Free Nevada Roommate Agreement
Nevada’s early-termination statute is drafted in cotenant language. NRS 118A.345 says “the tenant or any cotenant may terminate” — not only the victim — and it makes the adverse party potentially liable to the landlord for the economic loss.
A roommate agreement is a contract between the roommates; the landlord is not a party to it and it does not change the lease. Nevada is worth reading closely because its domestic-violence provision is drafted unusually: it is written throughout in the language of cotenants. NRS 118A.345 allows a tenant “or any cotenant” to terminate where a tenant, cotenant or household member is a victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking — and it assigns the financial consequence to the adverse party.
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The statute assigns the loss to the adverse party
That is the design choice worth understanding. Under NRS 118A.345(6) the adverse party may be civilly liable to the landlord for all economic losses arising from the termination. Subsection (5) provides that the terminating tenant is liable only to the termination date, and that the deposit must not be withheld for the early termination. The termination takes effect at the end of the rental period or after thirty days, whichever is sooner, and subsection (4) requires the actions, events or circumstances the order or report describes to have occurred within the ninety days immediately preceding the notice. Note: what the statute does not say is whether a remaining, non-terminating cotenant stays liable for the rent. It is silent, which is exactly the gap this agreement should fill by saying who covers a vacant share and for how long.
Watch: Free Nevada Roommate Agreement explained
Nevada roommate agreement at a glance
Who may terminate
The tenant OR ANY COTENANT
Who the statute makes liable
The adverse party
Deposit cap
Three months’ rent, all components combined
Lease must list
The persons or number who will occupy
One cap, three components, no guidance on splitting it
NRS 118A.242 caps the deposit at three months’ periodic rent — but the ceiling covers a security deposit, a surety bond and the last month’s rent combined. Two consequences for roommates. First, the pot is potentially large. Second, the statute gives no rule at all for dividing it: within the section, “cotenant”, “apportion”, “pro rata” and “each tenant” all appear zero times, and refund is owed on termination of the tenancy rather than when one roommate leaves. Note: the surety-bond option makes this worse. A landlord may accept a bond instead of cash, but need not, and NRS § 118A.240(2)(b) provides that the premium is not a security deposit — so it never comes back. A roommate who bought a bond and a roommate who paid cash have contributed economically different things, and nothing in the statute reconciles them.
How to use a Nevada roommate agreement
List everyone who will occupy the unit
NRS 118A.200(3)(i) requires the written rental agreement to contain a listing of the persons or number of persons who are to occupy the dwelling.
Agree who covers a share if a cotenant terminates under NRS 118A.345
The statute says the adverse party may be civilly liable to the landlord, but says nothing about the remaining cotenants. That silence is the gap to close.
Record who paid what towards the deposit, and in what form
Cash and a surety bond are not the same thing – the bond premium is not a deposit and is never refunded.
Ask for a receipt
NRS 118A.250 entitles a tenant to a receipt on request, and it is the only statutory proof tool for who contributed what.
Keep a signed copy each
The agreement is only useful as evidence if every roommate can produce the same version.
About the Nevada roommate agreement
A roommate agreement settles rooms, rent shares, deposit shares, shared costs, guests and exit terms between the people living together. It settles none of them against the landlord: every tenant named on the rental agreement remains liable for the whole rent on a joint and several basis where the agreement imposes it. Nevada creates no such rule by statute — NRS 118A.345(5)’s reference to a tenant being “solely or jointly liable for purposes of the rental agreement” assumes whatever the lease did rather than imposing anything. What this document gives the roommates is a claim against each other, and a record of who paid what.
What a Nevada roommate agreement should record
- Everyone who will occupy the unit, matching the listing the lease must contain
- Who is named as a tenant on the rental agreement, and who is not
- Each roommate’s share of the rent, and who pays the landlord
- Each roommate’s contribution to the deposit, and whether it was cash or a surety bond
- That a surety bond premium is not a deposit and does not come back
- What the roommates will do if a cotenant terminates under NRS 118A.345
- Guests, and that damage by a guest can be charged against the shared deposit
- 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 Nevada mistakes
- Treating a surety bond as a deposit. NRS 118A.240(2)(b) says the premium is not a security deposit, so it is never refunded.
- Assuming the three-month cap is on cash alone. It covers the deposit, the bond and the last month’s rent combined.
- Thinking only the victim can terminate. NRS 118A.345 lets the tenant or any cotenant do so where a tenant, cotenant or household member is a victim.
- Forgetting that a guest’s damage hits the shared deposit. NRS 118A.110 excludes from normal wear any abuse by a household member or other person on the premises with the tenant’s consent.
- Reading NRS 118B for your apartment. That is the manufactured home park act and NRS 118A.180(2)(a) excludes it. Chapter 118A is the one that applies.
Does Nevada have a roommate law?
Not a general one. Searching NRS chapter 118A — 113,049 characters — returns zero occurrences of “roommate”, “boarder”, “lodger”, “additional occupant”, “sublet”, “sublease” and “written consent”. There is no right to bring in a roommate, no process for adding or removing one, and no occupancy standard anywhere in chapter 118A, chapter 118 or chapter 40.
What Nevada does have is a lease-content rule pointing the other way. NRS 118A.200(3)(i) requires every written rental agreement to contain “a listing of persons or numbers of persons who are to occupy the dwelling”, and subsection (9) makes it unlawful for a landlord to use a rental agreement that does not conform. So the number of people living there is a matter the lease must address, even though the statute sets no limit on it.
One definition is worth noting. NRS 118A.170 defines a tenant as a person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a dwelling unit “to the exclusion of others”, and “guest” is not defined at all — the word appears zero times in chapters 118A, 118 and 40. There is no statutory point at which a guest becomes a tenant.
