DOCUMENT CATEGORY

Lease & Tenancy

Lease agreements, amendments, addenda, roommate agreements, subleases, assignments and extensions.

State-aware cautions 22 ready-to-start forms

ROOMMATES & SUBLEASES

Roommate, sublease and lease-transfer documents in one place.

Start with the situation you are handling: sharing a home, subletting a room or unit, extending or ending a sublease, requesting landlord consent, or transferring a lease. Review the master lease and current state or local requirements before signing or relying on a document.

Roommate AgreementPut shared rent, utilities, household responsibilities and expectations in writing.Open document Sublease AgreementDocument a sublease between the current tenant and a subtenant.Open document Room Sublease AgreementSublease one bedroom or defined private space while the current tenant remains.Open document Temporary SubleaseSet a fixed short-term sublease for school, work, travel or another temporary absence.Open document Furnished SubleaseRecord furnishings, condition and responsibility for a furnished sublet.Open document Month-to-Month SubleaseCreate an ongoing periodic sublease with notice terms that still require local review.Open document Sublease ExtensionExtend an existing sublease while identifying the terms that remain in effect.Open document Sublease TerminationDocument an agreed end to a sublease without implying statutory rights are waived.Open document Landlord Consent to SubleaseRecord landlord consent when the master lease or applicable rules call for approval.Open document Lease AssignmentDocument a proposed transfer of lease rights and obligations, which differs from a sublease.Open document

Room rental, roommate agreement or sublease: which relationship are you documenting?

Start with who is renting to whom, not with the length of stay or whether the room is furnished. A person renting a room directly from the owner or authorized landlord is in a different relationship from co-tenants sharing one landlord-facing lease or from a subtenant renting from an existing tenant. Use the document that matches that relationship, then verify the signed lease and current state, local, building and housing-program rules before treating the arrangement as permitted or complete.

Housing relationship	What it means	Start with these documents
Owner or authorized landlord rents a room directly	Use a landlord-facing residential lease structure. A fixed-term Residential Lease Agreement or a Month-to-Month Rental Agreement may fit depending on the actual tenancy. A Roommate Agreement can supplement shared-household expectations among occupants, but it does not replace the landlord-facing agreement.	Residential Lease Agreement · Month-to-Month Rental Agreement
Co-tenants on the same landlord lease share costs and house rules	Use a Roommate Agreement for rent shares, utilities, deposits between roommates, guests, cleaning and shared responsibilities. It does not add or remove a named tenant, amend the landlord's lease, or prove that an occupant has tenant status.	Roommate Agreement
Existing tenant rents one bedroom while remaining in the home	This is commonly a room-sublease structure rather than a direct owner-to-renter room lease. Check the master lease, landlord-consent requirements, occupancy limits and current jurisdiction before accepting rent or promising the room.	Room Sublease Agreement · Landlord Consent to Sublease
Existing tenant sublets all or part of the rental for a defined period	Use a Sublease Agreement or Temporary Sublease when the original tenant's landlord-facing lease remains in place. Furnished status changes what should be inventoried and documented; it does not by itself determine whether the arrangement is a sublease.	Sublease Agreement · Temporary Sublease Agreement · Furnished Sublease Agreement
A person will live in the unit but the goal is not to create a separate sublease	An Occupant / Roommate Addendum can record an approved additional occupant. If the goal is to add or remove a named landlord-facing tenant, use a landlord-approved lease amendment or other jurisdiction-appropriate agreement instead of assuming an occupant addendum changes the lease parties.	Occupant / Roommate Addendum · Lease Amendment

Federal checks that can still apply

Fair housing: HUD states that the Fair Housing Act prohibits specified discrimination in the rental of housing and applies broadly, while exemptions and additional federal, state or local protections can affect a particular arrangement. Do not use a roommate, room-rental or screening workflow to create protected-characteristic targeting.

