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 r