If you are planning to share an apartment or house with several roommates, you should be aware of the legal implications. If only one person signs the lease, that person is solely responsible for the entire rent and other conditions of the lease and is technically subletting to any other roommates. (See Subletting.) If both you and your roommates sign a lease, you are "Jointly and Severally Liable," meaning, each person who signs the lease is responsible for all the conditions of the lease. For example, each tenant is individually responsible for all of the rent and all of any damages that occur regardless of the means the tenants use to divide the rent among themselves and regardless of which tenant actually causes the damage. That means that if one person does not pay the rent, the other roommates are liable to the landlord for payment of that person's share or they are all subject to eviction for non-payment of rent. It is up to the other tenants, not the landlord, to collect from the non-paying tenant. By the same token if one tenant damages the premises, the landlord may deduct the damages from the tenants' collective security deposit without determining or considering who did the damage. Again, it is up to the tenants to collect for the damages from the tenant who caused the damage. It may be wise to protect yourself and your roommates by designing a written contract that spells out roommates' obligations to each other, such as what portion of rent each will pay, responsibility for damages, division of payment for utilities, duration of the rental period, responsibility for finding a replacement upon early termination, and payment of rent until a replacement is found. The University of Colorado Off-Campus Student Services Office has published a "Roommate Survival Guide," which includes tips on communicating and resolving conflicts with roommates. The office also has sample roommate agreement forms. A brochure about how to avoid disputes is available from the Boulder Community Mediation Service.