1–20 unit landlords
Roommate & co-tenant changes mid-lease on DIY landlord software — add, remove, replace, re-split rent
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For a 1–20 unit landlord, a roommate swap is a mini-turnover that happens inside a lease that keeps running. The unit never goes vacant, so no software flow forces you through the steps. That makes it easy to end up with a new person living there who was never screened and never signed anything, a departing roommate who still gets rent reminders, or a rent charge still split to someone who left. The three tools handle the swap differently. TurboTenant has the most complete built-in flow: a Tenant Change Addendum (Documents → Build a Lease Addendum) adds, removes, or replaces tenants on an active self-managed lease. The departing tenant doesn’t have to sign, and the departing tenant’s autopay is removed on the effective date. It needs a paid Essentials or Pro plan to send, and it does not update charges, split rules, or the new tenant’s autopay. RentRedi is mainly a ledger tool here: Edit Lease → + Add Tenant connects the newcomer to existing charges, Unlink removes the person leaving, and you can bill roommates jointly or with separate per-tenant charges. But tenant autopay is a tenant-set amount, so after a re-split, nobody’s autopay updates on its own. There’s no addendum builder, so you upload your own document for Signature Request. Avail recommends screening plus a free lease amendment template (signed offline, then uploaded). Payments are tied to lease signers, so community landlords usually start a new lease when roommates change. That ends the old lease and deletes its future payments, and it may regenerate the deposit invoice.
What this page is (and is not)
- Is: a side-by-side of how RentRedi, TurboTenant, and Avail handle adding, removing, and replacing a co-tenant during an active lease. It covers screening the incoming roommate, the paperwork path (addendum, amendment, or new lease), rent-charge splits, autopay after the swap, deposit handling between roommates, and free vs paid gates. It also has a deposit-transfer chooser, a worked 2-bedroom example, and a swap checklist.
- Is not: legal advice on whether removing someone from the lease releases them, how joint-and-several liability works in your state, when a deposit has to be refunded, occupancy limits, or how to screen consistently under fair-housing law. The legal basics below come from Nolo’s plain-English summaries and are only orientation.
- Not the same as: separate leases for each room (rent-by-the-room). TurboTenant’s help says tenants who rent separately rather than as roommates should each get their own lease profile. This page is about co-tenants on one lease. If the only tenant wants to hand the whole lease to someone else, or sublet while away, see subleases & lease assignments. Whole-unit turnover is covered in security deposits & move-out and applications.
- Uncertainty rule: The TurboTenant and RentRedi flows below come from help articles dated Jun–Oct 2026. Avail’s support articles named “change roommates on a lease” and “add new tenant to existing payment list” exist, but they rendered as an empty JS shell in our fetch, so the Avail rows rely on education articles (2022–2026) and community posts (2022–2023). Confirm in your account.
Definitions and legal basics (read this first, not legal advice)
- Co-tenant: Anyone who signed the lease. A roommate who lives there but never signed is an occupant, and their legal position is murkier. Nolo’s advice to tenants is that most landlords insist a new roommate become a co-tenant with the same rights and duties.
- Joint and several liability: Nolo calls this a clause “embedded in nearly every residential lease”: “every individual who signs the lease is 100% responsible for the entire rent amount and any property damage — not just their proportional share.” Splitting a charge in software to $925 / $925 is a billing convenience. Whether it changes who owes the full rent depends on your lease and law, not on the app.
- Removal vs release: Taking a tenant off the lease record in software is not the same as legally releasing them. TurboTenant’s help says so directly: removing a tenant “doesn’t necessarily release them from obligations under the original lease… additional documentation or consent may be required.” Avail’s amendment article says every person who signed the original lease must agree to and sign an amendment. TurboTenant’s addendum doesn’t require the departing tenant’s signature. If you intend to release the person leaving, or to keep them liable, have counsel paper that on purpose.
- Addendum vs amendment vs new lease: Avail’s education separates an amendment (changes existing terms, e.g., the parties) from an addendum (adds terms). TurboTenant calls its flow a Tenant Change Addendum. Nolo says landlords typically have everyone sign a new lease, and notes that a new lease can open the door to a rent or deposit change (deposit increases are subject to state caps). Pick the path deliberately, because it decides who signs and whether terms can change.
