What Are The Apartment Lease Options When Renting With Roommates

By: Abdullah Haroon

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Living in a city with a booming economy and lucrative jobs, good quality of life comes with a heavy cost. Managing your rental and utility bills is not a walk in the park when you opt to settle in a city like New York. One plausible alternative is co-living with a roommate. It may serve your taste for living in a desirable location, economically.

However, when you opt to rent with roommates, you have narrowed down your list to certain specific communities that offer such facilities.

These are quite genuine questions that are likely to settle your future lifestyle. If you feel concerned regarding knowing about your lease options, merits, and demerits of staying with strangers, you should keep reading down to learn about the potential settlements.

Co Living with Roommates:

One better option is co-signing with a roommate. The following are the major pros and cons of co-living as a roommate.

Pros:

For Landlords: It goes in their favor as tenants who sign together are considered one which means everyone has to bear equal responsibility for their actions. If any individual fails to meet the commitments, you may hold the remaining tenants accountable to bear the loss and pay in full.

For Tenants: Co Tenancy gives every tenant a right to object and extends a direct link with the landlord. Everyone can challenge the decision regarding rent increment or repairing. They also get the due rights among themselves and cannot be forced out by fellow roommates.

Cons:

For Landlord: The negative aspect of co-signing for the landlords is that the lease terms are violated at a certain point and the landlord has to opt for a legal route to evict the property.

For Tenants: If one of the roommates disappears without any notice, you will still be held responsible for paying the full rent. The other negative aspect is that you have to bear the expenses for the damage inflicted by your fellow. Because, if charged for violating the lease, you all will be supposed to leave the property.

Sign a Deal as an Individual:

This is another setting you can sign up for if feel comfortable. The arrangement is that each tenant has to sign a separate lease. In return, you will have a separate room but have to share common areas such as the kitchen, and storage. This is most common among college students.

Pros:

For Landlords: The rental price may be charged when leasing your property in such a manner, room by room. It works better for landlords than co-signing the lease.

For Tenants: If you choose to sign a lease as an individual, you do not have to bother about your roommate’s inability to pay their due bills. Besides, you will never be held accountable for their actions or for the losses they have inflicted on the property.

Cons:

For Landlords: It means additional work of managing every tenant individually. And of course, if one tenant is not keeping its commitments, you have no right to ask the other roommate for that or for that sake, any of his actions.

For Tenant: The chief disadvantage in this setting is that you have no control over who gets to share a space with you. It becomes the sole prerogative of the landlord to allow whoever she pleased. In addition to it, you will be paying slightly more than the joint lease.

Lease with Subletting Authority:

When you enter into this lease with the landlord, you have the additional authority of subletting the apartment further to anybody, within the laws.

Boarders who opt to stay in such property bear no name on the original lease agreement and have no direct access to the landlord. Instead, they sign a lease with the sub-landlord.

Pros:

For Landlords: You are supposed to deal with one tenant. As long as the subtenants follow the rules laid in the original agreement. You won’t have much contact with the other residents.

For Sub Landlord: Sub-landlord gets to choose who stays in the building and who does not. They may get the eviction for any subtenant who violates the lease terms.

For Subtenants: You may pull off a more flexible rental lease compared to the traditional (which makes living conditionally for a certain period). And if you enter into a written agreement, the sub-landlord has to follow the proper method to evict the property.

Cons:

For Landlords: You will hold no control over who stays on the property and who does not. In addition to it, you can only hold the master responsible for any violation until it’s described otherwise in the lease.

For Sub Landlord: Sub landlord is responsible for paying the rent to the landlord after collecting from the individuals at the property. If anyone misses the rent, the landlord has to bear the cost of personal savings. Besides, you are also responsible for the damage caused to the property.

For Subtenants: In this case, as a subtenant, you will have no say in the affairs of the property.

Final Words:

Regardless of what type of lease you enter into, most of the time you will be in informal agreements with your roommates. The best tip is to put them in writing as they don’t appear on the lease.