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Austin - Roommate Services

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Topics covered in this section include: 

Roommate Services, What a Roommate Service Provides, What to Look for in a Roommate

Roommate Services

Roommate Service, The - provides roommate referral services. www.roommateservice.com

Roommate Bulletin Board - allows you to find a matching individual(s) in a selected area or post your own ad. www.roommatebbs.com

Roommate Locator - database of available rooms worldwide including single family houses, townhouses, apartments, and condos. www.RoommateLocator.com

Roomie Match Roommates Nationwide - matching for all shared housing including personality, lifestyle, and demographics. Serving the US and Canada. www.roomiematch.com

Easy Roommate - nationwide roommate matching and listing service. www.easyroommate.com

Roommate Access - nationwide service. www.roommateaccess.com 

Roommates for You, Inc. - referral service. www.roommates4u.com

Easy Roommate - nationwide roommate matching and listing service. www.easyroommate.com 

Roommate Locator - database of available rooms worldwide including single family houses, townhouses, apartments, and condos. www.roommatelocator.com

What a Roommate Service Provides

A Roommate Service can streamline your search by providing a ready roommates that are pre-screened and evaluated in terms of interests and desires in a roommate. Referrals are checked for location, price range, background, interests, and creditworthiness if you so choose. This saves you the time of driving to the location, interviewing the prospective roommate and trying to fumble through the decision process with no help whatsoever. 

What to Look for in a Roommate

In many cases, it is more affordable or convenient to find a roommate to share an apartment or townhouse with. The advantages include more space and shared costs. It is important to find the right person that you can live with. 

Apartment and townhome communities have different rules about new tenants moving in. Most will expect the new resident to be registered as an occupant and some may require that they be added to the lease. Sometimes, the original tenant has a lease with the apartment owner while the second tenant is not added. What the original tenant may fail to recognize is that he's actually subletting the apartment to his fellow roommate. If his second tenant fails to make the rent for any reason, the roommate who signed the lease is solely responsible for making the monthly payment.

The alternative is a situation where both roommates sign the lease. Depending on the lease terms, each roommate -- not one or the other -- can be fully liable for the entire monthly rent and for all property damage. Also, two tenants on the lease resolves other problems: It may be that a rental contract forbids sub-leasing and it will be easier to qualify for the property.

Before renting together, it's wise for would-be roommates to sit down and draw up a written agreement that covers a number of issues:

• How much rent is each tenant paying? For instance, someone with a larger bedroom might have a bigger monthly cost.

• When is the rent due? (It can make sense to set a due date in advance of the actual payment date to avoid penalties.)

• What is the penalty if one roommate is late with the rent?

• What happens if one roommate doesn't pay?

• How much is each party putting up for the security deposit?

• What happens if one roommate needs to move before the end of the lease term?

• How will utility bills be divided?

To draw up a proper agreement, write out what you want to do and then have the paperwork reviewed by an attorney or legal clinic. Remember, if you have a one-year lease at $1,200 a month you're looking at a total liability of $12,000. That is a lot of money and someone is responsible for it. Breaking a lease can have a negative affect on your personal credit rating and make it difficult to find a new place to rent nationwide.

If one roommate innocently forgets to pay his share of the rent resulting in partial or nor rent being paid to the landlord.  That is usually not grounds for instant eviction -- though it may result in a late fee. The landlord will usually issue a reminder or friendly warning before taking more drastic measures.

If rent is not paid within the grace period usually allowed for late payment, the landlord will likely make a formal request for payment.  Most states require that the landlord do so in writing. Once the landlord makes the request and the tenant still doesn't pay, the landlord can then proceed to court, where the landlord can have the tenant evicted.

Landlords don't want to evict tenants. It is a costly and time-consuming affair. It creates vacancies, is bad for credit and is generally a messy affair.  A better approach for everyone is to try and work out the problem, keeping up the rent and perhaps finding a replacement roommate.

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Roommate Services