Roommates
Many students choose to live with a roommate in Boston. The most basic reason for this is to reduce housing costs – a multiple occupancy apartment will almost always be less expensive per person than a single occupancy room. Usually, students looking for roommates are single and will be looking for one room in a two or more bedroom unit. Co-ed housing situations are fairly common.
While there are tremendous benefits to living with a roommate (lower housing costs, company, less burden on individuals to buy furniture), a cohabitation situation also requires more finesse and compromise than living alone. Before you decide to live with anyone, you should try to meet him or her (or them, if a group) in person and discuss honestly your personal preferences for housing. You will find a sample roommate contract with some suggestions for discussion on the opposite page.
Potential roommates should also make sure they have a common goal as far as the type of apartment they want. Discuss the number of bedrooms, availability of storage and laundry facilities, and the lease terms fully with any potential roommate.
Legal Issues Involved with Co-Tenancy
When you decide to live with one or more people and sign a lease, you are entering into a legal arrangement with them. Once you have signed a lease, you and all of your roommates have become Co-Tenants, meaning that jointly, all of you are responsible for paying the full rent for the apartment each month. To the landlord or property owner, it is unimportant if the full rent comes in equal payments from each tenant, or one large payment from a single tenant. Each roommate is individually liable to the landlord for up to the full rental price of the unit.
This means that if you have a roommate who cannot or will not pay rent, you and any other roommates you have are responsible for covering the additional cost. If the full rent of the apartment is not paid, your landlord can start an eviction process on all of the roommates, even the ones who did pay.
As a consequence, good communication is the most important aspects of living with other people, even if you already know them or have lived with them in the past. It’s smart for all roommates in a given apartment to sign a contract amongst themselves that stipulates the responsibilities, both for the rent and otherwise, of each tenant.
Questions to ask a potential roommate
While there are a number of different websites and tools that can help students find roommates either at the BUMC or another university in the Boston area, all students will want to talk about their potential roommates about some basic lifestyle attitudes and financial issues before deciding to live together. Remember, living with a roommate is both a social situation and a legally binding responsibility (especially if both roommates are on a lease). Making sure you not only get along with your roommates, but know how to address conflict when it does arise, are very important issues to address before deciding to live with someone.
Lifestyle Questions:
- Is your potential roommate quiet or noisy? Do they like to play music at home?
- Does your potential roommate like to entertain regularly? Does he or she intend to have guests several nights a week?
- Do they like to watch a lot of TV/play video games in shared space in the apartment?
- Do they like to cook regularly/do they intend to cook regularly?
- Do they stay up late at night, or are they early to bed?
- What are their personal hygiene habits, especially in regards to using bathrooms? Do they take long showers?
- What sort of cable/TV/internet access are they hoping to have at home?
- How sociable are they? Are they interested in exploring the city with you, or are they more introverted?
Financial Questions:
- How does your potential roommate intend to pay the rent for the apartment?
- If they are using student loans/grants as their primary financial support, do they have a co-signer or guarantor to help them supplement this?
- What does their credit rating look like? What does the credit of their co-signer look like?
- How do they intend to pay for the initial move-in costs of an apartment?
Space-sharing Questions:
- What apartment items do they have? What, if any, furniture do they have and can or want to bring with them?
- Do they have a vehicle? Will they need parking?
- Do they have apartment basics, like a vacuum cleaner?
- How do they want to negotiate food/staples in the apartment? Will they be shared? Will they be separated?
- Do they have a romantic partner? If they do, will the partner be spending substantial time in the apartment?
While it is not necessary to know everything about a potential roommate’s personality, the more accurate a picture you can get about their living habits and preferences, the better you will know if they will fit your living needs.
