Roommate Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Oregon law says, what's specific to Portland - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Our Oregon record finds no statutory right to add a roommate and no notice deadline for doing so.
- ORS 90.275 lets a landlord, tenant and proposed occupant sign a written temporary occupancy agreement, but it is optional for the landlord.
- A temporary occupant under that section is expressly not a tenant, has no right to exclusive occupancy, and no right to cure a violation.
- Screening a proposed temporary occupant may cover conduct or criminal record, but not credit history or income level.
- ORS 90.112 bars local governments from setting occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships, so Portland cannot cap unrelated roommates that way.
Understanding the Roommate Clause
A roommate clause names who is allowed to live in your unit and what approval a new person needs. In Portland that paragraph carries most of the weight, because our Oregon record sets no deadline for telling a landlord about a new occupant and gives tenants no statutory right to add one.
Oregon does supply one named mechanism. Under ORS 90.275 a landlord, a tenant and a proposed occupant can all sign a written temporary occupancy agreement - a real, defined path, but one the landlord is free to decline.
What renters assume
Renters assume a partner or a friend can move in as long as the landlord is told within some reasonable window, and that once the paperwork is signed the new person has a tenant's protections.
What is actually true
Our Oregon record sets no notice window at all, and a temporary occupant under ORS 90.275 is expressly not a tenant - no exclusive occupancy, and no right to cure before the arrangement ends.
Oregon sits with the majority on this chart. Only two entries carry a figure at all - New York City at 30 days to name an added occupant, and Seattle at 30 days under a city-only rule - while Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania all show no statute. Oregon joins that second group, which leaves a Portland renter without the clock a New York tenant can point to, and with the lease as the document that answers the question instead.
Plain English Version
A temporary occupancy agreement is closer to a visitor badge than a key card. It gets someone in the building with the landlord's knowledge, but it does not make them a tenant, and it can be taken back.
Roommate Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Portland, OR
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
REIMBURSEMENT. You must promptly reimburse us for loss, damage, or cost of repairs or service caused anywhere in the apartment community by your or any guest's or occupant's improper use or negligence. […]
Quoted from the published opinion in Churchill Forge, Inc. v. Brown, 61 S.W.3d 368 (Tex. 2001). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“reimburse us”
This sets the direction the money runs: from whoever signed, to the landlord. In Oregon the distinction that decides who is on that hook is the one ORS 90.275 draws. A temporary occupant admitted under a written three-party agreement is expressly not a tenant, has no right to exclusive occupancy, and has no right to cure a violation before the landlord ends the arrangement. So the person sleeping in the next room can hold none of a tenancy's protections while a sentence like this one still routes the bill for their carelessness to you.
“or cost of repairs or service”
The charge is not limited to breakage. Repairs covers the fix and service covers the call-out, so a plumber sent for a blocked drain lands here as readily as a broken door. Note the mismatch Oregon builds in: under ORS 90.275 a landlord may screen a proposed temporary occupant for conduct or criminal record but may not screen for credit history or income level. Nobody checks whether the person whose habits you are underwriting can pay anything back.
“community by your”
The liability leaves your unit. A fire in a corridor or damage at the bin store is inside the apartment community, and the sentence still points at you. Oregon closes one route a renter might expect to limit that exposure by headcount: ORS 90.112 bars local governments from setting or enforcing occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships among occupants, so Portland cannot cap unrelated roommates that way. Who lives with you is a question your rental agreement answers, not the city's occupancy rules.
“any guest's or occupant's”
Here is the reach. A guest you let in for an evening and an occupant who has been there for months are treated the same by this sentence, and neither has to have signed anything. ORS 90.325, the tenant-duties section, contains no duty to report or register an additional occupant; any such duty comes from the rental agreement you signed. That is a different position from N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 235-f, which gives a New York tenant an added occupant as of right and then requires the name within 30 days, or Seattle's Mun. Code ch. 7.24, on the same 30-day notice.
The co-signer's defence failed. JoAnn Brown signed an apartment lease as a cotenant with her adult son. He was alleged to have started a fire that damaged the complex, the landlord sued only her, and she argued she could not be charged for damage she had not caused. The Texas Supreme Court disagreed, reversed the summary judgment she had won and held this sentence enforceable against a cotenant who was not herself negligent. The route ran through two sections. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.052(b) gives a landlord no duty to repair damage caused by the tenant, an occupant or a guest, so § 92.006(e) had no repair duty to stop the parties contracting over; and the fair-notice doctrine did not apply, because the sentence does not shift the landlord's own negligence onto the tenant. The court added that neither statute, common law nor the Restatement bars “requiring a tenant to reimburse the landlord for damages negligently caused by the tenant or one occupying the premises with the tenant's consent.” A dissent would have held the sentence unenforceable outright because it was not underlined or conspicuous, as § 92.006(e)(4) requires. This is 2001 Texas law, decided on the Texas Property Code - state-specific, and not a national rule.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Oregon Law on Roommate Clause
- ORS 90.275 lets a landlord, tenant and proposed occupant sign a written temporary occupancy agreement, but it is optional for the landlord and imposes no response or notice deadline.
- A temporary occupant under ORS 90.275 is expressly not a tenant, has no right to exclusive occupancy, and has no right to cure a violation before the landlord ends the arrangement.
- Under ORS 90.275 a landlord may screen a proposed temporary occupant for conduct or criminal record but may not screen for credit history or income level.
- ORS 90.112 bars local governments from setting or enforcing occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships among occupants, so Portland cannot cap unrelated roommates that way.