- Roommate agreement: A contract among the roommates (who pays what, notice to each other). Nolo notes the landlord “isn’t a party to the agreement and isn’t bound by it.” Your split charges should match the lease, not the roommate agreement.
- Occupancy limits and screening fairness: Nolo cites “two persons per bedroom plus one” as a common general rule, with local variation. Apply the same written screening criteria you use for any applicant. RentRedi’s Feb 2026 FAQ: screen each roommate as a separate applicant and document results for each person.
Feature snapshot (verify on vendor pages)
| Capability | RentRedi | TurboTenant | Avail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen the incoming roommate | Add the person to the unit, then on their tenant profile choose ⋮ → Screen Tenant (Jun 2026). Tenant-paid $39.99 credit/criminal/eviction, or $49.99 with Plaid income/asset verification (Oct 2026 pricing) | Invite to Apply for application + screening. Help also lets you add a spouse/co-tenant “without requiring them to apply” and recommends screening for new renters. Pricing page shows a $45 renter-paid screening fee on paid plans. Our screening page found ~$55 on Free, so confirm the live table | Education (May 2026): request a rental application + screening for the newcomer, then accept or deny before amending the lease. ~$55 TransUnion bundle (see screening costs) |
| Add a co-tenant to the ledger | Lease Details → Edit Lease → Tenants → + Add Tenant → select them → review charge preview → Save Lease Charges (“Connect a Tenant to an Existing Lease,” Sep 2026). Tenants list shows “Not on Lease” if someone isn’t connected to charges | Lease Profile → Summary → Tenants → Add, or Tenants → Add New. Help: adding a tenant to a profile “does not add their name to an existing signed lease agreement” | Onboard them to rent collection / payment list. A support article titled “add new tenant to existing payment list” exists but wouldn’t render. A 2023 community landlord says Avail “ties signers of a lease to the invoices,” so most people start a new lease instead |
| Remove a departing co-tenant | Unlink (Renters → ⋮ → Unlink Tenant, or the X on the unit’s Tenants list, Aug 2026). The tenant is notified. Charges and history stay under Prior Tenants. Separately, deselect them in Edit Lease so they’re off future charges | Trash/⋯ next to the tenant → Move Out Tenant (moves them to Past, lease stays active for the others; “best for tenants moving out early, mid-lease”) or Remove From Lease (archives them; “best for tenants who never moved in”). Or remove them via the addendum | No published remove-tenant control we could read. Community (Oct 2023): start a new lease for the remaining/new tenants. Avail “will terminate the old lease… and deletes all remaining payments on the old lease after the term date,” which also stops reminders to the person who left |
| Paper for the change | No in-app lease or addendum builder. Upload your own addendum / new lease PDF → Signature Request. Older help labeled this Grow/Pro, while the Oct 2026 pricing sells one plan with every feature. Confirm | Tenant Change Addendum: Documents → Build a Lease Addendum → People on the lease → Add / Remove / Replace → effective date (can also change rent or end date) → e-sign. Original signed lease is attached automatically, or you upload it if signed outside TT. New co-signers aren’t supported (use a new lease) | Free lease amendment template (Nov 2025 education): name the parties, effective date, and what changes. Avail emails a copy, tenants sign offline, then you upload it. Or create a new lease with free digital signatures |
| Who signs | Whoever you add to the Signature Request | Landlord, staying tenants, incoming tenants, and existing co-signers sign. Departing tenants don’t. Tenants and co-signers sign first, then the landlord | Education: “Every person who signed the original lease must also agree to and sign the amendment” |
| Split rent between roommates | Joint charge (every listed tenant can pay, and partial payments must be enabled by you) or separate charges per tenant (exclude the others with ⋮, enter each person’s amount, “No, keep all charges”). Jun 2025 help | Split the amount between tenants on one charge: equal by default, editable, each share > $0, shares must total the charge. Each tenant sees and pays only their share. Web only (not the mobile app). Or leave it unsplit and allow partial payments | Usually one invoice. Tenants decide who pays what, and “as long as the invoice is paid in full, Avail system doesn’t care how many payees” (2023 community). Marketing: renters can “split payments with roommates.” A 2022 education piece says each roommate “can see a monthly charge for what they owe individually,” which conflicts a bit with the community description. Confirm |
