Living with a roommate can be a great way to save some cash and split basic household responsibilities. Having a roommate can be fun and cost-effective, especially when you actually like the other person, but it comes with a totally different set of challenges than living with your family or significant other.
Cohabitating with a person you’re not 100% obligated to love or (even like!) means that you won’t always agree on every aspect of sharing a space. If you’re in college, you probably didn’t have a choice in picking who this built-in best friend would be, but you’re still stuck with that person for at least a year.
Different schedules, personalities, hygiene levels and overall lifestyle choices can throw a wrench into even the most perfect roommate pairings. However, putting your expectations for one another in writing can help set some ground rules and prevent roommate nightmares down the road.
Your lease might cover what you are both monetarily responsible for, but everything else should be documented too. LegalShield members have access to a Roommate Agreement that will help set some boundaries and preserve your relationship with your roommate.Disagreements are unavoidable, but getting your house rules in writing from the very beginning can ease tension when problems arise. Among the areas the Roommate Agreement covers are:
Like all of LegalShield's forms, our Roommate Agreement is free to our members.
A Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trust comes down to one trade-off: control versus protection. Revocable lets you stay in the driver's seat. Irrevocable moves your assets somewhere creditors and estate taxes can't easily reach.
A partition action can help give you a path forward when you just can’t agree with a property co-owner — even if you’ve reached a stalemate.
A mistake in your Will could leave your loved ones facing legal issues during one of the hardest moments in their lives. We’ll explain how to update a Will, and why it’s best to do so with legal help.
Estate settlement involves managing a deceased person's finances. As the executor, you'll pay their legal debts and distribute their assets to the people they named.
Instead of going through court, your home can pass directly to the people you’ve chosen.
A Trust is like a bridge between a person and their estate. A Trust can make it easier for your family to manage your estate when the time comes.
