Free Indiana Room Rental Agreement Template

An Indiana room rental agreement is the written contract for renting one bedroom in a shared house. Indiana’s landlord-tenant provisions sit in Article 31 of Title 32, and they define the rental premises as both the tenant’s own unit and the structure it forms part of.

That definition is why an Indiana room rental agreement has to deal with the whole house, not just the bedroom door.

Indiana splits its rules into duties on the landlord and duties on the tenant, and neither set can be signed away.

Neither Side Can Waive These Duties

A waiver of the tenant obligations chapter or the landlord obligations chapter, whether by contract or otherwise, is void. A clause in the agreement purporting to remove them has no effect, so there is no point drafting one.

What the Landlord Must Do

The landlord must deliver the premises in a safe, clean, and habitable condition and comply with applicable health and housing codes. They must also make all reasonable efforts to keep common areas clean and in proper condition, which in a shared house means the kitchen, bathroom, and hallways rather than only the rented room. Electrical, plumbing, sanitary, and heating and cooling systems must be kept in good and safe working order where they were present when the agreement was made, with plumbing sufficient for a reasonable supply of hot and cold running water at all times and heating sufficient at all times.

One item matters especially for a furnished room: appliances supplied as an inducement to the agreement must be maintained too. Where a fridge or washer helped persuade someone to take the room, keeping it working is a duty rather than a favor.

What the Tenant Must Do

The tenant must keep the areas they occupy or use reasonably clean, use the building’s systems and appliances reasonably, and refrain from defacing or damaging any part of the premises. They must keep every smoke detector in their room functional, replacing batteries as needed. At the end of the tenancy they must hand the premises back clean and in proper condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted.

House Rules Only Count If They Already Exist

A tenant must comply with all reasonable rules in existence at the time the agreement is entered into, and with amended rules only as the agreement provides. House rules invented after someone moves in are therefore on shaky ground unless the agreement sets out how rules may change. Write the rules down first and attach them.

Two per bedroom is the presumed standard. Indiana law does not stop an owner or landlord from refusing to rent on the basis of a reasonable occupancy standard, and a standard is presumed reasonable where it permits two individuals per bedroom and the landlord does two further things.

First, infants under one year of age are left out of the per-bedroom count. Second, the landlord increases the number of people allowed by considering whether the property includes a den, library, finished basement, or loft that could reasonably serve as a sleeping area — unless counting it would breach state or local codes, fire codes included.

A landlord is not required to treat a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, hallway, or closet as a sleeping area. Occupancy standards intersect with fair housing law, so a landlord setting a stricter limit than the presumption should take advice before applying it.

No filing is required, and the agreement binds on signature.

1. Write the house rules before anyone signs, then attach them to the agreement.
2. Say how rules may be amended later, since amended rules bind only as the agreement provides.
3. List the appliances included with the room, so maintenance duties are clear.
4. Record the condition of the room and shared areas with dated photos.
5. Confirm the smoke detectors work and note who replaces batteries.

Give the tenant a signed copy along with the rules, because rules nobody was shown are hard to enforce.

For an Indiana room rental agreement, the terms worth adding are:

• An attached, dated set of house rules and a process for amending them
• A list of appliances and furnishings provided with the room
• Which areas are common and how their upkeep is divided
• Guest limits, consistent with the occupancy standard being applied
• How utilities are shared and what happens when someone leaves early