50+ Sample Room Rental Agreements

What is a Room Rental Agreement?

A room rental agreement is a legally binding contract between a primary tenant and another party or the secondary tenant that wants to sublease or rent the vacant or available room. It defines both parties’ expectations and responsibilities, and it binds them to those precise duties and obligations once signed.

Written agreements, as opposed to oral agreements, are typically upheld by the law and have greater weight when it comes to enforcing tenant financial duties and obligations. When a primary tenant sublets a room or property to secondary tenants, Rent a Room Agreements are necessary to safeguard the interests of the secondary tenants.

Commonly Used Purposes of a Room Rental Agreement

If you’re pondering over why you would need a rental agreement for a room, then we offer you four reasons as to why you should have one. Settling these details with your second tenant can help clear them ahead of time. Avoiding situations that may be used against you or worse, have them complacent of the lack of such detail in the Roommate Agreement in the first place.

Having their significant other over: It is totally normal to be worried over your new roommate having their significant other over at most times of the day and or night. A room rental agreement can help establish boundaries for what is and is not permitted. After all, having someone who isn’t covered by the lease over all of the time might lead to higher utility costs and other dangerous scenarios.Constantly inviting guests: Similar to the earlier point, having other people over that are not covered by the lease will cause bills to increase and have more tendency to clean up after strangers. Having a rent agreement form is essential for keeping your space private, peaceful, and undisturbed since it allows you to specify which days of the week your roommates are not permitted to host gatherings or events, make excessive noise, or have unwelcome guests. This helps to avoid situations where a mess might be made or have furniture ruined.Splitting household expenses and other costs: Nobody wants to be the only one in the room doing the dishes or paying for cleaning materials while the other does nothing. When parties sign a room rental agreement, they can decide how housekeeping and other key responsibilities will be split. Depending on the agreement, you can state that each of you can pick up on your own mess and not have the other do it for them. Compromises can be made as long as it is peacefully settled upon. Basic maintenance responsibilities should not be carried exclusively by one party, therefore be sure to account for this in your Written Agreements.Respecting quiet hours and silence: You wouldn’t want to wake up in the early hours of the day to your neighbor knocking on your doorstep, complaining about the noise and ruckus your roommate may have caused. Or even just solely waking up to disruptions. Much more when it is the weekend where people would want to catch up on that extra sleep or rest from their busy weekday schedules. Setting quiet hours is crucial not just for a tenant’s comfort, but also for their sanity.

What Should You Include in the Room Rental Agreement?

In addition to the purposes, the following details should be included when writing out your room rent contract form. Use this part to lay out all of your housekeeping concerns. The only elements that don’t need to be included in Basic Rental Agreements are those that are already included in your lease, such as rent payments.

Purchasing Communal Items: Some things, such as cleaning supplies, spices, and rolls of toilet paper, will need to be purchased at the start of your tenancy. Who will be responsible for paying for these things, and how will you deal with divided expenses in the future? Communal groceries also fall within this category, because three gallons of milk is likely too much. Cleaning: Setting up a cleaning routine for the upkeep of your house may be beneficial. Make a roommate chore chart by writing out all of the essential tasks, splitting them up per individual, and putting a deadline on them. Divide chore responsibilities by preference if you have opposing views on which activities are repulsive and which are perfectly acceptable.
Noise: As mentioned above, noise may disrupt not only yourself but the neighbors around your space. Determine quiet hours by discussing everyone’s sleep routines. This is vital if your personalities clash such as one being one to listen to loud music while the other is not. Or if one has the tendency to stay up all night playing a game or making a phone call which may be too loud for comfort. Make sure to set boundaries between the two of you when it comes to noise.Guest Rules: It is up to you as the primary tenant in setting an example and settling this rule towards your secondary tenant. It’s good talking about what the rules are for visitors: could they use amenities and appliances? Also, who is eligible to stay the night? Someone they personally know may be considered but a stranger they have just met that they did not inform you about is another thing entirely. Is it necessary for family members to book a hotel room or are they allowed to sleep on an inflatable mattress in one of the communal areas?Food and Kitchen Space: Discuss where each roommate’s personal food products should be kept in the kitchen and pantry. Whether either of you will label specific grocery items or not. You should also decide if you’ll cook certain meals together or whether you’ll need to talk about alternating meal times to avoid anybody being pushed out of the kitchen. Dietary concerns should also be discussed and written in the document in cases of breach of it which can lead to emergencies involving allergies.Pets: Set guidelines for where the pet may wander off, who is responsible for cleaning up messes, and what happens if the pet’s owner is out of town for a few days if your rental property permits pets. And if the Landlord did not specify that pets are allowed or not, prepare a Pet Addendum to a Lease to avoid complications in the future.

