One of the smartest moves you can make when renting an apartment with one or more roommates is creating a roommate agreement. A roommate agreement is something that will help everyone know what their responsibilities are with the rental property, and it can help prevent problems from developing. If you choose to create a roommate agreement and if everyone signs it, you might be wondering if it will have any effects on the apartment lease you signed with the landlord. This is a good question, and here are three things you should know about this.
The apartment lease is completely separate from the roommate agreement
The first thing to understand about leases and roommate agreements is that these two documents are separate from one another. In other words, the rules in the lease are completely separate from the rules in the roommate agreement. They do not overlap, even if there are certain rules or statements that are similar in both.
The landlord cannot enforce rules on the roommate agreement
Because these two documents are different, you should understand that the landlord you rent from cannot enforce rules from the roommate agreement. For example, if your roommate agreement states that all roommates must pay equal amounts for the utility bills, there is nothing your landlord can do if one roommate fails to pay his or her share. This type of problem is something you would need to resolve between all the roommates in your apartment. In other words, you should not go to your landlord when one of your roommates is not abiding by the roommate agreement, as there will be nothing your landlord can or will do about this.
Your landlord will always stick to the lease agreement when problems arise
The third important thing to understand is that what your landlord cares most about is the terms of the lease you signed, and the landlord will always stick to what the lease says if there is a problem. For example, if one roommate fails to pay his or her share of the rent, your landlord could evict all of you from the apartment, simply because the full rent was not received.
Having a roommate agreement is important when you share an apartment with other people, but it also has limits. If you have any questions about renting an apartment with other people, or if you are currently looking for apartments for rent, contact an apartment manager today.
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