| Autopay after the swap | Tenant-set amount and date, rent only. Multiple schedules per lease on web (Jul 2026). Changing a charge “does not affect auto-pay,” which exists so roommates can autopay their portion (2021 help, older). Each roommate must update their own amount after a re-split. Whether Unlink stops the departing person’s autopay isn’t documented, so confirm | Unsplit charge: only one tenant can enroll, and autopay pays the remaining balance. Split charge: each tenant can enroll their own portion. No custom amount. Addendum removes the departing tenant’s autopay, but the incoming tenant must enroll themselves, and a new recurring charge needs re-enrollment | Tenants can schedule payments. We found no readable doc on how scheduled payments behave across a lease swap. A new lease generally means new invoices, so ask every remaining tenant to re-check their schedule |
| Departing tenant’s leftover balance | History and charges stay visible under Prior Tenants. Collect anything still owed before you unlink, or record it later | After the addendum date they can still see and pay unpaid charges due on or before the effective date, and nothing after | Per the 2023 community post, reminders stop for the old lease “except perhaps for those with balances” |
| Deposit handling between roommates | No roommate-deposit transfer feature. Options: keep holding the whole deposit, or refund a share with Send Money and charge the newcomer a Security Deposit charge (see deposits) | No transfer feature. Return Security Deposit lets you select a tenant and enter any amount (partial with deductions), pays out to one bank account, takes 7–10 business days, and doesn’t support offline tracking. Then charge the newcomer a deposit if you go that route | No transfer feature. We found no published ACH deposit-refund product, so refunds happen outside Avail. If you start a new lease, watch for a regenerated deposit invoice (2023 community tip, from our holdover page) |
| Free vs paid gap | Single paid plan, Oct 2026: $29.95/mo monthly, $20/mo 6-month, $12/mo annual, “same full feature set.” Optional Credit Boosting $5.99/tenant/mo shows up in the Add Tenant step | Free: add tenant, Move Out / Remove, charges, split charges (no plan gate stated in help), autopay. Paid (pricing shows $12.42 and $16.48/mo tiers; help calls them Essentials / Pro): needed to finalize and send the Tenant Change Addendum, plus unlimited addendums/e-signatures | Unlimited (free): applications/screening (renter-paid), amendment template, new lease with free digital signing, payment lists. Unlimited Plus: custom applications/leases, lease cloning, waived ACH. Plus price wasn’t shown on the pricing page we fetched |
Sources (Oct 2026): RentRedi help: Connect a Tenant to an Existing Lease (Sep 2026); How to Edit Lease Charges (Edit Lease vs Add New Lease); Creating Charges for Roommates (Joint and Separate) (Jun 2025); Link Multiple Tenants to a Unit (Jun 2025); How to Unlink a Tenant (Aug 19, 2026); Understanding the Tenants List (“Not on Lease”); How to Request Tenant Screening for a CURRENT Tenant Who Didn’t Apply (Jun 16, 2026; +$10 income); How to Make a Partial Payment; How to Set Up Auto-Pay (Jul 23, 2026: rent only, tenant-set amount, multiple schedules); Does Changing Rent Amount Affect Tenant’s Auto-Pay? (May 2021); blog FAQ How Do You Screen Roommates (Feb 2026); rentredi.com/pricing. TurboTenant help: How to Add or Remove a Tenant Using a Lease Addendum (updated week of Oct 2026; also indexed as “Add, Remove, or Replace”); How to Create and Manage Lease Profiles; How to Add an Existing Tenant (updated week of Oct 2026); How Do You End Your Lease on TurboTenant? (Dec 2025: Move Out Tenant vs Remove From Lease); Split a Charge Between Tenants; How Can My Tenant Make a Partial Rent Payment?; How to Edit or Delete Rent Payment Charges (fixed split totals); Autopay for Landlords (roommates section); Rent Payments FAQs; Return a Security Deposit (Sep 12, 2026); turbotenant.com/pricing. Avail: education Can You Add Someone to a Lease? (May 21, 2026), Lease Amendments (Nov 13, 2025), How to Split the Rent With Roommates (Feb 2022); Online Rent Collection page; community: Tenant wants to add roommate mid lease (Jan 2023), How to change tenant in Avail (Oct 2023), 2 Tenants, One will pay (Jul 2023), Add new tenant to lease after finalization (Dec 2022). Nolo: Roommate Breaking the Lease? (May 18, 2026); How to Legally Add a Roommate to Your Lease (May 8, 2026). Not found / do not invent: any one-click “transfer deposit between roommates” feature in these three tools; an Avail in-app remove-tenant control we could read; RentRedi documentation of what Unlink does to an active autopay schedule.
