Renting a Room In My House

[Andrew Hoefling]

I'm interested in renting a single room in my single family house. I already have a roommate that lives with me but I've known this person for years and they are clean and respect my house. My current roommate/tenant has a gentleman's agreement with me. In short I have a lot of trust in my current roommate/tenant. I'm looking to find someone to rent another room so I can live mortgage free.

I've been looking around for anyone that does this sort of thing and how they write their lease. I understand what I am looking for in personality and living habits which is not my problem. I'm scared that if I don't properly document the living arrangement with this 'stranger' I might run into problems. My next step would be going to a lawyer to help draft a lease but wasn't sure if anyone had any advice.

Thanks
-Andrew

[Jon K.]

I've had roommates like this.

Have a good lease and a roommate agreement. Include late fees and other rules about late payments of rent.

Specify upfront EVERYTHING that matters to you:

- Is smoking allowed anywhere on the property? (I wouldn't!)

- How often do you allow overnight guests, if ever? (Note, if you allow, say, 4 nights a month, tenants WILL abuse it. If you say NO overnight guests EVER, you'll have less headache but fewer prospective roommates. If you don't specify a limit in a lease, tenants will end up moving in their girlfriend.)

- Are parties allowed? How many people and how much notice?

- Is it furnished or unfurnished? Will they have access to storage?

- Parking? Garage?

- No wall paint.

- No permanent modification of property. No nails in woodwork, etc.

- Are utilities included? If so, you'll have tenants who aren't careful and expect it to be 70 degrees when it's 100 out. After all, you're paying for utilities... why would they want to be energy efficient?

- Do you allow pets? I don't. Been there, done that. They end up messy or damaging things or I have to babysit them because their owners are irresponsible and lazy.

- Max occupancy of 1 person per room. You don't want a couple. Seriously. Not worth it... more people, more utilities, not worth it.

- Do a month to month lease with 30 days notice. If you don't like them, give them notice. If you don't like them, chances are they aren't happy there either. I haven't yet had someone refuse to leave. Most people don't want to live where they aren't wanted.

- Are you ok with a musician? An artist? A messy slob? A neat freak? A person who has tons and tons of crap?

- Are you ok with them adding furniture to the common areas? You'll end up with crappy furniture people by the apartment dumpster sometimes if you do this. Does this bother you? Do you have the space for someone to bring their own furniture? What about dishes and things... do you want to share or use your own?

- Make sure they have a 9-5 job. You don't want someone hanging around the house 24/7 (that means more utilities too).

- Verify rental references. I'm guessing their credit won't be perfect if they're wanting to rent a room. Look up local court records. I don't rent to people with huge recent collections, and definitely no evictions. Verify everything they say about work/school.

- You might find temporary medical residents or people in the area for a shorter time a good match. They come with little furniture, little baggage, and little friends. Some of them you never see.

I include a variety of things in my lease, from storage (no lawn furniture or storage sheds allowed), no pools, no trampolines, no fire pits, no fireworks, no smoking on the property, no alcohol to minors, no minors shall stay the night in the property for any reason at any time, a limit on overnight guests, how much notice to vacate, liability waivers, and items about quiet enjoyment. Their guests and themselves shouldn't interfere with the "quiet enjoyment" of other tenants, neighbors, etc.

Renting a room might make their boarders, not traditional tenants... check with your local rules. Some cities have limits on how many unrelated people can live in the same house.

If you don't like them when they come to see the place, don't rent to them. If their personality seems harsh or they seem intense or whiney, don't rent to them.

I once had someone come see the place one evening. They said "OH, an INFESTATION" about the usual night knats we had outside. I obviously didn't rent to them if they were so melodramatic about standard night knats that are always outside everywhere around here.

One bad roommate I had I didn't like when they first came to see the place. I let another roommate convince me that this person wasn't too bad. I shouldn't have let them move in. Go with your instinct. If they seem melodramatic, whiney, entitled, lazy, like a slob, intense, or want to change stuff about your house from the start, don't let them move in.

I phrase my ad carefully, too. I don't want a new BFF-- I want a roommate who is clean, responsible, pleasant, and hard-working.

I don't have any legal advice to offer. I will say that I've let people move in who I haven't met before-- we e-mailed back and forth, they applied and paid after I screened them and verified they were real and really moving here, looked up court records for them and rental references, and I read their e-mails and tone carefully. That worked out fine. I've noticed that pleasant people can seem even pleasant in their e-mails, and I have a process I repeat with people to try to see if they're real, pleasant, and interested.