Living with a roommate can have a lot of perks, but there can also be several drawbacks—even if you and your roommate are close and get along fabulously. In order to cope, and maybe prevent, these differences from ruining a roommate relationship you and your roommate can put together a roommate agreement.

There is no real set standard when it comes to what goes on a roommate agreement. The only thing is that both you and your roommate need to agree to everything that is on it and agree to adhere to the rules that you decide upon. A roommate agreement can cover a variety of roommate issues, you and your roommate just need to sit down together and talk about the ones that may have an impact on your roommate relationship.

The level of cleanliness can be a huge roommate issue and it can cause a lot of problems between roommates. Everyone has different standards when it comes to cleaning, as well as different ways of performing the task. If you feel that there is an issue or could be an issue with this between you and your roommate, then you can specify a cleaning schedule in the roommate agreement. You could even go so far as to divide up the chores so that there is never any confusion over who takes out the trash or who does the dishes.

Money can also quickly become an issue between roommates. You may have decided to get a roommate to help with the rent, but having an extra person live with you will increase the other expenses, such as utilities and groceries. A roommate agreement with a section on money can be a huge help in preventing heartache and future money issues between the two of you. The agreement will allow you to list all of the expenses that you share with the apartment and after listing each expense you can then decide if you want to split the bills or each of you pay half of every bill.

Deciding on a cleaning schedule and a payment plan are only two ways that a roommate agreement can prevent roommate issues from getting out of proportion. Living with someone will always have its difficulties regardless of how well you may get along. In order to maintain a good quality of relationship with your roommate, it is a good idea to incorporate a roommate agreement that is fair and you can both agree on and stick to.

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Zack Fair currently writes for Rental Markets Inc. that manages a Roommate Finder community website Getaroomie.com that serves as a roommate search engine as well as a community for people finding a room or roommates.