Which paper path? Addendum vs amendment vs new lease
| Tenant-change addendum / amendment | New lease for everyone remaining + incoming | |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | Same unit, same rent and end date, just a name swap. Original lease already covers multiple tenants and joint-and-several liability | You want to change rent, the deposit, the end date, or add a co-signer. The original lease is weak on multi-tenant terms. Or the tool makes swaps easier this way (Avail) |
| RentRedi | Your own addendum PDF → Signature Request, then Edit Lease (+ Add Tenant / deselect the person leaving) | Your own lease PDF → Signature Request. ⋮ → Add New Lease keeps the current lease and charges until the new one starts, so make sure the dates don’t overlap |
| TurboTenant | Tenant Change Addendum (paid to send). One addendum in progress per lease, at least one tenant must stay, and you can’t remove everyone | Required if you’re adding a new co-signer. Create a new lease profile/agreement. New recurring charges mean tenants re-enroll autopay |
| Avail | Free amendment template, offline signatures, upload. Payment list changes may still need support (article unreadable) | The community’s usual route. Starting a new lease ends the old one and deletes its future payments. Check for a duplicate deposit invoice |
| Watch out | Signing doesn’t update charges in any of the three. TT says so explicitly | Nolo: a new lease can reset rent and the deposit (within caps), which tenants may push back on. Rent control or local rules may limit that |
Security deposit when roommates swap: pick one model and write it down
- Model A: deposit stays with the unit, roommates settle privately. You keep holding the full deposit until the whole tenancy ends. The incoming roommate pays the departing roommate their share directly, less any damage they agree on. Nolo describes this approach and notes that a landlord “generally isn’t required to return a portion of the security deposit until the entire lease term ends and all of the original tenants have moved out.” Software: nothing to change. Upload a short signed note that the newcomer now holds the departing roommate’s claim. Risk: at final move-out you refund one deposit, and the roommates sort out who gets what (community landlords report doing exactly this).
- Model B: landlord refunds the departing share and collects from the newcomer. One Avail community landlord switched to this in 2023: bill the newcomer “a calculated portion of the deposit,” don’t allow move-in until it’s paid, then refund the person leaving. Software: charge the newcomer a Security Deposit charge, and refund the departing share via RR Send Money, TT Return Security Deposit, or outside the app for Avail. Risk: you’re judging damage mid-tenancy without a full move-out inspection, and a later problem may be blamed on the wrong person. Do a documented walkthrough of the departing roommate’s space (condition reports).
- Model C: raise the deposit on a new lease. Possible when everyone signs a new lease, within your state’s deposit cap (Nolo). Collect only the difference, and don’t let the software re-bill the full deposit.
- Books: whatever the model, the deposit is still a liability you hold. Update your deposit register (who has a claim to how much) even when no money moves. See security deposits & move-out and accounting.
RentRedi: Edit Lease, Unlink, and everyone’s autopay amount
- Screen first: add the newcomer to the unit with the invite set to Skip/Later if you don’t want them in the portal yet, then ⋮ → Screen Tenant. Decide before you connect them to charges.
- Connect: Edit Lease → Next → Tenants → select the staying tenant(s) + the newcomer → review the charge preview → Save Lease Charges. Then check the Tenants list: anyone showing “Not on Lease” isn’t on the charges.
- Remove: deselect the departing tenant in Edit Lease, then Unlink them. Unlinking keeps their charges and history and sends them a notification, so time it after their last payment.
