Working with Roommates 2024

In the past, we mostly saw roommate groups in college areas. Now, adults of all ages are likely to share rental homes in order to manage the high cost of housing in many areas. Fair Housing laws that traditionally protected large families may now be used to protect the rights of unrelated people who choose to share households. The City of Seattle provides extra protections for families, defined loosely to include people in “dating relationships,” past or present. Given all these changes, it may be time to take a look at your policies on roommates.

OCCUPANCY LIMITS

Unless you have strict limitations on occupancy due to a septic system or local laws, it is best to be open larger household groups that may apply. For example, you may have created a standard of two per bedroom in your small one-bedroom apartment … but what if a couple with an infant thinks it’s the perfect place to live for a couple years while they save to buy a home? A loose guideline suggested by HUD is two per bedroom plus one person, but they stress that you should always be flexible. Yes, there is a point where too many people in a dwelling will lead to habitability issues, but unless you have serious concerns, this should not be cause for denial. Your city may have had restrictions on unrelated person in a household, but the state now prohibits these types of local laws.

SCREENING AND LEASE SIGNING

It is always a good idea to screen each prospective adult occupant using the same criteria, and ensure their combined income meets your minimum income requirement. By requiring every competent adult occupant to become party to the rental agreement, you have greater control to enforce the agreement and collect rent or damages from any of them as needed. If when screening, one prospective tenant causes you to deny the group, do not reveal information to the group at large. You must maintain the privacy of each applicant in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

TENANT COMMUNICATIONS

Even if it seems like one person in a household has taken the lead in communicating with you, it is important to include all adult residents in all communications. Consider something as simple as a notice to enter for repair. If you only give notice to one resident, you might end up catching their roommates (or even a family member) unaware and unprepared for a visit from a plumber. Housing providers who routinely work with unrelated roommates, often encourage them to use a “roommate agreement” or “house rules” to reduce roommate disputes and clearly spell out shared tenant duties.

ADDITIONAL OCCUPANTS

In the RHAWA lease, clause 12, there is space to write in “all authorized occupants.” This should include both tenants who sign the lease agreement, plus additional occupants such as children or dependent adults, live-in caregivers, or other domestic staff. These additional occupants are held accountable to rules of tenancy, but not payment of rent.

RENT, DEPOSIT AND OTHER CHARGES

When working with a group of tenants who are sharing your rental home, you can leave the accounting to them. It is OK to expect one rent payment and return one deposit return check at the end of rental agreement. If there are roommate changes during the tenancy, you can expect the new roommate to compensate the outgoing roommate for their share of the deposit, if applicable. Use RHAWA Form, Roommate Addendum to easily change residents on the lease during the tenancy. If damage is done that needs to be repaired during tenancy, send the invoice to all the tenants. No matter if the tenants are married, domestic partners, or have no other legal relationship, the tenancy is shared, and they are equally and severally liable and responsible for the agreement. While it is generally not appropriate to increase rent or other charges based on additional occupants, you can charge more for utilities if you are dividing utility costs between multiple units and people-per-unit is part of your documented billing formula.

WHAT IF YOU ARE THE ROOMMATE?

It’s becoming more common for homeowners to rent out ADU’s or even rooms within the same dwelling unit. This is the case for several RHAWA members. Although RHAWA does not provide specific leasing tools for this situation, it still falls under the same landlord-tenant laws as other residential rentals and therefore, most of RHAWA’s forms can be adapted to work just fine. If you will be sharing ANY communal space (even the driveway) with your tenant, a multifamily form version would be more fitting than the single family agreements. It’s important to read through the lease carefully to ensure that everything makes sense for your unique situation. Ideally, have your attorney help you make revisions and add house rules. You can find great examples of house rules on the websites for housing departments at colleges and universities. It’s simple to add a few rules in RHAWA leases under 26.E., or attach a custom addendum.

SEATTLE LAWS ON ROOMMATES

A few years ago, the Seattle City Council passed several new bills relating to rental housing, including one that limits the rights of rental housing providers to deny roommates added to a current tenancy. The complex ordinance created two new sections in Seattle Municipal Code (7.24.031 and 7.24.032) that went into effect on July 1, 2020.

