Free Indiana Roommate Agreement
The Code’s only express multi-tenant deposit rule points one way. Under IC 32-31-9-13 the landlord is “not obligated to return or account for any security deposit… until forty-five (45) days after the tenancy of all tenants has terminated”. Nothing in the deposit chapter gives a departing roommate a partial accounting, so in practice their money sits with the people who stayed.
A roommate agreement is a contract between the roommates. The landlord is not a party to it and it does not change the lease. In Indiana one statutory feature makes that agreement more important than usual: the deposit does not become payable to anyone until every tenant has gone. IC 32-31-9-13 ties the landlord’s obligation to the termination of the tenancy of all tenants, and IC 32-31-3-12(a) adds that the landlord is not liable at all until the tenant supplies a mailing address in writing. On the face of those sections, a roommate who moves out in March while the others stay until next year is owed nothing by the landlord in the meantime.
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The money is real, the claim is against your roommates
Put the two provisions together and the direction is clear. The landlord’s duty to account arises forty-five days after the last tenancy ends, and even then only once someone has given a written mailing address. Note: that sentence sits in IC 32-31-9, the crime-victim chapter. It is the Code’s only express multi-tenant deposit rule, but whether an Indiana court would carry it across to an ordinary roommate move-out has not been tested here — no Indiana case law was read for this page. What is not in doubt is the practical position: nothing in the deposit chapter gives a departing roommate a partial accounting, so their realistic claim is against the people who remain, and it exists only if it was written down. That is why an Indiana roommate agreement should carry an explicit buy-out clause — naming the amount, who pays it, and the date it is due — rather than a vague promise to settle up later. Either the incoming replacement buys out the leaver’s share on move-in, or the remaining roommates do. Both work; leaving it unsaid does not.
Watch: Free Indiana Roommate Agreement explained
Indiana roommate agreement at a glance
Deposit clock starts
When the LAST tenant leaves, not the first
Occupancy safe harbour
Two individuals per bedroom
A finished basement
Counts as a sleeping area
Local roommate ordinances
Preempted – there cannot be one
Two per bedroom, and the rooms that count
IC 32-31-8-7 gives Indiana an express occupancy safe harbour: two individuals per bedroom is presumed reasonable. The counting rules are the interesting part. Infants under one year old are not counted. And the landlord must count a den, library, finished basement or loft that could reasonably be used as a sleeping area, while not being required to count a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, hallway or closet. The safe harbour also gives way to state and local fire and building codes, which IC 32-31-8-7 expressly preserves. So a two-bedroom with a finished basement statutorily supports more roommates than a bare two-bedroom does. Note: IC 32-31-1-20 preempts local regulation of screening, leasing terms and the rights of the parties to a lease, so there is no Indianapolis or Bloomington roommate ordinance of that kind to look for. Local fire and building codes are a separate matter: IC 32-31-8-7 expressly defers to them, and they were not read for this page.
How to use an Indiana roommate agreement
Write a buy-out clause for the deposit
Name the amount, who pays it and when. On its face IC 32-31-9-13 means the landlord will not pay a departing roommate anything while the others remain.
Count the sleeping areas, not just the bedrooms
Under IC 32-31-8-7 a den, library, finished basement or loft that could reasonably be used for sleeping counts. A kitchen, living room, hallway or closet does not.
Give the landlord a written mailing address when you leave
Section 32-31-3-12(a) says the landlord is not liable under the chapter until the tenant supplies one in writing. It is a precondition, not a courtesy.
Agree what happens if someone leaves under IC 32-31-9
The remaining adult tenants continue unaffected, so the rent does not fall. Decide who covers the share.
Keep a signed copy each
The agreement is only useful as evidence if every roommate can produce the same version.
About the Indiana roommate agreement
A roommate agreement records what the people sharing a unit have agreed between themselves about rooms, rent, the deposit, shared costs, guests and leaving. It binds them to each other and not to the landlord. Everyone named on the lease remains liable to the landlord for the whole rent — that is joint and several liability where the lease imposes it, and no Indiana statute creates or displaces it. The nearest provision, IC 32-31-1-17, makes an occupant without special contract liable for the rent, which is about a non-contracting occupant rather than how co-tenants divide anything.
What an Indiana roommate agreement should record
- Who is named as a tenant on the lease, and who is not
- Each roommate’s share of the rent, and who pays the landlord
- Each roommate’s share of the deposit
- A buy-out clause: the amount owed to a departing roommate, the payer and the due date
- That the landlord will not account for the deposit until the last tenancy ends
- The written mailing address each roommate will give the landlord on leaving
- The number of bedrooms and any den, finished basement or loft used for sleeping
- Guests, quiet hours, smoking, pets and cleaning
- The notice a departing roommate gives the others, and who approves a replacement
- That the agreement binds the roommates only and does not bind the landlord
Common Indiana mistakes
- Expecting the landlord to refund a leaving roommate. IC 32-31-9-13 delays the obligation until forty-five days after the tenancy of all tenants has ended.