- Joint vs separate charges: joint means one rent charge any listed tenant can pay (enable partial payments if roommates pay their own shares). Separate means a Lease/Rent charge per tenant with the others excluded. With separate charges, a swap means ending the old roommate’s charge series and creating the newcomer’s.
- Autopay trap: each roommate chose their own autopay amount, and changing charges doesn’t change it. After a re-split, ask the staying tenant(s) to update their amount and the newcomer to set one up. Confirm that the departing tenant’s schedule is gone or paused.
- Paper: upload your addendum → Signature Request. Store it with the lease (document vault).
TurboTenant: Tenant Change Addendum + split charges
- Before you start: paid Essentials/Pro plan to finalize and send. The original signed lease has to be on the profile (upload it if signed outside TT). Only one addendum can be in progress. Resolve any active split charge involving the person leaving first, because help says you can’t remove a tenant who is on an active split charge.
- Build: Lease Profile → Documents → Build a Lease Addendum → People on the lease: Remove the person leaving, Add the newcomer → acknowledge the tenant-change notice → effective date (you can also update rent or end date) → Review and E-Sign → Request E-Signature → Send for Signature. Finalizing alone doesn’t send it.
- On the effective date (once all required signatures are in): newcomer added, person leaving moved to Past Tenants with autopay removed. They can still pay charges due on or before that date.
- Then fix payments yourself: the addendum doesn’t update unpaid charges, recurring rules, or the newcomer’s autopay. Recreate the split (fixed-dollar split totals may not be editable, so delete the rule and create a new one), and ask the newcomer to enroll their share in autopay.
- Records-only alternative: Move Out Tenant / Remove From Lease updates TurboTenant without any signed paper. Help: use the addendum or a new lease when you need a signed agreement documenting the change.
- Unsplit charge with two tenants: only one can autopay, and it pays the remaining balance. If both want autopay for their own share, split the charge.
Avail: screen, amend (or re-lease), then rebuild payments
- Screen: request an application + screening for the newcomer and accept/deny (education, May 2026).
- Amend: generate the free amendment template (parties, effective date, what changes), collect signatures offline from everyone, and upload. Avail’s own article says all original signers must sign.
- Or re-lease: community landlords “always start a new lease” when roommates change. Avail terminates the old lease and deletes the remaining payments after the term date, which stops reminders to the person who left. Set the old lease’s end date and the new lease’s start date with no gap or overlap.
- Payments: one invoice that roommates can pay in any combination is the common setup. If you need fixed shares, confirm with support how to set separate amounts, because the relevant support article didn’t render for us.
- Deposit: watch for a duplicate deposit invoice on the new lease, and handle refunds outside Avail.
Worked example: 2-bedroom unit, one roommate leaves Jan 31, a replacement starts Feb 1 (illustrative numbers)
Two co-tenants, Roommate A and Roommate B, signed a 12-month lease (Aug 1, 2026 – Jul 31, 2027) at $1,850/month, due the 1st, and paid a $1,850 security deposit ($925 each by their own arrangement). Rent is split $925 / $925 in the software. B takes a job out of state and leaves Jan 31. A finds Roommate C. You screen C, approve them, and everyone agrees C takes B’s place from Feb 1 at the same $925 share, with no change to rent or end date. The lease has a joint-and-several clause. Example data only, not vendor recommendations or legal advice. Whether B is released, and how the deposit is handled, depends on your lease, your state, and what everyone signs.
