Young homeowners here that have a question about renting a room out in our house.

My boyfriend and I just bought a house in Park Slope. It’s a duplex, with a finished bsmt and a nice sized backyard. It’s way more space than we need (right now) and we thought it might be a nice idea to get a housemate to rent out the second, larger bedroom and share the space.  How are housemate’s different from tenants? Is a lease drawn up? Are their right’s any different? What if the housemate stops paying rent; are they protected under the lease? We are very fair people and we want to know how we are protected and how the housemate is protected anything that might transpire.  Any words of wisdom from people who have previously done this would be greatly appreciated!

anonymous

in Landlord 13 years and 8 months ago

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anonymous | 13 years and 8 months ago

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thank you both. i’ve never had a roommate before, to answer your Q. good point about renter’s insurance. i will let new roomie know to get his own.

needmtg | 13 years and 8 months ago

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Only someone with no sense of humor could possibly call my response ‘uncivil!’ Pedantic maybe (go that?) And besides, I gave OP plenty of good advice.

Putnamdenizen | 13 years and 8 months ago

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What an uncivil response! In some ways the rights of a roommate are similar to the rights of a tenant – they have the right to legal process once they have lived there over 30 days.  You can’t rely on being able to say “sorry Charlie” and kick them out.  You would have to go to Housing Court, serve them with papers, etc. This can be particularly dicey if they are sharing your bathroom, etc. (Although honestly most people in that situation do just move out.) So the same checks you would do for a tenant apply (credit check, references, paystub, copy of photo i.d., bank statement) still apply.  Your insurance does not necessarily cover their possessions. Given you will be sharing living space you may very well want to have a lot of things in writing – what does sharing the kitchen mean, can they have a party, etc.  It may not be worth the hassle, unless it is a good friend…

needmtg | 13 years and 8 months ago

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>How are _housemate’s_ different from tenants? Is a lease drawn up? Are their _right’s_ any different?  Possibly they may know when to use apostrophes (not apostrophe’s). Didn’t you have roommates in the past? Or been a roommate? Don’t sweat it worrying about “rights”…use your gut feeling about how someone will fit in, check their references and credit and all should be fine. A simple rental agreement should be enough, showing rent, payment terms, and term (either month-to-month or a fixed term lease.) You might do well to get tenant’s insurance, or have the roommate also get it.