No, but it can save you a lot of time and money if something goes wrong. There is no substitute for having the main terms of a rent-a-room arrangement recorded in writing. Where a homeowner continues to live in the property and shares it with the person renting the room, the arrangement will commonly be a licence rather than an ordinary residential tenancy. The RTB identifies sharing a house with the owner as a typical example of a licence, although the actual substance of the arrangement matters rather than simply what the document is called.
A written licence agreement is particularly useful because many of the protections and procedures associated with an ordinary tenancy do not apply in the same way. Citizens Information recommends agreeing ground rules in writing, including the amount to be paid, payment method, notice, utilities, overnight guests and other household arrangements.
Without a written agreement, relatively simple issues can become difficult to prove. A homeowner may believe that one month’s notice was agreed while the room renter remembers two weeks. One person may believe electricity was included in the monthly payment while the other expected it to be divided separately. The same problems can arise over deposits, guests, access to the bedroom and responsibility for damage.
A good agreement should therefore record the licence fee, deposit, payment arrangements, notice period, utilities, house rules and the circumstances in which the arrangement can be ended. Photographs and an inventory can also provide a record of the room’s condition when the person moves in.
SigSwift’s Rent A Room Licence Agreement is designed to put these matters into one signed record. The objective is not simply to have a legal document sitting in a folder. It is to establish what both people agreed while they are still in agreement.
That can prevent a disagreement months later from becoming a debate about what was supposedly said in an earlier conversation.
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