| Step / date | RentRedi | TurboTenant | Avail |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~Jan 5 (screen C) | Add C to the unit (invite Later) → ⋮ Screen Tenant ($39.99 tenant-paid, or $49.99 with income) | Invite to Apply → C applies + screens (renter-paid fee per live pricing) | Request application + screening (~$55 renter-paid) |
| ~Jan 15 (paper) | Upload tenant-change addendum → Signature Request to A, C (and B if counsel wants B to sign a release) | Resolve the A/B split first (see below). Then Build a Lease Addendum: Remove B, Add C, effective Feb 1 → send. A and C sign, B isn’t required to | Amendment template (parties A, B, C, effective Feb 1) → sign offline → upload. Or new lease A + C from Feb 1 to Jul 31, 2027 |
| Before Feb rent posts (charges) | Edit Lease: select A + C, deselect B → Save. Separate-charge setup: end B’s series after Jan, create C’s $925 Feb–Jul series. A keeps $925 autopay, C sets $925 autopay, confirm B’s is gone | Split rule A/B $925/$925: delete it and create a new monthly Rent $1,850 split A $925 / C $925 starting Feb 1 (after the addendum takes effect, so C is on the profile). A re-enrolls autopay on the new rule, and so does C | Amendment path: add C to the payment list (ask support how). New-lease path: Feb invoices are generated on the new lease, so delete any $1,850 deposit invoice that appears, and A and C re-check scheduled payments |
| Deposit (Model A) | You keep holding $1,850. C pays B $925 directly (less any agreed damage), and all three sign a one-line note that C now holds B’s share of the claim. Upload it. Deposit register: A $925 / C $925. Model B instead: you refund B $925 (RR Send Money / TT Return Security Deposit / outside Avail) after a walkthrough, and charge C a $925 Security Deposit charge due before move-in. | ||
| Feb 1 total due (example) | $925 (A) + $925 (C) = $1,850. Wrong but common outcomes: $925 (B removed but C never connected or charged, so half the rent is silently missing), $2,775 (old B share still live + new C share, a double bill), or $1,850 short-paid by $925 on RentRedi because A and C’s autopay amounts are right but nobody told C to set one up. Plus an extra $1,850 if a new lease regenerated the deposit invoice. | ||
| Feb 2 (verify) | Tenants list: A and C current, B Prior, nobody “Not on Lease” | Lease profile: B under Past Tenants, both shares show Autopay on MM/DD | Old lease shows no future invoices for B, new invoices show A and C |
Rent-change variant: if C takes the larger bedroom and everyone agrees to $1,850 split $1,000 (C) / $850 (A), you only change the split. Total rent is the same, so it’s not a rent increase. If the landlord wants the total raised because of the change, Nolo notes that’s usually done through a new lease, subject to rent-control and notice rules. Do it on paper first, then edit the charge.
Checklist: roommate swap without unscreened occupants, ghost charges, or double bills
- Read the lease: joint-and-several clause? Clause requiring landlord approval of new occupants? Guest limit? Occupancy cap?
- Get the request in writing (portal message or email) from the staying tenant(s), with the proposed newcomer and date. See notices & communication logs.
- Screen the newcomer with the same written criteria you use for any applicant (applications, screening costs). Don’t connect them to charges before you approve them.
- Decide release vs not for the person leaving, with counsel if it matters. In TT and RR, software removal isn’t a release.
- Pick a deposit model (A / B / C above) and write it into the addendum or a side note everyone signs.
- Sign the paper first: TT Tenant Change Addendum, Avail amendment or new lease, RR uploaded addendum + Signature Request (lease & e-sign).
- Collect the departing tenant’s balance before removing them, or note what’s still owed.
- Fix charges before the next rent posts: one rent rule, correct split, newcomer connected, departing tenant off future charges.
- Fix autopay: RR, everyone updates their own amount. TT, the newcomer enrolls, and so does anyone on a new rule. Avail, every tenant re-checks scheduled payments.
- Sweep side charges: pet rent, utilities, parking split by roommate (pet rent, utility billing).
- Mid-month swap? Prorate each share by agreement (prorated rent). Many landlords only allow swaps on the 1st.
- Photos of the departing roommate’s space on the swap date (condition reports).
- Verify the first month after the swap: total due equals rent, the right people are billed, and late fees attach as expected (late fees & autopay, partial payments).
- Update your rent roll and deposit register (rent roll).
Traps that cause disputes
- “It’s just my partner moving in.” An unsigned, unscreened occupant has an unclear legal position, and you have no claim against them for rent. Either add them properly or document them as an occupant under the lease’s rules.
- Signed addendum, untouched ledger. TurboTenant says outright that the addendum doesn’t update charges, rules, or autopay. The same gap exists on RR and Avail.
- Split shown as the legal obligation. A $925 split doesn’t mean each tenant owes only $925 if the lease is joint and several. Don’t tell tenants it does.
- Autopay amount drift (RentRedi). Tenant-set amounts don’t follow charge changes, so a re-split can leave a short pay or an overpay every month until someone notices.
