Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Hi Everyone, I've been a property manager and landlord for (going on) about 10 years. My current rental-property unit is nice and sits close to a college in NJ. It is rented to students who are staying for one, two, three semesters or sometimes multiple years. I control the tenancy. In other words, I screen students when they are interested in the rooms and occupy them. All of the common areas are shared. Common areas include the living room, dining room, kitchen, halls, public closets and bathrooms. It would be impossible to rent this unit to multiple students at one time, using only one lease agreement. The property sits in the highest taxable neighborhood in NJ (quite literally). The rent for the whole unit would not be appealing to one-students eyes. However, when it is broken down room-by-room, the unit is actually less expensive than the dorms. Therefore, each individual student signs a lease for their room, for the terms that they plan to stay. It includes information and inspection on the room-rental and also includes a "common-area agreement". The system works ok, however I am wondering if this is the correct way to do it, legally speaking. Should there be only one lease agreement? Is this method considered legal? What are the laws surrounding a situation of this kind? Please advise.... Caring Landlord - Dan

I imagine it would get hairy if there's damage to a common area, how do you determine which tenant to charge? Theoretically you could hold all of them accountable, and let them sort it out between themselves. Otherwise renting by room seems reasonable, especially if the rooms turn over independently of each other. As long as there are no zoning ordinances that prohibit it, there's no reason why you can't lease out rooms.

Posted by Gregory T, CA on Tuesday, February 15, 2011