Try to make sure your roommate understands everything as well, especially the fact that both of you are individually liable for the entire amount of the rent.

Pay any amounts due. If your landlord has required additional deposits, you typically must pay this money before your roommate can move in. If you and your agreement have made any specific arrangements regarding payment, make sure your landlord knows these arrangements and that you have payment ready on the day that it's due. Regarding deposits, keep in mind that under the law the total deposit is owned jointly by both roommates, regardless of who paid what amount. If you don't intend to divide any refunded deposit amount equally, that agreement should be in writing as part of your roommate agreement, and you also should make it known to your landlord.

Sign the new agreement. The lease won't go into effect until it is signed by you, your new roommate, and your landlord. Once everyone has signed the agreement, make sure both you and your new roommate have copies of the lease for your personal records. You may want to keep your copy of the lease in a folder with your copy of the roommate agreement so you can refer to either of them if an issue arises.