Rent by the room lease agreement

[Brittany Myers]

I am looking to do the rent by the room strategy but am at a loss on how to structure a lease. I’m assuming I’d need separate leases for each roommate since people will be arriving/departing on different days. I’ve looked at the lease templates provided by Zillow and Apartments.com because I like the digital signature functionality but there is really no room to customize the lease. Has anyone done rent by the room or have any suggestions on how to structure a lease for this strategy?

[James Carlson]

@Brittany Myers

I'd reach out to @Drew Fein as I'm not a lawyer. We send our house hacking clients in Denver and Colorado Springs her way. She can tell you more, but essentially it's a standard lease with a few important tweaks, namely: 1. addressing how to handle shared costs and shared-space damage; and 2. protecting you, the landlord, from the liability of having chosen these rent-by-the-room tenants. (If one of them damages property of another tenant or assaults the other, then you -- as the person responsible for vetting the tenants -- could be held responsible.)