Shared Housing Advice

[Anna Granofsky]

I am in the process of buying my fourth unit but this situation is a new one for me!

I am purchasing a four bedroom house that will be used as shared housing for veterans. Each veteran will have their own bedroom but share the common areas and bathrooms (two tenants per bathroom). 

I need advice for creating the lease to include guidelines and wording on sharing responsibilities in the common areas. 

I also appreciate any advice on how to steer the tenants to work together and get along. 

[Aaron Millis]

Hi Anna,

For starters I had the same thoughts as Amanda G. Why do you say that the house will be used as shared housing for veterans? Is it not possible that you could get 4 non veterans as tenants? I'm not the fair housing landlord expert but I'd probably steer away from referring to it as "veteran housing"

Either way I can relate to your situation a little because I also own a house that is shared by multiple people. It's a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom house in a Auburn AL which is definitely a college town (though I do not refer to it as a student rental). I currently have 3 tenants that are all female and I live in the 4th room (house hacking). 

I'm not saying this is necessarily the right answer, but I did not really put anything in my lease as far as guidelines for sharing responsibilities of common areas. I think issues regarding this can be avoided mostly just by tenant screening. All 3 girls in my house are grad students at Auburn. They didn't know each other before moving in but they all have something in common and they are all grown adults. I basically just told them when they moved in that any drama that may arise from them sharing the house is between them and has nothing to do with me (as long as the house/people aren't being physically harmed).

If you do end up renting to veterans I think your best bet to ensure everyone gets along is to just make one lease for all 4 bedrooms. When you do that groups of people will apply, rather than random individuals. I was in the military ( making me a veteran now) and during my time in I shared all kinds of living conditions with strangers and friends. This obviously won't apply to everyone but most of us (military/vets) are pretty good at policing one another. If you get a house full of veterans that know each other and agree to live together I wouldn't think you'd have many issues like this!