How to Write a Room Rental Agreement?

When writing a room rental agreement form, it is important to keep in mind the necessary information that should be included in the document. Besides the points that were elaborated above, you should also have to follow this flow to provide a foundation for the rest of your terms and conditions. Check the example of a room rental agreement that has been provided in this article to get a better look at how one would appear as.

Step 1: Personal Information

In setting up the lease for renting a room, it should be a no-brainer to include the names and addresses of the Landlord who is the owner of the property, and the primary tenant who is leasing the room to another tenant. As well as their signatures to bind their involvement in the document.

Step 2: Set up the Monthly Rental Amount

Verbally discussing the security deposit is not enough to verify the agreement and acknowledgment between both parties. Not to say they are not trustworthy but it is important to have this statement in a legal document in order to have concrete evidence of the monetary payment involved. Maintenance charges and repairs should also be mentioned to make sure of future situations where they may be necessary to collect.

Step 3: Set the Period of Tenancy

The primary tenant and secondary tenant should have an agreeance on the dates that they will be sharing the common space together which will reflect on the room rental agreement. This indicates that any further date the secondary tenant will be staying in the premises is out of the document and can be up for discussion in the future. Ending a room rental agreement once the dates have passed will give the tenant protection against being used against them.

Step 4: Enlist the Responsibilities and Rights of the Tenants

This is the step where the terms of the tenancy are stated. You can refer to the common purposes and what to include in this part as reference. You have to make sure that this step is not overlooked upon the agreement to avoid confusion and arguments in the future. You can be as details as possible or as much as you want to set the boundaries early on.

Step 5: Restrictions and Conditions for Termination of the Agreement

Breaking a room rental agreement can be stressful for both parties but if the damages are worse then the primary tenant can set a restriction ahead against the secondary tenant to avoid causing this situation. As the primary tenant, you can also set the conditions for termination to avoid them committing the acts.

Step 6: Conditions for Renewal

If the period of the tenancy ends but the secondary tenant has followed through all the responsibilities and rights listed by the primary tenant and overall acted on their best behavior, then a condition for renewal is possible. You can include it in the Contracts and Agreements that if they wish to renew their stay, they must not perform bad acts.

Things That Can Be Avoided Having a Room Rental Agreement

Without a Room Rental (Roommate) Agreement, you run the danger of exposing yourself and other renters to high financial penalties and lost time, both of which can lead to considerable headaches and stress, as well as a possible lawsuit. A non-exhaustive list of the preventable distress that a room rental agreement might help prevent and resolve is provided below.

Lost Money: Because a party moved out early without warning, one party may be stuck paying higher rent, forfeiting a security deposit, or paying for property damage.Lost Time: If a roommate leaves early and without warning, the Rent Contract will be affected and you may be forced to conduct an impromptu search for a new roommate. Alternatively, if you and your roommate dispute about noise levels after midnight, you risk spending time trying to resolve the issue at a later, inconvenient hour.Lost Property: Borrowed personal goods might be destroyed or never returned if you don’t have a room rental agreement. Furthermore, if a common property is damaged during the lease, one party may be responsible for the cost.Complications in Relations: Failure to define a party’s rights and duties under a contract is a typical cause of strained relationships. A landlord may be suspicious of you because of your roommate’s conduct or failure to pay rent on time, or your friendship with your roommate may decline owing to minor misunderstandings.

What are the other types of rental lease agreements?

  • Fixed-Term Leases
  • Automatic Renewal Leases
  • Condominium (Condo) Rental Agreements
  • Short-Term or Vacation Rental Agreements
  • Commercial Lease Agreements
  • Land Lease Agreements
  • Rent-to-Own Lease Agreements

Can you do changes to a signed room rental agreement?

Other items that might be included in a tenancy agreement are: whether the tenant is permitted to sublet, the landlord’s responsibility to provide notice to inspect the property, who is liable for maintenance, if the tenant is allowed to keep pets, and any other duties the tenant or the landlord are required to fulfill. If a landlord or tenant wants to modify the terms of a tenancy agreement after it is already being processed, the other party must agree to the modification.

What is the difference between a roommate agreement and a room rental agreement?

A roommate agreement is a legally enforceable contract signed by both you and the individual who also shares living quarters. A room rental agreement is distinct from a lease agreement because it does not include the landlord.

A roommate contract can make co-living easier by setting ground rules upfront and creating a written document to reference in case issues arise. You can keep referencing it whenever situations call for such as the out-of-line behavior of your secondary tenant. Don’t be shy to include it in discussions to remind each other of the responsibilities that you both have agreed on. A simple room rental agreement can already help you out so much than not having one.