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There are many purposes to these kind of agreements. We are hopeful that, because of our website’s selection criteria, that you and your new flatmate have a happy household. However, the reality is that circumstances change and you can’t always get along with everyone – even if you have carefully selected them to begin with. So, rather than having a simple ‘hand shake’ agreement, wouldn’t you prefer that you spend a few dollars making sure that the terms of your agreement are reduced to writing?

Think about it this way – would you buy a car without getting a receipt? Would you buy a new watch without getting a warranty, just in case something goes wrong? The average room rent in Australia is about $200 per week – that’s more than $10,000 a year. Are you really happy handing over $10,000 a year to someone without knowing what your rights are? At easyflatmate.com, we think the $14.95 for a flatshare agreement is a wise investment.

There are two types of agreements depending on your situation:

• If you are the ‘official tenant’ on the lease’:
  • Each time a new flat mate moves in, you will want them to sign a Boarder Agreement.

  • This is similar to what might be described as a sub-lease. It is an agreement between you and them and covers key things such as rent and bond as well as other important terms about notice periods and some house rules.

  • You should have a separate agreement with each boarder. This way, you can have specific rules to suit each person including any differences in rent, how long they can live there etc. It also means that you can have boarders that start and end their stay with you at different times. The alternative might be to have everyone re-sign new agreements (with everyone on the same agreement) whenever there is a change in the household, but in our experience that isn’t practical and hence we recommend each boarder sign an independent agreement with you.

• If you are moving into a share house and will not be on the lease:

  • You will want to have a Boarder Agreement between yourself and the person on the official lease. This is similar to what might be described as a sub-lease. It is an agreement between you and them and covers key things such as rent and bond as well as other important terms about notice periods and some house rules.

  • If you are a Boarder, you should INSIST on such an agreement. Without it, your rights may be limited. Would you buy a car without a warranty? Well…you are about to spend the same amount of money over the life of your stay, so get it in writing!

• If you are a tenant in a house and all the flatmates are on the official lease:

  • Most people in this situation think they already have a lease and therefore no further rules are required. This couldn’t be further from the truth! There are so many other things that you should think about such as splitting of bills, house rules, and what happens when someone wants to leave the house.

  • You will want each of the flat mates to sign a House Share Agreement. Arguments in shared houses usually start over the smallest of things such as someone abusing the use of the common area by having constant house guests, or someone not chipping in for their fair share of phone calls. Avoid these arguments by getting it in writing.

There is a distinction between the agreement on this website and a standard residential tenancy agreement. The document you have purchased is not a Standard Tenancy Agreement. If you prefer to sign one of those, then you should be named on the official lease and then consider using one of those agreements to note down your House Rules.

The purpose of this agreement is that it provides a rule book that you can turn to if a dispute exists and it can be held up at a later point to show what both parties agreed to at the time of signing it. It isn’t necessarily for the purpose of being able to sue people. We hope that by having this agreement, that in 99% of cases, the dispute will be settled simply by reading the agreement.

It is preferable to make sure that you have a new agreement each time a new flat mate joins or leaves the house. This makes sure that you update important elements to do with splitting of bills, ownership of furniture, and the condition of the premises etc. Also, we are constantly reviewing our agreements to make sure they comply with the latest laws and trends. By copying the agreement you risk missing out a key provision or making it ineffective.

Our agreements are also protected by copyright. This means it is illegal to copy them or reproduce them. This could have ramifications including the document being void on the basis that you had no legal right to use it. To be safe, you should get a new agreement each time a flat mate changes.

It is fairly common for a lease to have a standard provision that prevents a landlord from sub-leasing the premises (or any room) without the Landlord’s permission. This is quite a reasonable clause, because it stops someone living in the apartment whom the landlord doesn’t approve and whom the landlord hasn’t had a chance to interview.

It would be highly unusual for a Landlord to deny an application to sub-let a room and they generally have an obligation to not unreasonably deny such a request. It is the legal tenant’s responsibility to know the terms of the official lease and to advise the Landlord of their intention to sub-lease the room. If you are someone moving into the house, you should encourage them to do this.

If a situation arises where the Landlord finds out that there is a sub-tenant whom he hasn’t approved and where the Landlord takes action against the tenant, he may terminate the legal lease. As a boarder (in the case that your name is not on the Lease), you have little legal power to stop this. This is one of the risks you take of not being on the lease but of course you retain greater flexibility (and less responsibility) because of this. (You will note that there is a “do not sub-lease” clause in our agreements for the same reason.)