Free Alaska Room Rental Agreement Template

A room rental agreement covers a single room rather than a whole property, usually with shared use of the kitchen, bathroom and living areas.

Where the arrangement is a residential tenancy, the Alaska Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act supplies the deposit limits, how the money must be held, and how quickly it has to come back.

An Alaska room rental agreement runs alongside AS 34.03, the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Confirm the current text before relying on any figure below.

The Deposit Cap, and Where It Stops Applying

Section 34.03.070(a) provides that a landlord may not demand or receive prepaid rent or a security deposit, however denominated, in an amount or value exceeding two months’ periodic rent.

It then removes itself from the top of the market. The section does not apply to rental units where the rent exceeds two thousand dollars a month.

An Extra Deposit for Pets

Subsection (h) sits outside that cap. A landlord may demand or receive an additional security deposit from a tenant who has a pet on the premises that is not a service animal, and that additional deposit may not exceed the periodic rent for one month.

The service animal carve-out matters. The extra deposit is available for a pet, not for an animal that qualifies as a service animal.

How the Money Must Be Held

Subsection (c) requires all money paid as prepaid rent or a security deposit to be promptly deposited, wherever practicable, in a trust account with a bank, savings and loan association, or licensed escrow agent.

The landlord must also give the tenant the terms and conditions under which the money, or part of it, may be withheld. Commingling prepaid rents and security deposits in a single financial account is not prohibited, but one tenant’s deposit cannot be used to refund another tenant’s deposit, pay another tenant’s rent, or cover damage caused by another tenant.

Fourteen days or thirty, and which one applies depends on notice.

Under subsection (g), where the landlord or the tenant gives notice complying with AS 34.03.290, the landlord must mail the written notice and refund within fourteen days after the tenancy is terminated and possession is delivered.

There is an exception inside that rule. The landlord gets thirty days instead where costs are being deducted for damages suffered through the tenant’s noncompliance with AS 34.03.120.

Where the tenant does not give complying notice, the period is thirty days, running from termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, or the landlord becoming aware that the dwelling unit is abandoned.

Not knowing the address is not an excuse. Where the landlord does not know the tenant’s mailing address but knows, or has reason to know, how to contact them, the landlord must make a reasonable effort to deliver the notice and the refund.

Tip: Subsection (d) is the reason to take the deadline seriously. Where a landlord wilfully fails to comply, the tenant may recover an amount not exceeding twice the actual amount withheld, and subsection (e) leaves other damages available on top.

Shared housing goes wrong over unwritten assumptions, so put them in the Alaska room rental agreement.

1. Identify the room let exclusively and the areas shared with other occupants.
2. State the rent and the deposit, keeping the deposit inside two months’ periodic rent unless the rent exceeds the statutory threshold.
3. State any additional pet deposit separately, and keep it within one month’s rent.
4. Give the tenant the written terms on which the deposit may be withheld.
5. Sign, date, and give each occupant a copy.

Agree in writing how notice of leaving will be given. Whether the tenant gets the fourteen-day or thirty-day refund turns on that notice.

Alongside the basics, these points carry an Alaska room rental agreement.

• Which space is the tenant’s alone and which is used in common.
• Rent, the due date, and how payment is made.
• The deposit, any pet deposit, and the conditions on which either may be withheld.
• Where the deposit is held, given the trust account requirement.
• House rules on guests, noise, cleaning and use of shared space, plus how utilities are split.

Attach every document the agreement depends on instead of paraphrasing it, and store the executed copies together.