Consumer-report screening: If a housing provider uses a consumer report or tenant-screening report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act can require an adverse-action notice when report information contributes to a denial or less-favorable rental term. The document choice does not remove those screening duties.

Pre-1978 lead disclosure: EPA says the federal Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule applies before leasing most pre-1978 housing, subject to stated exemptions. One exemption covers leases of 100 days or less only when no renewal or extension can occur, so a short or furnished stay should not be assumed exempt merely because it is temporary.

HUD — Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act · FTC — Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know · EPA — Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule · California Department of Real Estate — Subleasing and assignment guidance · New York Attorney General — Residential Tenants’ Rights Guide

The federal sources above add fair-housing, consumer-reporting and lead-disclosure baselines; they do not create one national definition of tenant, roommate or subtenant. California and New York are examples of state-specific sublease and occupancy rules, not nationwide defaults. Verify the actual lease, who owns or controls the rental, landlord consent, occupancy limits, property type, HOA or building rules, housing-program requirements, and current state/local law before relying on a shared-housing agreement.

Lease assignment vs. sublease: what changes?

A sublease creates a separate rental arrangement with a subtenant while the original tenant’s lease with the landlord remains in place. An assignment transfers the tenant’s lease interest to an assignee. Whether the original tenant is released, what consent is required, and what follows a refusal depend on the signed lease and governing law.

Concept	What it means
Sublease	The original tenant generally remains in the landlord-facing lease relationship while the subtenant occupies all or part of the rental under a separate sublease.
Assignment	The tenant transfers the lease interest to an assignee, who takes over the assigned lease rights and obligations. A transfer does not automatically prove that the original tenant has been released from liability.
Consent and release	Do not treat permission to sublease, consent to an assignment, and a written release or novation as the same thing. Check the lease and current state or local law before relying on any of them.

Sublease Agreement · Landlord Consent to Sublease · Lease Assignment Agreement

California Department of Real Estate — Subleasing and assignment guidance · New York Attorney General — Residential Tenants’ Rights Guide

California and New York are examples of materially different state treatment, not nationwide defaults. Verify the current lease, jurisdiction, consent requirements, release language and any local rule before presenting legal consequences as certain.

A roommate moved out. Does the replacement automatically become a tenant?

Not automatically. First identify whether the departing person is a named tenant, an occupant, a roommate, or a subtenant, and whether the incoming person is being added only as an occupant, substituted onto the landlord-facing lease, or brought in under a sublease. A household change does not by itself rewrite the signed lease, release the departing tenant, or prove that the incoming person has become a named tenant.

Situation	What to document
Named tenant change	If the goal is to remove one leaseholder and add another, use a landlord-approved lease amendment or other jurisdiction-appropriate agreement rather than assuming a roommate swap changes the lease automatically.
Occupant or roommate addition	An occupant or roommate addendum can document who lives in the unit without claiming that the added person has automatically become a tenant under the landlord-facing lease.
Roommate responsibilities	A roommate agreement can allocate rent, utilities, deposits, guests and household expectations among occupants, but it does not by itself amend the landlord's lease.
Sublease or assignment	If the arrangement is really a sublease or transfer of lease rights, use the appropriate sublease, consent or assignment workflow and separately verify consent, release and liability rules.

Lease Amendment · Occupant / Roommate Addendum · Roommate Agreement · Sublease Agreement

California Department of Real Estate — 2026 Landlord/Tenant Guide · New York Attorney General — Residential Tenants’ Rights Guide

California's current DRE guidance explains that a sublease can involve a new person sharing rent while the original tenant's landlord-facing agreement remains in force and that lease terms can require landlord permission. New York's current Attorney General guide separately describes a state-specific roommate-replacement rule under Real Property Law § 235-f when at least one named tenant or that tenant's spouse remains in the shared apartment. These are jurisdiction examples, not nationwide defaults. Verify the signed lease, tenant-versus-occupant status, consent, screening, release, occupancy limits, subsidized-housing rules and current state or local law before treating a replacement as legally sufficient.