If you are moving into a shared house with people you half know, someone will eventually suggest writing a roommate agreement. It is a good idea. It is also frequently misunderstood, in a way that matters in February.
This is general guidance, not legal advice — take advice if a specific situation turns serious.
What it can do
A roommate agreement is a document housemates write between themselves: who pays what share, who cleans what, how bills are split, what notice someone gives before leaving, how the deposit is settled between you.
Its real value is unglamorous. It settles the ordinary disputes — dishes, guests, noise, the internet bill — before they turn into resentments. Write it in the first week, while everyone is still being polite. The clause nobody wants to draft is the leaving clause, and it is the one that earns the whole document.
What it cannot do
It does not change your obligations to the landlord. Under Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act, if the tenancy is joint, all tenants remain liable for the whole rent regardless of what was agreed privately between them.
So if your agreement says each person covers a quarter, and one person leaves in February owing their share, the landlord is entitled to look to the remaining tenants for the full rent. Your agreement gives you a claim against the person who left. It does not give you a defence against the landlord.
That asymmetry is the single most important thing to understand before signing a joint tenancy, and it is why the lease structure matters more than the rent.
What to put in one, if you are signing jointly
- Rent shares and payment dates — who pays whom, and by when.
- Bills — which accounts are in whose name, and how they are reimbursed. Heat in an Edmonton winter is the big one.
- The leaving clause — notice required, who finds the replacement, who carries the rent until they arrive.
- Deposit — how it is split at the end, and how deductions are decided between you.
- Shared space — cleaning, and whose food is whose.
- Guests — how many nights before a guest becomes a resident.
- Quiet hours — actual times, agreed in advance rather than negotiated at 1am.
- Damage — who pays for what, when it is nobody’s obvious fault.
Sign it, and each keep a copy. It is not a formality; it is the reference you reach for when memory conflicts.
What replaces it in a per-bedroom lease
In a residence where each bedroom has its own agreement with the operator, most of that document has no work to do — the operator has already answered the same questions, in writing, for everyone.
Rent shares: none to divide. Your lease is for your bedroom, so your rent is yours and does not move when someone else leaves.
Bills: none to split. Heat, water, power and Wi-Fi are in the rent.
The leaving clause: ours. If someone in the suite moves out in February, refilling the room is our problem.
Deposit: yours alone, returned to you under the Residential Tenancies Act after you move out and the room is inspected — no negotiation with housemates about deductions.
Quiet hours: already set, 11pm–8am on weeknights and midnight–9am at weekends, tightening in December and April.
Guests: overnight is fine for a night or two; beyond that it is a fifth person in a four-person suite. Talk to your suitemates first — that is the rule.
Damage: report it and on-site maintenance handles it. Heat, water and power are ours to fix.
Who you live with: placed by year of study, programme and what you tell us about sleep and tidiness. Applying with someone you know? Say so and we will hold rooms in the same suite where we can.
What still needs a conversation
House rules settle the structural questions. They do not settle whose milk that is, or who left the pan.
The useful habit in any shared kitchen is the same one the agreement was trying to encode: say the small thing early, while it is still small. A residence works when four people who did not choose each other can still find the kitchen clean — most of the rules above are only that idea, written down.
How it works covers the lease and the deposit; residence life covers the rules in full.