- Removing the person leaving before their last payment. TT still lets them pay charges due on or before the effective date. For RR and Avail, collect first.
- New lease regenerates the deposit (Avail community tip). The tenant sees an $1,850 bill they already paid.
- Refunding a departing share without a walkthrough. Later damage becomes a three-way argument.
- Need a new co-signer for the newcomer? TT’s addendum can’t add one, so use a new lease. See co-signers & guarantors.
Fit notes for 1–20 units
- Want a guided swap with paper and portal changes in one flow: TurboTenant’s Tenant Change Addendum (paid to send). Budget a separate pass to rebuild the split and autopay.
- Want flexible billing, with each roommate paying their own amount: RentRedi separate charges, or a joint charge with tenant-set autopay amounts. Bring your own addendum, and police autopay amounts after every change.
- Want free paper: Avail’s free amendment template or a new lease with free digital signing. Expect a new lease to be the cleanest way to change who gets billed.
- Frequent roommate turnover (student or shared houses): consider whether separate per-room leases fit better (TT: separate lease profiles). That’s a bigger legal and lease-drafting decision, so talk to counsel first.
- Any tool: keep a one-page roommate-swap log per unit (date, who left, who joined, screening date, paper signed, deposit model, split amounts, autopay confirmed).
Honest uncertainty callouts
- TurboTenant: the tenant-change addendum article was “updated this week” when we read it and is indexed under two titles (“Add or Remove” and “Add, Remove, or Replace”). Expect the flow to keep changing. Plan names (Essentials / Pro) don’t appear on the pricing page we fetched, which shows tiers at $12.42 and $16.48/mo.
- TurboTenant: help doesn’t state a plan gate for split charges, and we assumed they’re available on Free. Screening fee: the pricing page shows $45, and our earlier research found ~$55 on Free.
- RentRedi: the autopay-independence article is from 2021, though the Jul 2026 setup article still has tenants enter their own amount. We found nothing on whether Unlink cancels an active autopay schedule.
- Avail: two relevant support articles exist by title but didn’t render. Payment behavior here comes from community posts (2023) and education (2022–2026), which partly conflict on whether roommates see individual charges.
- Legal basics are Nolo summaries (May 2026), not your state’s statute. Deposit-refund timing, release of a co-tenant, and occupancy rules vary.
Related
- Applications & lead pipeline: invite the incoming roommate to apply
- Tenant screening costs: who pays to screen the replacement
- Lease & e-sign: addenda, amendments, Signature Request vs built-in builders
- Security deposits & move-out: refunds, held vs returned, deposit register
- Partial payments & credits: roommates paying toward one shared charge
- Late fees & autopay: who controls autopay after the swap
- Utility billing: re-split utility charges between roommates
- Prorated rent & move-in: mid-month roommate swaps
- Renewals & lease extensions: changing roommates at renewal instead of mid-lease
- Holdover & month-to-month: new lease records and regenerated deposits
- Tenant notices & communication logs: get the swap request in writing
- Inspection & condition reports: walkthrough of the departing roommate’s space
- Document vault & lease files: where the addendum and deposit note live
- Switch checklist: migrating units with split charges and multiple tenants
- RentRedi vs TurboTenant vs Avail: full criteria table
- Co-signers & guarantors: guarantors who back a roommate, and adding a co-signer mid-lease
- Early termination & lease-break fees: when every tenant leaves early, not just one roommate
- Subleases & lease assignments: the whole lease handed to a replacement, or sublet while the tenant is away, not one roommate swapped
- Required lease disclosures & addenda: disclosures for a newcomer signing onto the lease
- When a tenant dies: when a co-tenant dies mid-lease
- Abandoned units & left-behind belongings: when every tenant has left
- Small Portfolio Desk home
Educational product research only, not legal advice. Releasing a co-tenant, joint-and-several liability, deposit-refund timing and caps, rent changes on a new lease, occupancy limits, and fair-housing screening depend on your lease and your state and city law. Confirm current tenant-change flows, split and autopay behavior, and plan gates in each vendor’s help center and your live account, and talk to counsel before you release or keep a departing tenant on the hook.