Create Your Room Rental Agreement
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Whether you own the home and rent out a room, rent an apartment and are bringing in a roommate, or share a lease and want the split in writing, the rules are different — and so is the agreement. This form builds the right one for your arrangement, written to your state's rules on deposits, notice and roommates, with house rules and a disclosures section everyone signs.
- Room Rental, Roommate Addition or Roommate Agreement — matched to your arrangement
- For homeowners, tenants adding a roommate, and co-tenants on one lease
- Your state's deposit cap, return deadline and penalty rules
- California single-lodger and New York Roommate Law clauses where they apply
- Flags a term past the master lease end and missing landlord consent
- House rules and furnishings annexes
- Disclosures & Signing section: deposit statute, lead-paint checklist, fair housing
- Instant PDF download
- 9
- Steps
- 50
- States Covered
- 2026
- Updated
What's Included in This Room Rental Form
One form, three agreements built on the same spine — the arrangement you pick decides the legal regime.
Room Rental Agreement (Owner-Occupied)
For a homeowner renting a room in the home they live in: the room and shared areas, term and how it ends under your state's rule, rent, deposit, utilities, house rules, liability and guests, and signatures.
Roommate Addition Agreement
For a tenant bringing a roommate into a home they rent: a recital of the master lease, the landlord's consent (or, in New York, the Roommate Law basis), and how rent, deposit and bills split between you. It's co-occupancy, never a sublease.
Roommate Agreement Between Co-Tenants
For people already on the lease together: each person's share, who paid what into the deposit, what happens when someone leaves early, and house rules. It states plainly that it doesn't bind the landlord.
Disclosures & Signing
Your state's deposit statute, a lead-paint checklist for pre-1978 homes, a fair-housing statement, an occupancy note, and the signature blocks — plus Annex A House Rules and Annex B Furnishings.
The Process, In Order
Shared housing goes smoothly when everyone signs the same written terms before move-in.
Pick the Arrangement
Owner renting a room, tenant adding a roommate, or co-tenants. If you're moving out and someone is taking your place, that's a sublease — the form points you to the Sublease Agreement instead.
Describe the Home and the Room
The room, what's shared, the year built (for the lead-paint checklist) and the bedroom count. For a roommate under a lease, the master lease's end date and what it says about occupants.
Set the Money
Rent, each person's share, the deposit and who holds it, and the utilities split. Shares of the master rent must add up before the agreement generates.
Set the Term and House Rules
The term, the notice to end it, quiet hours, guests, chores. Rules enforce socially; having them in writing is what makes the conversation easy.
Doing It the Right Way
A room in your home is still housing, and housing law follows it — deposits, exits and fair housing included.
Treat the Deposit by the Statute
Whoever holds the deposit holds it under the state's deposit law: one month's cap and a 21-day itemized return in California (Civ. Code §1950.5), one month and 14 days in New York (GOL §7-108), two months in Georgia (O.C.G.A. §44-7-30.1). The form flags an over-cap deposit and prints the rules.
End It the Lawful Way
Outside California's single-lodger rule, a paying roomer often gets the ordinary tenant process, and changing the locks is unlawful everywhere. The agreement sets the notice terms so the exit is orderly.
Stay Inside the Master Lease
A roommate under your lease can't be given more than you have: the form warns when the term runs past the master lease end and offers to cap it, and flags when the lease requires landlord consent you haven't recorded.
Fair Housing Applies at Home Too
The agreement carries a fair-housing statement, the form has no preference or protected-class fields, and it doesn't run background checks or help pick a roommate.
New York's Roommate Law
A New York lease can't bar a tenant from sharing the apartment with one additional occupant (RPL §235-f) — but the tenant must give the landlord the roommate's name within 30 days. The Roommate Addition Agreement prints a ready notice line so the duty doesn't slip.
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Room Rental Agreement
- Room Rental, Roommate Addition or Roommate Agreement — matched to your arrangement
- For homeowners, tenants adding a roommate, and co-tenants on one lease
- Your state's deposit cap, return deadline and penalty rules
- California single-lodger and New York Roommate Law clauses where they apply
- Flags a term past the master lease end and missing landlord consent
- House rules and furnishings annexes
- Disclosures & Signing section: deposit statute, lead-paint checklist, fair housing
- Instant PDF download
Did you know?
Did you know?
Who owns the home changes the law. In California, an owner who lives in the home and rents to a single lodger has a lighter path to end the arrangement than a landlord has with a tenant (Civ. Code §1946.5). In New York, a roomer in the owner's home is a licensee who can be given 10 days' notice (RPAPL §713(7)), while a tenant has a statutory right to one additional occupant that no lease clause can take away (RPL §235-f). In most other states, a paying roomer is treated as a tenant with the full process. Add the deposit — capped at one month's rent in California and New York, returned within 21 and 14 days — and a handshake deal carries more legal weight than it looks. This form puts the arrangement, the money and the exit in writing for whichever setup you have.
Featured — Spotlight
Tailored to your state's shared-housing rules.
Pick your state and the form loads the rules for sharing a home: the deposit cap, return deadline and penalty from your state's statute (all 50 states + DC), California's single-lodger regime (Civ. Code §1946.5), New York's Roommate Law (RPL §235-f) and licensee notice (RPAPL §713(7)), Georgia's at-will notice (60 days from the landlord, 30 from the renter), and state notes for Texas, Florida, Ohio and Illinois. Local rules in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Chicago are flagged where they apply. Everywhere, the agreement carries a fair-housing statement and a lead-paint checklist for homes built before 1978.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about room rental and roommate agreements
It depends on who owns the home and who stays. A homeowner renting a room in the home they live in uses a Room Rental Agreement. A tenant who stays and brings in a roommate uses a Roommate Addition Agreement; co-tenants who are all on the lease use a Roommate Agreement between themselves. If you're moving out and someone takes your place, that's a sublease — a different document, and the form points you to it.
You don't have to have one, but the deposit statute applies to you either way, and the exit rules are state law. In California, an owner living with a single lodger has a lighter termination path (Civ. Code §1946.5); in many states a paying roomer gets the ordinary tenant process, and changing the locks is unlawful everywhere. A written agreement sets the rent, deposit, notice and house rules before anyone needs them.
Check your lease first: it may permit roommates, require the landlord's consent, or say nothing. The form records the consent if you have it and warns you if the lease needs it. In New York, the Roommate Law lets a tenant share with one additional occupant regardless of the lease, as long as the landlord gets the roommate's name within 30 days (RPL §235-f). Either way, the roommate's term shouldn't run past your own lease — the form flags it if it does.
Most shared leases make each co-tenant responsible for the whole rent, so the landlord can collect from any one of you. A roommate agreement sets out what happens between you: each person's share, deposit contributions, early departures, guests and chores. It's a contract among the roommates and states plainly that it doesn't bind the landlord.
Your state's deposit statute applies: one month's rent in California (Civ. Code §1950.5) and New York (GOL §7-108), two months in Georgia (O.C.G.A. §44-7-30.1), no cap in some states — with return deadlines and penalties for wrongful withholding. The form flags a deposit over your state's cap and prints your state's rules in the Disclosures & Signing section. This is a self-help document tool, not legal advice.
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Everything included
- Unlimited legal-form generation
- Unlimited guide unlocks across every state
- Complete legal kits included with membership
- Completed PDFs stay in your library
- Cancel any time