Tennessee Room Rental Agreement

Legal Aspects

Landlords use this agreement when renting a single room to a tenant. The room can be in a shared house, with other tenants also renting, or it can be an extra bedroom in the lessor’s home. Whichever the case, there are often stricter regulations since the lessees share the premises with others.

Access to the Room

• Landlords must give lessees at least 24 hours’ notice to enter the room. This term doesn’t differ from when lessees rent a home instead of a room. 
• Should the landlord not live at this house (a shared house), they often need to provide 24-hour notice to all lessees when entering the property. If it’s the lessor’s home and they simply rent the room, they only need to provide notice if they’re entering it.
• Lessors can only enter the room to make repairs, complete maintenance, or do inspections. The only exceptions to these reasons or the landlord having to give notice is if it’s an emergency, the tenant abandoned the room, or the landlord has a court order.
• Access for the lessee to the rest of the house varies depending on the lease. It can be restricted or come with specific house rules they must follow. It’s up to the landlord’s discretion, provided they give access to necessities, like a kitchen and bathroom, as set out in the Tennessee Housing Codes.

Guest & Pets Policy

• Often, there are strict policies surrounding guests and pets in a room rental. However, these policies aren’t necessarily based on laws, just on the lessor’s discretion.
• You can generally invite guests, as it’s part of your right to Quiet Enjoyment of your room. However, you and your guests must be mindful of the other occupants.
• There can be a limit on how long a guest can stay overnight or whether they’re even allowed to stay overnight.
• In most shared houses, you’ll see that pets aren’t allowed. However, if the landlord allows it, they’ll have pet regulations. These regulations can include having a pet deposit, behavioral guidelines, and pet restrictions.
• The above pet fees and deposits don’t apply to service animals.

Security Deposit Regulations

• There’s no maximum limit to how much a lessor can charge for a security deposit. The only exception is in counties with less than 75,000 people.
• A lessor must keep deposits separately from other funds. Landlords must inform lessees about how they retain the security deposit.
• Lessors must return the security deposit within 30 days. However, if the lessee doesn’t collect their deposit within 60 days of the lease’s end, the landlord can keep it without penalty.