Free Georgia Roommate Agreement
Georgia has a structural rule few other states have. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1 a residential lease of under five years gives the tenant only a usufruct — a right to use that “may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent”. So a roommate agreement here cannot give anyone the right to occupy.
A roommate agreement is a contract between the roommates, and the landlord is not a party to it. In Georgia that ordinary limit is reinforced by an unusual one. O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1 provides that a residential lease for less than five years conveys “only a usufruct which may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent”. No estate in the land ever leaves the landlord. A tenant therefore has nothing to hand on, which means a Georgia roommate agreement has to be written as a cost-sharing and conduct contract that expressly grants no possessory right — and the roommate who is going to live there needs to be on the lease.
Build your Georgia roommate agreement
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You cannot give a roommate something you do not have
The usufruct rule is easy to state and easy to get wrong. Because a short residential lease in Georgia transfers a right of use rather than an interest in the property, and because that right “may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent”, an agreement between roommates cannot create a right to occupy in someone the landlord has not accepted. Writing “Chris may occupy the second bedroom” does not make it so. What the agreement can do — and should do — is allocate money and conduct between people who are all properly on the lease, and record what the roommates have promised each other. Note: § 44-7-1(b) means this applies to leases under five years, which is nearly every residential tenancy, unless the parties expressly contract otherwise. And read the proviso: the usufruct may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent, so where the landlord has consented in writing the bar is lifted for that arrangement — which is why the generator above asks whether consent was given, and in what form.
Watch: Free Georgia Roommate Agreement explained
Georgia roommate agreement at a glance
What a short lease gives you
A usufruct, not an estate
Can you convey it to a roommate?
Not without the landlord’s consent
Deposit cap
Two months’ rent for the dwelling
Four roommates
Still one dwelling, still one cap
Two months’ rent for the dwelling, not per roommate
The Safe at Home Act added § 44-7-30.1, effective 1 July 2024 for leases entered into or renewed on or after that date, and it caps the security deposit at two months’ rent. The words that matter to roommates are that the cap attaches to the dwelling: four roommates do not mean four deposits. And § 44-7-2(b)(6) makes the whole deposit article non-waivable, so a lease clause purporting to take more does not work. One carve-out is worth knowing: § 44-7-36 exempts a landlord who is a natural person with ten or fewer units from the escrow requirement, from the move-in and move-out damage lists, and from the treble-damages remedy — but not from the two-month cap or the 30-day return. That exemption disappears if a paid manager collects the rent. With a small Georgia landlord there may be no move-in list at all, which makes the roommates’ own dated photographs considerably more important.
How to use a Georgia roommate agreement
Get everyone onto the lease if they are going to live there
Because of the usufruct rule in section 44-7-1, an agreement between roommates cannot give anyone the right to occupy. Only the landlord can do that.
Use this agreement for money and conduct, not for possession
Rent shares, deposit shares, utilities, guests, cleaning and exit terms all work normally. A clause purporting to grant occupancy does not.
Check whether the deposit exceeds two months’ rent
Section 44-7-30.1 caps it for the dwelling as a whole, and the deposit article cannot be waived.
Take your own dated photographs at move-in
A small landlord may be exempt from the move-in damage list under section 44-7-36, so your record may be the only one.
Keep a signed copy each
The agreement is only useful as evidence if every roommate can produce the same version.
About the Georgia roommate agreement
A roommate agreement settles what the lease leaves to the people living together, and in Georgia it has to do so within the limits of what a tenant actually holds. Everyone named on the lease remains liable to the landlord on the lease’s terms — and in practice that liability is joint and several where the lease provides for it. The Code does not say so — the phrase does not appear in the operative text of the chapter. What says so is the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ Landlord-Tenant Handbook, which states that each roommate in a tenant relationship with the landlord can be held responsible for the full rent unless the lease describes otherwise. It is a lease term, not a statute. The state housing agency’s handbook is the source that addresses roommates directly, and it treats the arrangement as a private matter between the people sharing the unit. That is precisely what this document is for.
