Most flat-share disputes are not about bad people. They are about things nobody ever said out loud, discovered six months later at the worst possible moment.
A house rules document fixes that, and it takes twenty minutes. Below is a complete template you can copy straight into a note or a document, fill in, and both sign.
It is deliberately short. Long rules get ignored.
A note on what this is and is not
This is a house rules agreement between flatmates. It governs how you live together. It is not your tenancy — that is a separate document between a tenant and a landlord, and it carries the legal weight over the property.
One thing worth settling before you write any of this: under section 7(6) of the Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011, a tenant may not assign or sublet any part of the premises without the landlord's written consent. So get both names on the tenancy, or get written consent naming the second occupant. House rules between you do not fix that, and our guide to what belongs in a flatmate agreement covers the fuller document.
The template
HOUSE RULES — [address]
Between: [Name 1] and [Name 2]
Date agreed: [date] · Review date: [3 months from now]
1. Money
- Rent share: [Name 1] ₦_____ · [Name 2] ₦_____ , due on the ____ of each month / paid annually on ____.
- Upfront fees at the start were split: agency ₦_____ · legal ₦_____ · caution ₦_____ , paid [who paid what].
- Caution deposit at the end is returned in the same proportions, less any agreed deductions.
- Bills settle-up day: the ____ of each month. Payment by transfer, not cash.
2. Bills
- Split equally: waste, water/pump, estate or security levy, internet.
- Split equally: electricity units and generator fuel.
- Generator fuel is bought by: [rotating weekly / named person, reimbursed on settle-up day].
- Generator runs: [hours].
- Agreed uplift for heavy individual use (AC, freezer): ₦_____ per month, flat.
- If someone is away more than ____ days: they still pay fixed costs, and [reduction] on fuel and units.
- All shared spending is recorded in: [shared note / sheet].
3. Guests
- Notice before a guest stays over: ____ hours.
- Weeknight guests: [allowed / by agreement / not usually].
- Maximum consecutive nights for any guest: ____.
- A guest staying more than ____ nights a month is treated as a resident and contributes ₦_____.
- Weeknight visitors leave by: ____.
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4. Kitchen and food
- Food is: [fully separate / fully shared / staples shared, protein separate].
- If staples are shared, the shared list is: ____________ , refilled on settle-up day.
- Washing up: within ____ hours of cooking. No overnight soaking.
- Nobody takes anything labelled or clearly belonging to the other person without asking. This includes "just one."
- Fridge: shelf ____ is [Name 1], shelf ____ is [Name 2], shelf ____ is shared.
5. Cleaning
- Rota: [Name 1] takes ____________ , [Name 2] takes ____________ , swapping weekly / monthly.
- Common areas are reset before bed: no dishes, nothing left on the sitting room floor.
- Deep clean or cleaner: ₦_____ , split equally, on the ____ of each month.
6. Noise and space
- Quiet hours: ____ to ____ on weeknights.
- Headphones after quiet hours for music, films and calls.
- Decompression window: the first ____ minutes after someone gets home belongs to them.
- Bedrooms are private. Nobody enters without asking.
- Default call locations: [Name 1] ____________ , [Name 2] ____________ .
7. Security
- Keys are not lent to anyone without both of us agreeing.
- Last person up checks the door and the gate.
- Emergency contacts: [Name 1] ____________ · [Name 2] ____________ .
8. Ending it
- Notice before moving out: ____ weeks.
- A leaver may propose a replacement, subject to the other's agreement and the landlord's written consent.
- A leaver remains responsible for their share until the notice period ends or a replacement is agreed.
- Unresolved disagreements are raised at a monthly ten-minute check-in, not over WhatsApp at midnight.
Signed: ____________ · ____________ . Each keeps a copy.
How to actually use it
Fill it in together, in one sitting, before anyone moves anything. Do not email it for approval — the conversation is the point, and the disagreements you have while filling it in are the ones you were going to have anyway, just cheaper.
Then set the review date and keep it. Three months in, ten minutes, change whatever is not working. A rule nobody follows should be deleted rather than argued about.
For the cleaning section specifically, there is a companion piece on building a rota that actually holds, and one on agreeing guest and overnight visitor rules.
Find someone willing to sit down and fill this in on roommates. Willingness to do it is itself the best compatibility test there is.
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