- ORS 90.325 (tenant duties) contains no duty to report or register additional occupants; any such duty comes from the rental agreement, not the statute.
- Portland's screening ordinance, PCC 30.01.086, governs applicants for an available unit (two weeks to give a written decision, 30-day appeal window) and does not reach requests to add someone to an existing tenancy.
ORS 90.275 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Our Oregon record sets no deadline for a tenant to notify a landlord of a new occupant and no statutory right to add one. The one added-occupant mechanism it identifies is ORS 90.275, a written temporary occupancy agreement signed by the landlord, the tenant and the proposed occupant - voluntary for the landlord, with no response or notice deadline attached.
What that agreement creates matters as much as what it does not. A temporary occupant under ORS 90.275 is expressly not a tenant, has no right to exclusive occupancy of the unit, and has no right to cure a violation before the landlord ends the arrangement. On screening, the same section lets a landlord check a proposed temporary occupant for conduct or criminal record but not for credit history or income level. Separately, ORS 90.325, the tenant-duties section, contains no duty to report or register additional occupants, so any such duty in your situation comes from the rental agreement rather than the statute. Read the current text of ORS 90.275 before you rely on any of it.
Oregon Tenant Protections
The clearest protection here is a limit on cities rather than landlords: ORS 90.112 bars local governments from setting or enforcing occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships among occupants, so Portland cannot cap how many unrelated adults share a home on that basis.
Inside a temporary occupancy agreement, ORS 90.275 draws a screening line - conduct and criminal record are fair game, credit history and income level are not - which means a proposed occupant cannot be turned away over a thin credit file. And because ORS 90.325 imposes no duty to report added occupants, a landlord enforcing one is enforcing the lease they wrote, which is a document you can read, quote and negotiate before signing.
What's Specific to Portland
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Our record finds no Portland ordinance on adding a roommate. City Code Chapter 30.01 covers renter protections, relocation assistance, screening of applicants for available units at 30.01.086, and deposits at 30.01.087 - none of which creates a right to add an occupant or a deadline for telling anyone about one.
The screening ordinance is the piece Portland renters most often expect to help, and it is worth being precise about. PCC 30.01.086 governs applicants for an available unit - the landlord has two weeks to give a written decision and there is a 30-day appeal window - and it does not reach a request to add someone to a tenancy that already exists. So a friend applying for their own studio in Lents gets that timeline; the same friend asking to join your lease in Kenton does not. Ordinances are amended, so confirm the current text of Chapter 30.01 on portland.gov before you rely on a date.
Our Oregon record sets no deadline of its own, so a written process with dates is the only clock you get - and the landlord is held to it.
ORS 90.275 defines one, signed by all three parties. It is optional for the landlord, so ask early rather than after someone has given notice elsewhere.
For a proposed temporary occupant under ORS 90.275, credit history and income level are off limits. Conduct and criminal record are not.
Question it. ORS 90.112 bars local governments from occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships, so ask what a private lease number is actually tracking.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- ORS 90.275, read on oregon.public.law. Oregon publishes the official text at www.oregonlegislature.gov.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Approval required, no reply deadline
Consent language with no response window. Our Oregon record supplies no backstop deadline, so a request can sit indefinitely unless the lease sets a date.
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Temporary occupant treated as a tenant
A ORS 90.275 temporary occupant is expressly not a tenant, with no right to exclusive occupancy. Do not let anyone give up a lease elsewhere on the assumption they are gaining one.
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No cure period written in
Under ORS 90.275 a temporary occupant has no right to cure a violation before the landlord ends the arrangement. That is the statute's own design, not an oversight you can argue around.
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Credit or income screening for an added occupant
ORS 90.275 permits conduct and criminal-record screening for a proposed temporary occupant but not credit history or income level. Ask which one you are being asked for.
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Guest converts to occupant after X nights
A night count that turns a partner staying over into a lease violation. Our Oregon record sets no figure here, so the lease's number is the one that governs - pin it down.
Your Rights as a Portland Tenant
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A defined three-party agreement exists
ORS 90.275 lets a landlord, tenant and proposed occupant sign a written temporary occupancy agreement. It is optional for the landlord, but it is a named path you can ask for.
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Limited screening for a proposed occupant
Under ORS 90.275 a landlord may screen a proposed temporary occupant for conduct or criminal record but may not screen for credit history or income level.
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No relationship-based occupancy caps
ORS 90.112 bars local governments from setting or enforcing occupancy limits based on familial or nonfamilial relationships, so Portland cannot cap unrelated roommates that way.
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Reporting duties come from the lease
ORS 90.325, the tenant-duties section, contains no duty to report or register additional occupants. Any such duty traces to the rental agreement, which is negotiable before you sign.
What To Do - Step by Step
Reread the occupancy paragraph
Find the exact wording on added occupants, guests, approval and fees. With no deadline in our Oregon record, that paragraph is what a judge reads.
Ask in writing, with a date
Email the request with the person's name and move-in date. It creates the only timeline you will have, since our record supplies none.
Propose an ORS 90.275 agreement
Name the statute and ask for the written temporary occupancy agreement signed by all three of you. The landlord can decline, but the ask is specific and answerable.
Confirm what status they get
A temporary occupant is not a tenant and has no right to exclusive occupancy. If the person needs tenant status, ask to be added to the lease instead.
Check what screening is being run
For a proposed temporary occupant, ORS 90.275 allows conduct or criminal-record screening but not credit or income. Ask which is being pulled.
Verify the current text before relying on it
Read ORS 90.275 and Portland City Code Chapter 30.01 as currently published, or ask an Oregon tenant-rights group, before acting on a denial.