Roommate agreement template Ontario — free to draft, and what it must cover

Why a written roommate agreement matters in Ontario

Splitting a place with roommates is one of the most common ways Ontarians afford housing — and one of the least protected. Unlike a standard lease, which uses Ontario's mandatory Standard Form of Lease, a roommate agreement has no prescribed form and no regulator behind it. It is a private contract between the people sharing the home, and its strength comes entirely from how clearly it is written and whether everyone signed it.

That matters because roommate disputes are rarely about the law — they are about memory. Who agreed to pay the hydro bill? Was the guest allowed to stay a month? Did the departing roommate promise to find a replacement? Without a written agreement, every one of those questions becomes one person's word against another's. With one, the answer is on page two. Draft the agreement when everyone is still getting along, not after the first argument — it is much harder to agree on rules once someone feels wronged.

The Ontario RTA gap: when tenancy law does not protect roommates

This is the single most misunderstood part of shared housing in Ontario, and it decides what your agreement needs to do. Roommate arrangements fall into two very different buckets:

First, everyone is on the lease. All roommates signed the tenancy agreement with the landlord. The RTA governs the tenancy — rent rules, maintenance, eviction procedures — but only the relationship with the landlord. A fight between two co-tenants over the hydro bill or a departing roommate's share is not an RTA matter; it is decided by whatever the roommates agreed to, which is exactly why the roommate agreement exists.

Second, you rent a room and share a kitchen or bathroom with the owner. Under section 5(i) of the RTA, the Act does not apply at all when the occupant shares bathroom or kitchen facilities with the owner (or the owner's spouse, child, or parent). There is no rent control, no standard-form lease requirement, and no Landlord and Tenant Board process — the arrangement is governed entirely by the contract you make and the common law. Most 'renting a room in someone's house' situations in Ontario live here, and the written agreement is the only protection either side has.

Know which bucket you are in before you draft: it changes what the agreement must cover, especially around ending the arrangement and deposits.

What a roommate agreement template should include

A complete Ontario roommate agreement covers the money, the house, and the exit. Work through each of these before anyone signs:

• The people and the place: full legal names of every roommate, the address, and which rooms and spaces are private versus shared
• Rent and bills: each person's share of rent and utilities, the payment date, the payment method, and what happens if someone pays late — including who covers the shortfall to the landlord in the meantime
• The landlord relationship: who is on the lease, who is not, and the rule that an occupant who is not on the lease is not a tenant under the RTA
• House rules: quiet hours, cleaning responsibilities, shared spaces, smoking, and overnight guests (see below)
• Deposits and shared purchases: any money handed over between roommates, what it is for, and the exact return terms — written down, not assumed
• Guests and pets: how long a guest may stay before they count as an occupant, and pet rules between roommates (note: no-pet clauses in Ontario leases are void under the RTA, but roommate-to-roommate pet rules are contractual and can still bind)
• Moving out: notice period, the replacement process, and what happens to a departing roommate's share of rent and shared costs
• Disputes: a simple process — talk first, then mediation, then Small Claims Court for money claims — so a disagreement does not immediately become a crisis

Splitting rent and bills fairly

Equal splits are the default, but they are not always fair. A roommate with the master bedroom and ensuite is not in the same position as a roommate with the small room by the front door, and a couple sharing one room is not two single roommates. The fairest approach is to agree the split explicitly — by room size, by amenities, or by any method everyone accepts — and write the numbers into the agreement, not just the method. A line that says 'rent is split $900 / $700 / $500' prevents more arguments than a line that says 'rent is split fairly.'

Utilities deserve the same treatment: name each bill (hydro, internet, water, heating), who holds the account, how the total is divided, and when each roommate pays their share. If one roommate holds the accounts, the agreement should say when the others reimburse them, so the account holder is not silently carrying everyone's costs for months. Shared purchases — a vacuum, a couch, a streaming subscription — should be listed with who paid and what happens to them when someone moves out.

Deposits between roommates: what Ontario law actually says

Ontario has the strictest deposit rules in Canada — and they create a trap for roommates who assume the same protections apply between themselves. What landlords can take from tenants: only a rent deposit equal to the last rental period's rent (one month for a monthly tenancy), plus a refundable key deposit no higher than the direct cost of replacing the keys. Security deposits, damage deposits, cleaning deposits, and pet deposits are illegal when a landlord demands them from a tenant, even if the tenant 'agreed.'

What roommates can take from each other: the RTA does not regulate this at all. A 'damage deposit' paid to a fellow roommate is not a deposit under the Act — it is just a private payment with none of the statutory protections (no interest rules, no Board remedy). That makes roommate deposits risky: if the holder will not return the money, the only route is a contract claim in Small Claims Court.

The practical advice: avoid roommate-to-roommate deposits entirely. If money must change hands — say, one roommate fronted the landlord's rent deposit — write down the exact amount, what it is for, the conditions for its return, and a return deadline. Treat it like a loan with paperwork, because legally, that is what it is.

Guests, pets, and quiet hours: the house rules that prevent fights

Most roommate disputes are not about rent — they are about living together. The agreement should set the rules while everyone is friendly: how many nights a guest may stay before the roommates discuss it (a common line is 7 consecutive nights or 14 nights in a month), whether overnight guests need a heads-up, quiet hours for work and sleep, smoking rules, and cleaning responsibilities for shared spaces. Pets deserve their own clause: who owns the pet, who cleans up, who pays for damage, and what happens if the pet disturbs others — remembering that a roommate agreement can set pet rules even though a landlord's no-pet clause in a lease is void under the RTA.

Keep the rules specific enough to enforce and short enough to remember. 'Respect quiet hours' is a wish; 'quiet hours are 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weeknights' is a rule. And include a review clause: revisit the agreement every six months or whenever someone's circumstances change, so the rules grow with the household instead of going stale.

Moving out, replacements, and ending the arrangement

Every roommate agreement should answer the exit question before anyone wants to leave. For arrangements outside the RTA, 30 days' written notice is the common standard — there is no statutory notice period, so whatever the agreement says governs. If all roommates are on the lease, the tenancy itself can only be ended through the RTA process: a tenant gives the landlord at least 60 days' written notice on Form N9, and one co-tenant's notice does not end the tenancy for the others.

Set the replacement process in advance: who advertises, who interviews, and whether all remaining roommates must approve the new person. If the new person will join the lease, the landlord's consent is needed. And answer the money question: does the departing roommate keep paying until a replacement is found, or only until the notice period ends? The agreement should say so explicitly — this is the single most common roommate money dispute, and it is entirely preventable with one sentence.

One thing you cannot do: evict a co-tenant yourself. If a roommate is on the lease, only the Landlord and Tenant Board process can end the tenancy, and one tenant cannot remove another. If the roommate is not on the lease and the RTA does not apply, you can end the arrangement with reasonable written notice, commonly 30 days — but never change the locks or remove belongings yourself without legal advice.

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