The cotenant provision
Nevada wrote cotenants into the text of NRS 118A.345, which is what makes it worth reading closely here. The right is not confined to the victim personally.
The right belongs to “the tenant or any cotenant”, and it is triggered where “a tenant, cotenant or household member” is a victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking. Section 118A.345(12)(b) defines a cotenant, for that section, as a tenant entitled under the same rental agreement to occupy a dwelling that another tenant is also entitled to occupy.
Read the other definition too, because on a roommate page it is the one that decides whether the section reaches you at all. Section 118A.345(12)(e) defines a “household member” as a person related by blood or marriage who actually resides with a tenant or cotenant. So an unrelated roommate who is not on the rental agreement is neither a cotenant nor a household member, and the trigger does not fire on their account.
The mechanics: the termination is effective at the end of the rental period or thirty days after notice, whichever is sooner. The actions, events or circumstances relied on must have occurred within the ninety days immediately preceding the notice (subsection 4). The terminating tenant is liable only through the termination date, and the deposit must not be withheld because of the early termination itself (subsection 5, which preserves the landlord’s ordinary NRS 118A.242 claims for unpaid rent, damage beyond normal wear and reasonable cleaning). The adverse party may be civilly liable to the landlord for all economic losses (subsection 6). Locks may be changed at the victim’s cost, no key may be given to the adverse party, and the adverse party may not retrieve property without a police officer present (subsections 8 and 9). And under subsection 11 the termination is not disclosable as an early termination — which protects the tenant’s future applications.
What the section leaves open is the position of a remaining cotenant who did not terminate. It does not say they are released and it does not say they remain bound. That silence is precisely what a roommate agreement should address, by agreeing who covers a vacant share, for how long, and whether the group will look for a replacement.
The deposit, and why the form of the contribution matters
NRS 118A.242 sets one of the highest caps in the country, but it is a combined one: a security deposit, a surety bond, and the last month’s rent together may not exceed three months’ periodic rent. The landlord must provide an itemised written accounting and refund within thirty days of termination, and can face double damages for failing. Subsection 8 makes the section non-waivable.
For a roommate group the surety bond deserves attention. A tenant may purchase one in place of cash, but only if the landlord agrees — the landlord need not accept it and cannot compel it. And NRS 118A.240(2)(b) provides that the premium is not a security deposit. That means it is a cost, not a stake: it buys the landlord protection and is never returned to anyone.
So if one roommate paid eight hundred dollars in cash and another bought a bond for a non-refundable premium, they have not contributed the same kind of thing, and there is nothing in the statute to reconcile them at the end. This is a case where writing down who paid what, and in what form, is the whole value of the agreement. NRS 118A.250 entitles a tenant to a receipt on request, and that receipt is the only statutory evidence available.
One further exposure is worth flagging. NRS 118A.110 provides that normal wear does not include abuse by a member of the tenant’s household or “other person on the premises with the tenant’s consent”. A guest’s damage therefore lands on the shared deposit, which is a practical argument for a guests clause that says who is responsible for whose visitors.
An agreement between roommates is not a lease
This document binds the roommates to each other. The landlord is not a party to it and is not bound by the shares in it, and no clause here moves anyone on or off the rental agreement. Each tenant named on it can still be pursued for the entire rent. What the agreement does is record the internal bargain, which in Nevada matters most for the deposit — because the statute is large on the amount and silent on the division.
Where a roommate agreement sits in Nevada 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 Nevada 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 Nevada 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 Nevada landlord tenant laws.
Bottom line
Drafted in cotenant language throughout. NRS 118A.345 lets “the tenant or any cotenant” terminate — not only the victim — and the adverse party may be civilly liable to the landlord for the economic loss. The statute is silent on whether a remaining cotenant stays liable for the rent, which is the gap this agreement should close. Note: the three-month deposit cap swallows the last month’s rent and any surety bond, and a bond premium is not a deposit at all, so it never comes back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Nevada have a roommate law?
Not a general one. NRS chapter 118A, at 113,049 characters, contains no occurrences of roommate, boarder, lodger, additional occupant, sublet or sublease, and no occupancy standard appears in chapters 118A, 118 or 40. But NRS 118A.345, the early-termination provision, is drafted in cotenant language throughout.
Who can terminate under NRS 118A.345?
The tenant or any cotenant, where a tenant, cotenant or household member is a victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking. It is not limited to the victim personally.
If a cotenant terminates, who pays the landlord for the loss?
The adverse party. NRS 118A.345(6) provides that person may be civilly liable to the landlord for all economic losses arising from the termination. The terminating tenant is liable only through the termination date and the deposit must not be withheld for the early termination.
Do the remaining roommates stay liable for the rent?
The statute does not say. NRS 118A.345 is silent on the position of a remaining cotenant who did not terminate, which is why a roommate agreement should state who covers a vacant share and for how long.
How much can a Nevada landlord take as a deposit?
Up to three months’ periodic rent – but that ceiling covers the security deposit, any surety bond and the last month’s rent combined, under NRS 118A.242. The refund and itemised accounting are due within thirty days of termination.
Is a surety bond the same as a deposit?
No. NRS 118A.240(2)(b) provides that the premium is not a security deposit, so it is never refunded. A landlord may accept a bond instead of cash but does not have to.
Can we be charged for damage caused by a roommate’s guest?
Yes. NRS 118A.110 excludes from normal wear any abuse or damage by a member of the tenant’s household or other person on the premises with the tenant’s consent, so it can be charged against the shared deposit.
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 rental agreement 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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