This law requires housing providers to accept roommates and “immediate family” as additional occupants on a current rental agreement. To receive this protection, tenants must inform the landlord of each additional person’s name within the first 30 days of residing in the home. The Housing provider can still screen incoming occupants using the same criteria as the original tenant, however there are additional protections for those who qualify under a broad definition of “immediate family members”. Due to these extra protections for family members, there are essentially two different sets of rules when a tenant wants to add an additional adult occupant.

Rules for adding unrelated roommates.

• The landlord may deny occupancy to non-family roommates if they do not meet screening criteria.

• The landlord may require by written notice that non-family roommates become a party to the rental agreement.

• If the roommate fails to become a party of the rental agreement within 30 days after receipt of notice, they must vacate the unit within 45 days of receiving notice.

• The landlord must offer the same terms of tenancy to the added non-family roommate if the original tenant vacates before the end of the term if: 1) they resided in the rental unit for at least six consecutive months immediately prior to the tenant’s vacating the unit; and 2) they meet the screening criteria. Rules for adding “immediate family members.”

• The landlord may not deny occupancy to an immediate family member even if they fail to meet screening criteria. Exemption: Owners who reside at their single-family-home property and are renting a part of the property, including ADU/DADU, are exempt from this rule.

• The landlord may not require an added family member to sign as a party to the rental agreement.

• The landlord must offer the same terms of tenancy to the added family member if the original tenant vacates before the end of the term – even if they do not meet screening criteria.

How is “immediate family member” defined?

The new law will broadly define “immediate family member” to include spouse, domestic partner, former spouse, former domestic partner, adult persons related by marriage, siblings, persons 16 years of age or older who are presently residing together or who have resided together in the past and who have or have had a “dating relationship” (meaning any social relationship of a romantic nature), and persons who have a parent-child relationship, including parents, stepparents, grandparents, adoptive parents, guardians, foster parents, or custodians of minors.

Can I still place a limit on occupancy in Seattle?

You can still have occupancy limits, but they must be based on federal, state or local laws. Also, the Roommate law specifically states that if an occupant vacates the unit before the expiration of the tenancy, a landlord shall not artificially reduce occupancy limit during the remainder of the tenancy.

TACOMA SHARED HOUSING REGULATIONS

In 2023, the City of Tacoma enacted several new regulations, including one related to roommate situations where more than four separate tenants share a home.

• All shared housing agreements must be in writing and in compliance with TMC 1.95. 037.

• A landlord or master lease holder renting to four or more tenants in a dwelling unit must have a separate rental agreement for each “habitable space.”

• A master lease holder must exchange contact information between property owner and all subtenants.

• Landlords and master lease holders must both comply with Shared Housing Regulations.

• Landlords and master lease holders must each investigate any complaints of crime on the rental property.

• Landlords must serve any notices to end tenancy to master lease holders and provide enough copies for all other occupants. The master lease holders must then serve notices to all other occupants. However, the landlord is still ultimately responsible for the eviction.

A FINAL WORD ON FLEXIBILITY

Housing providers often feel uncomfortable with frequent changes in roommates or having more occupants than expected. While there is some administrative burden when screening new people, it is far less burdensome than a full turnover. By allowing for the life changes of your tenants, you can keep tenancies longer which is good for business. Property management professionals estimate that the average turnover costs $10,000 for lost rent, cleaning, painting, marketing, etc. Having more occupants can mean more wear and tear on the property, but with today’s rent rates, it is inevitable that unrelated adults will need to share spaces. Just make sure to set these groups up for success by suggesting they agree to house rules. Also, make sure they understand that per the RHAWA lease, they are each jointly and severally responsible for all lease terms. Set yourself up for success by holding each individual adult responsible for the actions of the entire group.

Formal legal advice and review is recommended prior to selection and use of this information. RHAWA does not represent your selection or execution of this information as appropriate for your specific circumstance. The material contained and represented herein, although obtained from reliable sources, is not considered legal advice or to be used as a substitution for legal counsel.