- Forgetting the written mailing address. Section 32-31-3-12(a) says the landlord is not liable under the chapter until the tenant supplies one in writing.
- Counting only the rooms marked as bedrooms. IC 32-31-8-7 requires a den, library, finished basement or loft that could reasonably be used as a sleeping area to be counted as one.
- Looking for a local roommate ordinance. IC 32-31-1-20 preempts local regulation of screening, leasing terms and the rights of the parties, so there is not one – though local fire and building codes are untouched.
- Searching for “45 days” in digits. Indiana writes “forty-five (45) days”, and a digit-only search across the landlord-tenant article returns nothing at all.
Does Indiana have a roommate law?
No. Searching the whole of IC 32-31 — the landlord-tenant article, 103,825 characters — returns zero occurrences of “roommate”, “co-tenant”, “cotenant”, “joint and several”, “additional occupant”, “apportion”, “pro rata”, “sublet”, “sublease” and “assign”. There is no right to have a roommate, no process for adding or removing one, and no rule dividing rent between people who share a unit.
Two of those zeros are worth defending, because the same words appear elsewhere in the Code and are easy to misread. The ten occurrences of “cotenant” across title 32 are all about co-ownership — oil and gas interests, and IC 32-30-9, “Actions Against Cotenants”. The five occurrences of “jointly and severally” are all in property-transfer provisions such as transfer-on-death deeds and condominium assessments. None allocates rent between roommates.
The negative is scoped to title 32, with title 34 checked as well. Title 22, which carries fire and building safety, was not searched, and neither was any case law.
The deposit rule that changes how you should draft
This is the provision that makes Indiana different, and where it sits matters: it is in the crime-victim chapter rather than the deposit chapter, so whether an Indiana court would apply it to an ordinary roommate move-out is untested and was not researched for this page. IC 32-31-9-13 provides that the landlord is not obligated to return or account for any security deposit until forty-five days after the tenancy of all tenants has terminated.
Read alongside IC 32-31-3-12(a), which requires notice of any deductions within forty-five days of the termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession, and which adds that “the landlord is not liable under this chapter until the tenant supplies the landlord in writing with a mailing address”, the practical position for a roommate is stark.
If you move out and your roommates stay, the landlord owes you nothing yet. There is no partial accounting, no share paid out, and no clock running in your favour. Your deposit money is functionally in the hands of the people still living there, and the only thing that will get it back to you on any sensible timescale is an agreement they signed.
So write the buy-out. Say what the departing roommate’s share is, who pays it — the incoming replacement on move-in, or the remaining roommates between them — and the date it is due. A clause of two sentences does what the statute declines to do.
One more drafting note: there is a second, differently triggered forty-five-day clock at IC 32-31-3-14, which runs from termination of occupancy rather than from termination of the agreement plus delivery of possession. If you are relying on a deadline, check which one applies to your facts.
How many people can share the unit
Start with the direction of the provision, because it is the opposite of what people expect. IC 32-31-8-7(a) confirms that the landlord-tenant statutes do not prohibit an owner from refusing to rent on the basis of a reasonable occupancy standard. Subsection (b) then says which standards are presumed reasonable: two individuals per bedroom. It is a shield for the landlord’s policy, not a headcount roommates can insist on.
What Indiana did that most states have not is say which rooms have to be taken into account. Infants under one year old are not counted at all. The landlord must count a den, library, finished basement or loft that could reasonably be used as a sleeping area — unless counting it would breach an applicable state or local code, including fire codes — and need not count a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, hallway or closet. The consequence is concrete: a two-bedroom flat with a finished basement supports a larger household under the safe harbour than an otherwise identical two-bedroom without one.
Indiana has also closed the field to local landlord-tenant regulation. IC 32-31-1-20 preempts municipal rules on screening, leasing terms and conditions, and the rights of the parties to a lease, so there is no city roommate ordinance to check and no prospect of one. Local fire and building codes are a different matter and are expressly preserved by IC 32-31-8-7(b)(2)(B) — they live in the administrative code, were not read for this page, and this page therefore states no figure from them.
When one roommate leaves under IC 32-31-9
Indiana’s early-termination scheme for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking is at IC 32-31-9, and it is more demanding than some states’. The tenant gives thirty days’ written notice, and a court protective order or no-contact order is required. For domestic violence and sexual assault there is an additional requirement of a safety plan from an accredited program recommending relocation, dated within the previous thirty days. The tenant who leaves owes prorated rent only.
For everyone else in the flat, IC 32-31-9-13 is the answer: the remaining adult tenants continue unaffected. Their lease does not change and their liability does not fall. And IC 32-31-9-14 keeps the excluded person liable, which is worth knowing but is rarely a practical source of funds.