What a Georgia roommate agreement should record
- Who is named on the lease and who is not — and a plan to fix it if someone is not
- That the agreement grants no right to occupy, only rights between the roommates
- Each roommate’s share of the rent, and who pays the landlord
- Each roommate’s share of the deposit, within the two-month cap for the dwelling
- Whether a move-in damage list was provided, and who holds the photographs if not
- Guests, quiet hours, smoking, pets and cleaning
- The notice a departing roommate gives the others
- Who finds and approves a replacement, and what the landlord requires
- That the agreement binds the roommates only and does not bind the landlord
Common Georgia mistakes
- Treating the agreement as a grant of occupancy. Under § 44-7-1 a short residential lease is a usufruct that cannot be conveyed without the landlord’s consent.
- Expecting a deposit per roommate. The § 44-7-30.1 cap of two months’ rent attaches to the dwelling, not to each person.
- Assuming there is always a move-in list. Section 44-7-36 exempts natural-person landlords with ten or fewer units from the damage lists, though not from the cap or the 30-day return.
- Assuming the remaining roommates are released when a victim leaves. Section 44-7-23 frees the protected tenant. It does not free anyone else.
- Treating a secondary website as the Code. Some widely used sources are badly out of date on Georgia and omit the Safe at Home Act entirely.
Where this page’s information comes from
Georgia is a genuinely difficult state to source, and a page that pretended otherwise would be misleading. No free official source publishes the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. The General Assembly’s site returns a loading shell rather than statutory text, and the official Code is published under contract by a commercial publisher.
So every statutory passage quoted on this page — including the usufruct wording above — is taken from clearly-identified unofficial mirrors of title 44 chapter 7, not from the official Code. Where two mirrors were compared they agreed word for word, but that is not the same as verification against the official text. Confirm any quoted wording before relying on it.
So the propositions here rest on two things: the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Landlord-Tenant Handbook, which is a state-agency publication and which contains a dedicated section on roommates, and clearly-identified unofficial mirrors of chapter 44-7 used for the statutory text. Neither is the official Code. Anyone relying on a specific figure should confirm it against the official text.
One further caution, because it caused a real error in preparing this page: at least one widely used legal website is currently more than a year out of date on Georgia and omits the Safe at Home Act altogether, including the deposit cap discussed below. If you check this yourself, check the date on the source.
The usufruct rule, and what it means for roommates
Section 44-7-1 draws a distinction most states do not. A lease for a term of less than five years does not convey an estate in the property. It conveys a usufruct — a right to use and enjoy — and the section says that right “may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent”.
For a roommate arrangement the consequence is direct. A tenant cannot pass on a right they do not hold in a transferable form. An agreement between roommates can allocate costs, set house rules, and create promises the roommates can enforce against each other — but it cannot make someone an occupant of the property as against the landlord. Only the landlord can do that, by putting the person on the lease.
The practical drafting response is to be explicit about it. A Georgia roommate agreement should say that it grants no possessory right and that occupancy depends on the lease, and the roommates should treat getting everyone properly onto the lease as the first task rather than an afterthought.
The deposit, and the two numbers that cannot be waived
The Safe at Home Act, effective 1 July 2024 for leases entered into or renewed on or after that date, introduced § 44-7-30.1 and with it a cap of two months’ rent. The cap is on the deposit for the dwelling. A group of four roommates is still one dwelling, so it is still one cap — the arithmetic that sometimes appears, of a deposit per person, does not follow. The section caps the deposit against the rent, and the rent is for the dwelling, so adding roommates does not buy the landlord more headroom.
Section 44-7-2(b)(6) then makes the deposit article non-waivable, so a lease term purporting to take more is ineffective. Between them these two provisions do more work for a roommate group than anything else in the chapter, because the deposit is the shared pot everyone is arguing about at the end.
What the chapter does not do is divide it. Searching the operative text of all 74 sections — 91,962 characters — returns zero occurrences of “apportion”, “co-tenant” and “roommate”. There is no statutory mechanism for paying one roommate their share, and no duty on the landlord to try. Whatever the roommates have written down is the only allocation there is.
When a roommate leaves because of family violence
Section 44-7-23 gives a protected tenant a right to terminate early on thirty days’ written notice, paying rent only to the effective date. The label is doing work: the right is triggered only by one of four specified court orders — a civil family-violence order, a civil stalking order, a criminal family-violence order or a criminal stalking order — and the written notice must have a copy of the order attached. It is not available on the strength of a domestic-violence situation alone. Two further features are unusual and worth stating. Subsection (e) provides that the right “shall not be waived or modified… under any circumstances”, so nothing in a lease or in a roommate agreement can contract around it. And subsection (b)(2) expressly reaches a joint tenant “even when such protected tenant had no obligation to pay rent to the landlord” — so the right is not limited to the person whose name is on the cheque.
