It seemed reminiscent of a scene from the 1990s sitcom, “Friends.”
A trio of young, professional women sat in front of me signing a lease for a beautiful, 2,500-square-foot home in Olde Uptown. Stylishly dressed, they joined forces and decided to cohabitate. As we signed the necessary documents, they talked amongst themselves about finding friends to help them move, about who would take which bedroom and about hosting a dinner party since they finally had a “real” dining room.
Each had her own personality, yet I had no doubts they would successfully merge into one residence. You could see that they clicked with one another.
Partly fueled by student loan debt, a tight job market for recent college graduates, and a generational preference to prolong home-buying, the rate of living with roommates has soared. Nationally, 32 percent of working-age adults, aged 23 to 65, live in doubled-up households, up from 25 percent in 2000 and 26 percent in 1990, according to an October 2014 report by the online real estate site, Zillow.
From my vantage point as a rental manager, I have seen this trend grow significantly over the last five years. The income spectrum is broad. Some roommates are making near minimum wage and, out of necessity, are seeking alternatives to substandard housing, while others are intentionally keeping housing costs low to facilitate faster accrual for a down payment on their first house, pay off other debt or afford vacations. For example, one of the tenants I described above admitted that she had the funds to have her own place, but wanted to spend it traveling.
“By sharing living space, I am able to pursue my passion to travel on a whim,” she said.
Roommates are often saving more than just rent. They are able to share ever-rising utility expenses. They can also reduce their furnishing costs. As many renters seek their first independent space, the cost of initial furnishings can prove to be unexpectedly high. At move in, Shannon, one of my tenants, said that two of her roommates were coming straight out of dorm rooms into entry-level jobs.
“Each of us were able to bring our favorite pieces,” she said. “Fortunately, we had similar styles and ended up with a cohesively furnished home.”
Does It Feel Right?
Whatever the motive behind a decision to have roommates, there are several points to consider. First and foremost is safety.
It startles me how often roommates find each other on Craigslist. If this is the search method you choose for procuring a roommate, at least ensure you rent from a landlord who performs a full background check that includes criminal history.
A local resident recently shared that, several years ago before he came to Harrisburg, he found a roommate and did his own background check, only to discover that the roommate had lied about his name and was actually wanted for murder. While most cases are not this extreme, it’s critical to know in advance if the person you’ll be rooming with has a history of run-ins with the law. The nature of the offense will likely be a strong signal of how they’ll behave as a roommate.
How can you avoid situations like this? One obvious way is to start with your own circle of friends. Let friends and family know of your plans and ask for referrals. In my experience, roommates who started from a shared connection such as a friend, colleague, college, place of employment or other commonality had a much greater rate of success.
If you choose to or must find an unknown roommate, set up the first meeting in a neutral, public setting. Don’t just rely on the phone. I recommend treating this as a hybrid date/interview. Ask questions—lots of questions. Success can take two routes in this pairing. Either you are opposites who balance each other, or you share similar ideas and values on what makes a happy home.
This is where you want to be open and honest about expectations. Do you expect to share food? Are you OK with dates coming home? Who will be responsible for which utilities? Are you OK with a roommate who hosts frequent dinner parties? Does the toilet paper roll under or over? You get the idea. Not everyone is a good match, and potentially unsuccessful pairings can usually be discovered in this first meeting.
Classic red flags are vague responses, extremes (agreeing on everything or nothing), asking not to be formally included on a lease or have utilities placed in their name, or unwillingness to discuss certain areas of life, such as where they lived prior or where they are employed. Ultimately, trust your instinct. If something feels off, it probably is, and you’re better off walking away.
Teammates
It’s important to understand that you are legally binding yourself to a roommate in a way that may have negative repercussions for you even if you are a model tenant.
A lease is a contract, and most lease contracts are written so that all parties are responsible for the entire requirements and obligations of the lease both severally (meaning each individual separately) and jointly (meaning everyone together). This means that, if one tenant is unable to perform as dictated by the contract, you will likely still be held individually liable for any and all monetary obligations, such as total unpaid rent, unpaid utility costs and more. In addition, if the landlord were to file eviction or attempt to collect damages due to a roommate’s inability to pay, you will likely be included in the filing.
In terms of accountability, treat it like you’re joining the military or a sports team. If one person screws up with respect to the lease terms, it means that everyone has screwed up and is therefore accountable. And be aware that an unfavorable rental record, even if you were not the cause of the problems, could make it difficult to rent in the future.
On more than one occasion, I have seen well-intentioned tenants choose to allow one roommate to handle all the finances. Roommate A collects a third of the monthly expenses from roommates B and C. However, something comes up, and they borrow against those funds before the deposit is made. In cases like this, all roommates will be held equally and individually responsible, regardless of the injustice of roommate A’s actions. I suggest tenants make these payments individually.
So what happens once the final picture is hung on the wall, but you realize this isn’t working out? You have several options, depending on the specific terms of your lease. Remember, your landlord’s ultimate goal is to collect the rent each month. They may be willing to mediate.
Even if that’s not the case, they will still likely allow you to replace a roommate with another roommate by amending the lease in order to keep consistent rent payments coming in. Keep your landlord informed, but realize that they have little authority to enforce any specific roommate-to-roommate agreements.
A good rule of thumb to follow is, if the problem is the sort of thing you would complain to your mom about when a sibling did it, you probably don’t want to involve the landlord. In the worst-case scenario, you should find a way to make it work until the lease term is ended.
Lori Fortini is operations manager for Harrisburg-based WCI Partners LP.