The departing tenant is treated differently here from the general position described above, and this is the exception that matters. IC 32-31-9-12(e) provides that “notwithstanding section 13 of this chapter, a protected individual is entitled to deposits, returns, and other refunds as if the tenancy terminated by expiring under the terms of the rental agreement”. So in the one situation where section 13 unquestionably applies — a protected individual terminating under Chapter 9 — the person leaving does get their deposit dealt with normally, rather than waiting for the last roommate to go.
One further limit on the chapter as a whole: IC 32-31-9-1(a) applies it only to a rental agreement entered into or renewed after 30 June 2007.
One provision has an immediate operational effect on a shared flat. IC 32-31-9-10(b) requires the locks to be changed within twenty-four hours where the person excluded is a co-tenant of the same unit, as against forty-eight hours where they are not. Section 32-31-9-1(c) makes the rights unwaivable.
Guest, occupant, tenant — and a gap
“Tenant” is defined at IC 32-31-3-10 as a person who occupies a dwelling unit “with the landlord’s consent”. Neither “guest” nor “occupant” is defined anywhere in the article.
That matters because IC 32-31-8.5-5(c)(1) uses a three-way split — “the tenant”, “an authorized occupant of the rental premises”, and “a guest or invitee of the tenant” — without providing any test for deciding which of those a live-in roommate is. A roommate agreement cannot resolve that as against the landlord, but it can record which category the roommates themselves understood a person to be in, and whether the landlord was told.
An agreement between roommates is not a lease
This document binds the roommates to each other. The landlord is not a party to it, is not bound by the shares in it, and will not divide anything on the strength of it. Everyone named on the lease can still be pursued for the entire rent. What the agreement does — and in Indiana this carries more weight than in most states — is create the only enforceable route by which a departing roommate recovers their deposit share, and the only record of who agreed to cover what.
Where a roommate agreement sits in Indiana 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 Indiana 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 Indiana 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 Indiana landlord tenant laws.
Bottom line
The deposit waits for the last roommate. IC 32-31-9-13 — the Code’s only express multi-tenant deposit rule — says the landlord is “not obligated to return or account for any security deposit… until forty-five (45) days after the tenancy of all tenants has terminated”, and IC 32-31-3-12(a) adds that the landlord is not liable at all until someone gives a written mailing address. Note: nothing in the deposit chapter gives a departing roommate a partial accounting, so their only real route to their share is a buy-out clause naming the amount, the payer and the due date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Indiana have a roommate law?
No. Searching the whole landlord-tenant article, IC 32-31 at 103,825 characters, returns zero occurrences of roommate, co-tenant, joint and several, additional occupant, apportion, sublet, sublease or assign. The negative is scoped to title 32, with title 34 also checked.
When I move out, does the landlord pay me my share of the deposit?
No. IC 32-31-9-13 says the landlord is not obligated to return or account for any security deposit until forty-five days after the tenancy of all tenants has terminated. While your roommates stay, that section on its face gives you no claim against the landlord – your practical route is against the roommates, and only if it was agreed in writing. Note the section sits in the crime-victim chapter; whether a court would apply it to an ordinary roommate move-out was not researched for this page.
What is the mailing address requirement?
Under IC 32-31-3-12(a) the landlord is not liable under the chapter until the tenant supplies the landlord in writing with a mailing address to which to deliver the notice and any amount due. It is a precondition to the landlord’s liability, so give it in writing when you leave.
How many people can share an Indiana rental?
IC 32-31-8-7(a) confirms a landlord may refuse to rent on a reasonable occupancy standard; subsection (b) then says which standards are PRESUMED reasonable – two individuals per bedroom. It is a shield for the landlord’s policy, not a number roommates can insist on. Infants under one are not counted, and the landlord must count a den, library, finished basement or loft THAT COULD REASONABLY BE USED as a sleeping area, unless counting it would breach a state or local code including fire codes.
Is there a local roommate ordinance in my city?
No, and IC 32-31-1-20 prevents one – it preempts local regulation of screening, leasing terms and the rights of the parties to a lease. Local FIRE AND BUILDING codes are a separate matter: IC 32-31-8-7 expressly defers to them, and they were not read for this page.
If a roommate leaves under IC 32-31-9, does our rent go down?
No. IC 32-31-9-13 provides that the remaining adult tenants continue unaffected. The excluded person stays liable under IC 32-31-9-14, but the landlord is still owed the full rent from the people who are there.
How quickly must the locks be changed?
Where a court order excludes a perpetrator from the unit under IC 32-31-9, the landlord must re-key within twenty-four hours if that person is a co-tenant of the same dwelling unit, and within forty-eight hours if they are not (IC 32-31-9-10(b)). An ordinary roommate move-out triggers no re-keying duty at all.
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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