What the section does not do is release anybody else. It frees the protected tenant, and the remaining roommates are left with the same rent and one fewer person to pay it. That gap is exactly what a roommate agreement should address, by agreeing in advance who covers a vacant share and for how long.
An agreement between roommates is not a lease
This document binds the people who sign it to each other. The landlord is not a party to it and is not bound by it, and in Georgia it cannot grant occupancy at all. Everyone named on the lease can still be pursued by the landlord on the lease’s own terms — the Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook describes co-tenants as jointly and severally liable unless the lease describes otherwise — and the shares written here do not change that. What the agreement gives you is proof of the internal bargain: who agreed to pay what, who agreed to cover a gap, and what a departing roommate is owed by the others.
Where a roommate agreement sits in Georgia law
A roommate agreement is a private contract, so most of what it does is decided by the roommates rather than by statute. The parts that state law does reach are the ones that involve the landlord — and the biggest of those is the deposit. Our guide to Georgia security deposit laws sets out what the landlord may hold and when it has to come back, which is the money the roommates are dividing between themselves.
The other place state law bites is non-payment. An internal agreement about shares does not change what the landlord may do if the total rent is short, and Georgia eviction notice laws explain the notices and timelines that follow — which reach everyone named on the lease, not only the roommate who fell behind.
For the obligations that run between a landlord and the tenants throughout the tenancy, and the rules that apply to both sides, see Georgia landlord tenant laws.
Bottom line
A residential lease under five years gives only a usufruct, which O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1 says “may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent” — so a Georgia roommate agreement cannot hand anyone the right to occupy, only allocate money and conduct between people already on the lease. Note: the § 44-7-30.1 deposit cap of two months’ rent attaches to the dwelling, so four roommates still means one cap — and it cannot be waived.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Georgia have a roommate law?
No statute in title 44 chapter 7 addresses roommates – the word appears zero times across the operative text of all 74 sections. The state housing agency’s Landlord-Tenant Handbook does have a section on roommates, and treats the arrangement as a private matter between the people sharing the unit.
Can I let a roommate move in under a roommate agreement?
Not on the strength of the agreement alone. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1 a residential lease of under five years is a usufruct which “may not be conveyed except by the landlord’s consent”, so a tenant has nothing they can transfer by themselves. Where the landlord HAS consented in writing, the bar is lifted for that arrangement – and the safest form of that consent is putting the roommate on the lease. Georgia does not publish O.C.G.A. free of charge, so this wording comes from unofficial mirrors of the Code that agree word for word, not from the official text.
How much can a Georgia landlord hold as a security deposit?
Two months’ rent, under § 44-7-30.1, for leases entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2024. The cap attaches to the dwelling rather than to each roommate, and § 44-7-2(b)(6) makes the deposit article non-waivable.
Is there a deposit per roommate?
No. The cap is on the deposit for the dwelling, so four roommates do not mean four deposits.
Will the landlord split the deposit refund between us?
There is no statutory duty to. The operative text of chapter 44-7 contains no occurrences of “apportion” or “co-tenant”, so the split is whatever the roommates have agreed between themselves.
If a roommate leaves under section 44-7-23, are the rest of us released?
No. The section frees the protected tenant, on thirty days’ written notice with rent prorated to the effective date. It says nothing releasing the remaining roommates, who are left with the same rent and one fewer person paying it.
Do we always get a move-in damage list?
Not necessarily. Section 44-7-36 exempts a landlord who is a natural person with ten or fewer units from the escrow requirement and from the move-in and move-out damage lists – though not from the two-month cap or the 30-day return. Take your own dated photographs.
Does a roommate agreement take me off the lease?
No. It is a contract between the roommates and the landlord is not a party to it. Coming off the lease requires the landlord’s agreement, and until then each named tenant remains liable to the landlord on the lease’s own terms — commonly for the whole rent, where the lease makes the tenants jointly and severally liable.
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