Guests, Roommates, Subtenants, Trespassers

Your right to exclusive use of your apartment means you also have the right to have guests in you unit. 9 V.S.A. § 4451(9). A landlord cannot legally keep your guests out of your unit, or the entry way to your unit. See State v. Dixon, 169 Vt. 15, 18 (1999).

If you have a subsidy, the subsidy rules may limit the length of stay of guests because rent is based on household income so there can’t be extra people in the household.

Did your guest become a trespasser or a roommate?

If your guest overstays your original invitation, you can get them out. If you have not agreed for them to live there, you can just ask them to leave. If that does not work, you can serve them with a Notice Against Trespass and then ask the police to remove the person. 13 V.S.A. § 3705. See the trespass section, below. If the person has been there a long time, the police may not agree to remove them.

But if you have agreed for a person to live in your unit and you want them to leave, you need to evict them. See subtenants, below. An agreement to let someone use and occupy the unit, even if you don’t ask for rent, is a rental agreement between you and that person. If you do not want a roommate, be careful. If you let a guest remain, move things in, come and go without asking you, these actions could add up to your agreement for them to live there.

To evict a roommate, you need to send a termination notice and if they don’t leave, go to court to get an order.

If you have a written rental agreement that doesn’t allow subleasing, the landlord can also go to court to evict the roommate. 9 V.S.A. § 4456b(a)(2). The landlord can also evict you for violating the written rental agreement that doesn’t allow subleasing or roommates.

This section uses the word roommate to mean someone who made a rental agreement with the landlord at the same time you did. If you made a rental agreement, and later a roommate moves in, see the subtenants section, below.

Renting with a roommate

If you are thinking about moving in with a roommate, choose a roommate carefully.

If you and another person rent a unit together, you could each be responsible for the whole rent. You could ask the landlord to put in writing that each of you is only responsible for half the rent, but the landlord does not have to agree to that. If you rent with a roommate, and the roommate doesn’t pay their share of the rent, or moves out, then you are responsible for the whole rent.

Also, you are responsible to the landlord for the cost to repair damage to the apartment, even if it was caused by your roommate. If you pay the landlord for damage caused by your roommate, you have the right to try to get the roommate to pay you back. If they don’t, you could file a lawsuit against them.

When you move in, it is a good idea to get it in writing that both roommates agree to be financially responsible for the rent and costs of the unit. The agreement should say how long the agreement is for.

Roommates and moving out

What if you want to move out, but your roommate does not? If you leave, but your roommate stays, you could be responsible to pay the rent if your roommate doesn’t pay it. That is because you are “jointly and severally liable” for the unit.

• See if your landlord will make a new agreement with just your roommate.
• See if your landlord will agree to assign your obligation to pay rent to a replacement roommate.

What if your roommate moves out, but you do not? If you stay, you are responsible for the whole rent. If your roommate agreed to financial responsibility for a time, and that time has not passed, you have the right to try to get the roommate to pay. If they don’t you could take them to court. But if there is a long time left on the agreement, you should find a replacement roommate to take over their share.

Evicting a roommate

Because your roommate has just as much right as you to live there, you can’t evict your roommate. Your landlord could terminate the rental agreement with both of you. Your landlord could decide to offer just one of you a rental agreement.

This section uses the word subtenant to mean someone who moves in with you after you already lived there a while and already have a rental agreement with the landlord. This person was not around when you made a rental agreement with the landlord.

If a written rental agreement does not prohibit it, you can rent a unit from the landlord and then make a rental agreement with a subtenant. 9 V.S.A. § 4451(4). You might want a subtenant if:

• you want to let someone else move in with you to rent a room and share the rent with you.
• you want to move out of a unit for a while and let someone else pay the rent while you are away.

If there is no written rental agreement, and a new person moves in with you, you must provide the landlord with that person’s address and contact information. 9 V.S.A. § 4456b(a)(1).

A written rental agreement can prohibit subleasing, it can prohibit subleasing without permission, or it can require you to give the landlord the name of any new roommate. 9 V.S.A. § 4456b.

• If your written rental agreement prohibits subleasing, moving a new person in could give the landlord grounds to go to court to get you or the subtenant out.

If you have a subtenant, you still have a rental agreement with your landlord. You are still responsible for payment of rent and for any damage to the apartment. If your subtenant doesn’t pay, you still have to.

• If you end up paying rent for a time when the subtenant was supposed to or paying for damages caused by the subtenant, you can take the subtenant to court.
• If the subtenant violates the terms of your rental agreement with the landlord, the landlord may file a case in court against both you and your subtenant. You could be responsible to the landlord for payment of court costs, attorney fees and damages caused by the subtenant. 9 V.S.A. § 4456(e).

If you move out and your subtenant stays, you are still responsible under your agreement with the landlord to make sure the rent gets paid. See if your landlord will agree to “assign” your obligation in the rental agreement to the subtenant. If your landlord agrees, the subtenant is then the only person responsible for payment of rent and damages. If your landlord agrees, get the assignment in writing, signed by the subtenant and the landlord.

You have the right to evict subtenants. 9 V.S.A. § 4451(4). So if your subtenant does not pay rent, you can evict the subtenant. You have to send a termination notice, 9 V.S.A. § 4467(h), and file an eviction case if your subtenant does not move out.

There are laws against anyone coming in your unit uninvited or staying after you have asked them to leave.

• Anyone who comes in, knowing they haven’t been invited in, has committed the crime of trespass. 13 V.S.A. § 3705(d).
• If you are having trouble with a specific person, post or notify the person in writing, so they know they are not invited in. That notification is called a Notice Against Trespass. Check with your local law enforcement agency about the kind of notice required so that if the person comes in again, there can be a criminal charge.
• See the web page version of our sample Notice Against Trespass.
• Our PDF file does not fully comply with all applicable guidelines for accessible digital documents. For the most accessible experience, use the web page above.
• Download a PDF version of the Notice Against Trespass. 
• If someone comes in your unit without your permission, or stays after you’ve asked them to leave, you can take them to court and try to get them fined. 12 V.S.A. § 4911.

Note: If you share with another tenant and both of you have a rental agreement to live in the unit, or you agreed for a new person to live in your unit, that person cannot trespass because that person also has legal possession. See roommates and subtenants information, above. However, a guest who will not leave when you take back your invitation for them to be there could be a trespasser. See the guests section, above.

Trespassing is a civil violation and a crime. Because you have the right to exclusive use of your rental unit to the exclusion of others, if the landlord enters the rental unit in violation of Vermont’s access law, the landlord has committed trespass.