There are many people in the world who will agree to something, shake on it, and then do the complete opposite. Don’t you just hate that? Or perhaps nothing was said at all, but you felt it was reasonable to expect your new roommate would pay their portion of the long distance bill, but somehow they got the impression that since the telephone bill was in your name they were not responsible for lengthy calls to long distance lovers ending with “no, I’m not going to hang up first … you hang up first … no, I love you more”. I guess you should have had them sign a Roommate Agreement (RA).
An RA is much like a lease, except it leaves out all that “person of the first part” mumbo jumbo that people rarely understand and replaces it with more important details like who is taking out the garbage and when.
Here are some items you should establish with your new roomies:
- Rent: How is it paid (cash, check)? Who collects it? Who is responsible for getting it to the landlord?
- Division of Rent: Is rent divided equally? If someone has a bigger room, private bathroom, parking spot, or owns most of the furnishings, how much more (or less) will they be paying?
- Utilities: Whose name will the utilities be in? Are they being shared equally? When is payment due? What utilities are being installed (telephone, cable, satellite, internet)?
- Yard Maintenance: Who mows and how often? Who shovels the snow and how soon after snowfall should it be done?
- Garbage: Who takes the garbage out and how often?
- Recycling: Who takes the recycling? Who gets to keep the refund money from bottles and cans? An idea is to collect the refund money and use it to buy a pizza every now and then.
- Guests: Are guests allowed? How many? How often? Are overnight guests allowed?
- Pets: Are pets allowed? Who is cleaning the litter box? Who is taking Fido for a walk? Who is buying food and ensuring the animal is in good health? Who is feeding them?You don’t want to come home to a bowl full of dead goldfish and find out that all 6 roommates had been feeding Goldie. (Or reversely, that no one was feeding Lucky).
- Smoking: Is smoking allowed? Where are the designated smoking areas?
- Dishes: Shall dishes be washed immediately after use? Or will someone do a load of dishes every few days?
- Household Products: Who is paying for toilet paper, dish soap, garbage bags and light bulbs? A good idea is to each contribute a couple dollars to a piggy bank each month and use this fund to buy the necessary shared items.
- Food: Is everyone responsible for their own food? Or is there some give and take? With limited cupboard and refrigerator space, it is not feasible for each roommate to have their own mayonnaise jar. Figure out a way to compromise, or use the fund to buy staple food items.
- Cleaning: Who cleans the bathroom and how often? In this case, I would also detail what ‘clean’ means. For some, picking up the towels and emptying the trash means the bathroom has been cleaned. How often do the floors get washed/vacuumed? Consider hiring a housekeeper.
Whatever you decide to put in your RA is up to you. You can make it as detailed or as vague as you’d like. Print a copy and have each of the roommates sign it. Make sure to give everyone a copy that includes all of the signatures. From time to time, you will discover new situations or disagreements that weren’t covered in the original document. You can either ammend the document and have every re-sign it, or keep the newest issue in mind the next time you write a Roommate Agreement and include it at that time.