Split the rent. Split the chores.
Keep the friendship.
A roommate agreement records who owes what and who does what — between the roommates themselves. The landlord isn't a party, your lease stays exactly as it is, and nobody has to guess what was agreed in the group chat.
- Attorney-drafted
- Signed by every roommate
- ESIGN & UETA valid
How it works
From answers to a signed roommate agreement — in about two minutes
- 01
Name everyone and the lease
Who's signing, the residence, and the lease this agreement sits under. That's what ties the splits to a real tenancy.
- 02
Divide the money and the chores
Rent, deposit and utilities, then cleaning, house rules and what happens when someone wants to leave before the lease ends.
- 03
E-sign & download
Every roommate signs — legally valid under ESIGN/UETA — and each one keeps a copy alongside the lease.
Last updated August 19, 2026
Written by LawLease EditorialReviewed by LawLease Legal Team
By arrangement
Who signed the lease decides the document
A roommate agreement is for people who are all on the same lease and are dividing it among themselves. If one of you controls the property and the others pay you, or you're passing your unit on to someone else, it's a different document.
- RR
Room rental agreement
You own the home or hold the lease, and rent one room to someone else.
Learn more - SA
Sublease agreement
You're a tenant handing your unit — or part of it — to a subtenant.
Learn more - LA
Lease amendment
Actually change the lease — a name, the rent, the term — with the landlord signing.
Learn more - RL
Residential lease agreement
The tenancy itself, between the landlord and everyone renting the home.
Learn more - RA
Rental application
Screen a prospective roommate before they're on anything.
Learn more
What is a roommate agreement?
A roommate agreement is a contract among the people who share a rented home. It records how the rent and the deposit are divided, who handles which chores, the rules everyone lives by, and what happens when one person wants out before the lease ends. It runs between the roommates — the landlord is not a party and never signs it.
Your lease almost certainly makes you jointly and severally liable: if one roommate stops paying, the landlord can pursue any of you for the whole rent. A roommate agreement cannot change that, and a template that implies otherwise is selling false comfort. What it does is give the roommate who covered someone else's share a written basis to get it back. It is also called:
- Roommate contract
- Housemate agreement
- Flatmate agreement
- Rent-split agreement
- Shared household agreement
- Roommate rental agreement
Need to change the lease itself — a name on it, the rent, the term? That takes a lease amendment signed with the landlord. No agreement among roommates can do it.
Legal considerations
A roommate agreement is a contract among the people who signed it, enforceable like any other. What it is not is an amendment to the lease. It does not add or remove a name on the lease, it does not change the rent the landlord charges, and it does not bind a landlord who never signed it — this document says so on its own face, because roommate templates that blur the point create exactly the false confidence that ends in small-claims court.
The most consequential thing it can do is put the internal split in writing. Joint and several liability comes from the lease and survives whatever the roommates agree among themselves; the agreement is what turns “you owe me” into an obligation a court can read. The second most consequential is the departure clause — the one roommates almost always need and almost never write.
Every roommate
signs it — the landlord does not, and is not bound by anything in it
Joint liability
comes from the lease and survives whatever split you agree here
1 clause
for moving out early is the one roommates end up needing most
- The landlord is not a party
- Nothing in this agreement obliges the landlord to anything, because they never signed it. It governs how the roommates deal with each other — rent, deposit, chores, leaving — and stops there.
- It cannot change who is on the lease
- Adding a name, removing one, or changing the rent the landlord charges takes a lease amendment signed with the landlord. A roommate agreement sits underneath the lease; it never edits it.
- A rent split does not cap your exposure
- If the lease makes you jointly and severally liable, agreeing to pay a third of the rent does not limit the landlord to collecting a third from you. It limits what you owe the other roommates — which is a real and useful thing, just not the thing people assume.
- Write the departure clause before anyone wants to leave
- Notice period, who finds a replacement, whether the leaver stays liable until one is approved, and what happens to their deposit share. Written after someone announces they're going, it is a negotiation; written now, it is a rule.
- Record the deposit while you still remember who paid what
- Deposits are usually paid unevenly and returned as a single cheque months later. Write down each person's contribution and how deductions get attributed, or the last week of the tenancy becomes an argument.
- House rules are terms once everyone signs
- Quiet hours, guests, cleaning rotas and smoking are enforceable between roommates once they are in the agreement. Left in a group chat, they are preferences.
How to write a roommate agreement
Six steps take a shared lease to a signed agreement. Work through them in order — each one settles something that is far harder to raise once it has already gone wrong.
Everyone who shares the home and is signing. The landlord is not on this list.
- Each roommate's full legal name, spelled as it appears on the lease
- Anyone moving in later needs to sign too — the agreement binds signers only
- No landlord, no property manager, no guarantor
Free sample roommate agreement
Here's the format before you start. Read it through, then build your own version through the guided form and download it as a PDF.
Roommate Agreement
1. PARTIES AND PURPOSE. This Roommate Agreement (the “Agreement”) is made among (each a “Roommate”), who together rent the residence at (the “Residence”) under a lease with dated (the “Lease”). This Agreement takes effect on and governs how the Roommates divide their shared obligations while they live together.
2. RELATIONSHIP TO THE LEASE. This Agreement binds the Roommates to one another only. It does not modify the Lease and does not bind the landlord, who is not a party to it. If the Roommates are jointly and severally liable under the Lease, each remains fully liable to the landlord regardless of the splits agreed below; a Roommate who pays more than their share because another Roommate defaulted may recover the excess from the defaulting Roommate.
3. RENT. The total monthly rent under the Lease is , divided as follows:
4. SECURITY DEPOSIT. The deposit was contributed, and is returned, as follows:
5. UTILITIES AND SHARED EXPENSES.
Sharing a place?
Real humans read every message — whether it's about pricing, joint liability, or what belongs in the moving-out clause.