Have more than one property? Our Ultimate Landlord Collection is worth purchasing/upgrading to. More Details.

California Roommate Agreement

Landlord Advice

A California Roommate Agreement is a document between two tenants occupying the same residence. If you’re a California resident and are looking to share your leased/rented room with another person we recommend you get yourself a roommate agreement.

Whether you are friends or not, being roommates comes with its issues, people not paying bills, or roommates leaving before the rental agreement is up. To prevent such from happening, we recommend creating a roommate agreement between yourself and all the roommates.

How to write a California roommate agreement

While California state laws don’t require a roommate agreement, we highly recommend you get yourself one. Our printable California roommate agreement covers everything from house, condominium, apartment, basement, room to mobile home.

The first you will be required to enter in our California roommate agreement form is the premises information. You’ll need to highlight the premise type, address, city, state and zip code. If there’s an existing lease or rental agreement with the landlord on the property, you can attach a copy of the lease to the roommate agreement.

Next, you will need to write down the number of roommates. Our California roommate agreement template covers from 2 to 6 roommates. For each roommate, you’ll be required to enter their full name, legal address, city, state and zip code. You’ll also be required to indicate whether they’re included in the lease agreement, the amount each roommate is to pay and the security deposit amount.

Then you’ll have to put down the term of the agreement. In case it’s a lease agreement, indicate when the deal starts and when it ends but if it’s a rental agreement enter when the agreement starts and how it shall be renewed.

There are some details you should also write down regarding the premises guidelines. For example, you should notify your roommates whether pets or smoking is allowed on the premises.

California Roommate Agreement: Payment Information

Generally, rental and lease agreement does not state how rent is to be divided between roommates. Unless there is a roommate agreement in place, you’ll be liable for the total amount. So if one of your roommates fails to pay the bill or rent you will be responsible for paying the full amount.

In efforts to evade such issues, a California roommate agreement should put down the amount each roommate is expected to pay.

The “payment information” should lay down where the payment should be made out to and the payment due date. Penalties for late payment and returned checks should also be included in this section.

You should also outline living arrangement including how the house chores will be divided amongst the roommates, details about utilities and living arrangements.

If you wish to include additional details not included in our California roommate agreement, head over to “other details” section and choose from 1-4 fields.

Creating a roommate agreement might seem like a complicated task, but we’ve made it even simpler. Just answer all the questions on the form, download a copy of the agreement in various and you are good to go.