How to do lease for tenants that may not move in at same time

Question

I am renting out the individual rooms in a property and have different people (who don't know each other) interested, but they may not be able to move in on the same day.  They should all be able to move in within a month of each other hopefully.

How do I best handle this? Can I ask each person to sign a different lease with a different starting date? I guess I could also have everyone on the lease, and set the start date to be the date that the earliest tenant can move in, and just don't charge the other late starters rents until they actually move in?

Julie Dike · Answer

It doesn't sound like they should be on the same contract, since they don't know each other.  I don't have experience with separate leases for one property, but based on a conversation I had with an attorney, it's a thing.  Separate leases make it a lot easier to evict one tenant and not the other, should that become necessary.  It also makes it clear that they each pay rent to you individually, rather than pooling their funds each month and submitting the total.

Gary L. · Answer

Thank you Kenton and Sarah.

Only issue is that there's a HOA board, so not sure if they will approve of multiple leases, instead of a single lease.

What is a roommate lease? Is this something that's in lieu f a lease with the landlord, or a supplement? Any recommended samples lease?

Sarah Brown · Answer

I would get a roommate lease, but not necessarily because of the different move-in dates.  It's more because of the relationship of the tenants.  They don't know one another, and they will be renting by the room.  This will make it significantly easier for you later, and a lot less headache.

Kenton LeVay · Answer

Doesn't sound like it would make a huge difference either way but I'd have each tenant on their own separate lease. The reason is more transparency around utilities and flexibility if someone decides to leave, etc.