If you're a landlord who's planning to share a space with multiple tenants, then you should be able to write a Maryland roommate agreement by yourself and avoid any legal conflicts between the parties involved.
There are many benefits that come from drafting this type of lease agreement, including specifying boundaries, assessing the tenant's monthly rent more efficiently, and more.
The following article will cover rental agreements for rooms inside a property in Maryland, including rent, deposits, and some laws you should be aware of.
A Maryland roommate agreement (or room rental agreement) is a contract that allows the tenant to sublet a part of the unit to someone else during the lease term.
In this type of lease agreement, the landlord will outline the rules and rights that the new tenants will have for staying on the property. It's vital to note that the new tenants won't appear on the original lease agreement.
Some of the most common factors that this lease agreement type addresses include:
In most cases, the "master" tenant will be the only one on the original lease agreement. There, the new tenant's responsibilities will fall to the primary tenant, unless the landlord specifically asks the new tenant to answer to them.
There are many reasons why you (or your tenant) may choose to draft a Maryland roommate agreement. In case of the tenant, they may want help paying rent, so they ask for someone else to live on the property and share expenses.
While this is a viable option for the tenant, they must always seek approval from their landlord.
On the other hand, a landlord may want to write a Maryland roommate agreement because they want more tenants to make rent easily payable or wants to address utilities more efficiently.
Consider the following reasons why this lease agreement is beneficial to landlords aside from what we previously mentioned:
In essence, this lease agreement will allow the landlord to set all the necessary rules to ensure a healthier environment for all the tenants. Overall, this lease is used to protect all parties' rights.
If you, as a landlord, want peace of mind and to avoid conflicts with your tenants, you should draft one of these lease agreements. This is especially useful in cases when the new tenant doesn't follow the terms of the lease; if you drafted a roommate agreement before, then you can evict them without any problems.
A roommate agreement and a regular lease for a room rental are quite similar. The primary difference relies on the landlord's involvement.
In a roommate agreement, the landlord won't intervene in the terms of the agreement (although the tenant may still have to ask for permission before subletting the premises to someone else).
On a room rental, however, the landlord will specify the rules required from the tenant so that they can lease a part of the property to someone else. In both cases, the landlord must sign the lease.
Now, let's learn how to write a room rental agreement for the state of Maryland. As you will be able to notice in the next sections, the process to write these documents isn't that hard, but you must be thorough and specific with all the clauses so that you avoid any potential issues with your tenants in the future.
Introductory Information
First, we must identify all the parties involved in this lease, particularly the new roommates. Include the full names of all the roommates involved in the lease.
These documents tend to get add-ons as time passes, so make sure to leave some extra space just in case. Next, you must include a detailed description of the leased unit, including unit number or building, county, physical address, and any other vital details surrounding the unit.
Finally, you must include a start and end date for the contract. You must also state the month, day, and year that the contract is signed to avoid legal problems later.
Security Deposit
Typically, the deposit will only be the tenant's responsibility, but since you're having more tenants now, then you must modify the original lease and list all the people who will contribute to the deposit now and the ones who have already contributed.
Some of the most important factors surrounding the deposit include:
Remember to be as specific as possible to avoid any problems with any of the tenants.
Rental Payments
This section will be all about the tenant's monthly rent. As with the previous section, you may need to modify the original lease, particularly the tenant's monthly rent section.
You must specify the following:
Out of all these rules, the most important one is specifying how much money each person will pay. Keep in mind that not everyone will have to pay the same percentage of the rent, so if you want to avoid confusion, it's best to specify these numbers on the lease.
Utilities
Here, you must specify the costs, deposits, and responsibilities for each person surrounding the utilities. In other words, you must specify which person handles which utility.
The most common utilities include:
Property Allocation
In some cases, not all rooms in your unit will have the same shape or dimensions. Typically, you would adjust the rental rate based on how big or small the room is. Moreover, you must include a breakdown of each space provided for each person in the unit.
Parking
If you have a property with assigned parking, you must specify which parking spaces will be allotted to which tenants; this is to avoid problems regarding tenants taking another tenant's parking place.
On the other hand, if you have any rules surrounding debris or snow removal from the property or the street parking area, you must include them too.
Cleaning
As the name implies, you must assign particular cleaning tasks and schedules for each tenant; that way, you will ensure that your property is in good shape at all times.
Miscellaneous Details
There are many other rules you can decide to include in the lease if you want to be as specific as possible, those include:
Subletting (in case one of the roommates decides to go away for a while and stops paying their share of the rent. Here, the tenants must seek permission from the landlord.)
Tenancy Closing Process (Final maintenance, cleaning assignments, and others.)
Signature
Finally, you must include your signature, as well as the signature of all the roommates involved in the lease; this is what will make the document legally binding.
Remember to include extra space for each name, the date, and the signatures.
In a sense, a room rental agreement is similar to a regular lease. You must address things like the security deposit, the tenant's monthly rent split, and more.
However, there are some particular laws in Maryland that all parties must comply with. Consider the following disclosures if you're planning on drafting a room rental agreement in this state:
As with any other type of lease agreement for any property, there are certain conflicts that may happen at some point during the term.
If you're the one drafting the agreement for your property, then you should consider the following common problems that come from having different people in the same unit:
Moreover, both the landlord and master tenant should come up with a peaceful way to address most minor issues that could come up during the term.
If you're drafting the contract with your tenant, then you can both come up with the most appropriate terms for the new person and their tenancy requirements.
Any landlord who is struggling to draft a Maryland roommate agreement can seek help from DoorLoop's forms. These are available in PDF, Word, and customizable formats.
Feel free to download any of these forms to draft your next rental agreement with ease:
If you need to sign a room rental or roommate agreement with a new tenant, you want to make the process as easy and efficient as possible.
With DoorLoop, you can get your agreements and templates eSigned in a few seconds. You can also get to the eSignature step much faster by creating reusable templates that are autofilled with tenants' information.
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