Why does an off campus household need a roommate agreement?
Because you share a lease and a bank balance, not just a room. In a dorm the worst case is a noisy hallway. In an off campus house or apartment, one late share of the rent or one roommate who leaves in March becomes everyone's problem. A roommate agreement is the set of house rules you write for yourselves, and it sits next to the lease. It does not replace the lease, and your landlord is not part of it.
Even when everyone is on the lease, the lease rarely says who buys the trash bags, whose name is on the internet account, or what happens to a bedroom in July. The University of Michigan's Dean of Students tells students living off campus to sit down with their roommates before signing and agree on quiet hours, cleaning and how to split costs. That page also tells you to decide early how payments will be made and to keep records. The checklist below turns that advice into blanks you can fill in together.
Print this, grab a pen, and fill one blank per line. Write down the answer everyone can live with, not the one the loudest person wants.
Which money items belong in it?
Money first, because money is where friendships bend. Your lease sets what the household owes the landlord. Read it before you fill anything in, because many leases make each tenant responsible for the full rent, not just a share, and your landlord can tell you how yours works. The agreement covers what happens between the roommates.
Fill in each blank:
- Monthly rent share for each person: ______
- Who collects the shares and pays the landlord, and by what day of the month: ______
- How shares get paid to that person (bank transfer, payment app, check): ______
- What happens if a share is late, and how many days before the others speak up: ______
- Whose name is on each utility account (electric, gas, water, internet): ______
- How each utility bill gets split, and the day everyone else pays the account holder: ______
- How you handle a winter heating bill that runs high: ______
- Who buys shared supplies like soap and trash bags, and how you settle up: ______
- How the security deposit was paid and how any deduction for damage gets shared: ______
Which house rules prevent the most arguments?
Small daily stuff causes more fights than big money stuff, mostly because nobody said it out loud. Pick numbers and times, not vibes. Clean enough is a fight waiting to happen. Dishes washed within a day is a rule.
Fill in each blank:
- Cleaning: who does the kitchen, bathrooms, living room and trash, and how often: ______
- Quiet hours on weeknights and weekends, including exam weeks: ______
- Guests: how much notice for overnight guests, and how many nights in a row is too many: ______
- Shared items: what is fair game and what is off limits (food, kitchen gear, speakers, the TV): ______
- Parking, bikes and storage: who gets which space: ______
- Smoking, vaping, pets and alcohol in the common areas: ______
- Winter chores such as shoveling the walk, if the lease leaves it to the tenants: ______
- How you raise a problem (a house meeting, a group chat, a monthly check in): ______
What should it say about leaving early or subletting?
This is the section a dorm era checklist skips, and it is the one that matters most off campus. Someone will get an internship, go abroad for a semester or graduate in December. Decide how that works while nobody is leaving.
Start with the lease. Many Ann Arbor leases allow subletting only with written landlord approval, and some prohibit it. The Dean of Students page says to check your lease for restrictions and make sure everyone in the unit agrees, and that the original tenant often remains responsible to the landlord. Your landlord can tell you how your lease handles all of this. For a lease dispute or a question about what you are owed, the Housing section of Michigan Legal Help is a place to start looking for free legal information, and a lawyer can answer what a general guide cannot.
Fill in each blank:
- How much notice a roommate gives before moving out: ______
- Who covers that person's share until someone takes the room: ______
- Who finds a replacement, and how the others get a say before anyone signs: ______
- Whether a roommate may sublet their bedroom in summer, and who must approve in writing: ______
- Who talks to the landlord about any change to the lease or the people on it: ______
- How a leaving roommate hands back keys, clears out and settles bills: ______
- How summer is handled if some roommates stay and some go: ______
How do you keep it from gathering dust?
Write it before anyone moves in, or in the first week at the latest. Money topics go easiest while everyone still likes each other and nobody has missed a payment. If you already live together, do it this weekend. A late agreement beats none.
Keep it short enough to read in five minutes, have every roommate sign or reply yes in the group chat, and store a copy next to the lease. Put a date on your calendar to review it, once in September and again around winter break. When someone new joins through a sublet, hand them the page first. Browse current places on Wroomly and bring this checklist to the first conversation. Wroomly is independent of the university, and a blue check on a profile shows only a umich Google sign in.
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need a roommate agreement if we are all on the lease?
Yes, it is still worth writing. The lease covers what the household owes the landlord. It rarely says who pays which utility, how cleaning works, or what happens when one person leaves in March. A short agreement fills those gaps. Keep it next to the lease, and read the lease first.
What should a roommate agreement say about utilities?
Settle four things: whose name is on each account, how each bill gets split, who pays the company, and the day everyone else pays that person. Add what happens when a bill runs late or the winter heating bill jumps. Your lease should say who is responsible for utilities, so check it first.
Is a roommate agreement legally binding?
It is house rules the roommates write for themselves, and it sits next to the lease rather than replacing it. Your landlord is not part of it. Whether anyone could enforce one is a question for a lawyer, and the lease still governs what you owe the landlord. Treat it as a way to avoid fights.
When should roommates write the agreement?
Before anyone moves in, or in the first week at the latest. Money topics are easiest to settle while everyone still gets along and nobody has missed a payment. If you already live together, do it this weekend and add a review date for the fall and for winter break.
