How to Split Rent in Florianópolis: Contract, Cohabitation and What to Agree on Before Signing

Rent in Florianópolis is not cheap. A 3-bedroom apartment in Trindade costs around R$ 4,720 per month. Split three ways, that comes to R$ 1,575 per person — similar to the cost of renting a studio individually, but with a living room, kitchen and space to actually live. The math works out. The problem usually isn’t the math, it’s what comes after: who signs the contract, how expenses divide, and what happens when cohabitation gets complicated.

This post was written with input from the Regente team, which manages shared rentals in Trindade and Itacorubi every year. What’s here isn’t theory — it’s what surfaces when things go wrong because nobody agreed on it beforehand.

Splitting rent in Florianópolis: whoever signs the contract is liable for everything

This is the part most people don’t understand before they sign.

When all residents sign the lease as joint and several tenants (Art. 2, Lei 8.245/91), each one is responsible for the entire debt — not just their share. If one of the three roommates disappears in month ten without paying, the other two cover the full amount. It’s not moral solidarity; it’s legal obligation.

This cuts both ways. Whoever signs the contract has greater responsibility — but also more authority over the property. Whoever doesn’t sign can be asked to leave more easily, doesn’t have the same rights as a formal tenant, and is in a weaker position if conflict arises.

The decision about who signs isn’t just bureaucracy. It’s the power and responsibility structure of the shared rental. Discuss this upfront, not afterward.

The guarantor isn’t doing you a favor

When a shared rental has a guarantor — usually the parent of one roommate — it’s common to treat it as paperwork. One more form to process.

It’s not. The guarantor puts their own property at risk so other people can rent. If the shared rental defaults, the guarantor’s asset can be seized to cover the debt. This is real, it’s legal, and it happens.

This changes how roommates should view their payment commitment. Delaying, “waiting to see,” or leaving without notice has direct consequences for someone who entered the contract not as a tenant, but as a guarantor.

If a shared rental has a guarantor, every roommate has both a moral obligation and a practical interest in keeping payments on time.

Before you sign: what’s the culture of this apartment?

Before you discuss cost division and cleaning schedules, there’s a more fundamental conversation. What’s each person’s profile? What will define this apartment?

Parties, work, study, faith, beach, sports — each person has a different hierarchy of priorities. There’s no wrong combination, just incompatible ones. A student who wakes at 6am to train and another who sleeps at 6am after a party won’t cohabitate well, even if both are wonderful people.

It’s worth asking directly before you finalize the apartment:

• Do you have visitors often? How late do they stay?
• What’s your typical Monday-to-Friday routine?
• Do you smoke? Do you have pets?
• How do you handle noise when studying or sleeping?
• How committed are you to the apartment’s shared obligations?

These questions might sound excessive to someone excited about moving in with a friend. They’re exactly the ones that prevent that friend from becoming a cohabitation problem two months later.

What you agree on doesn’t have to cost extra: what to settle before moving in

Most fights in shared rentals don’t start with rent. They start with milk disappearing from the fridge, dishes sitting in the sink for two days, or a guest who stayed Thursday through Sunday.

Cost division beyond rent

Rent, HOA fees, water, electricity and internet are usually split equally — or proportional to room size if rooms vary significantly. What nobody agrees on and becomes a problem:

• Groceries and food: does each person buy their own, or are there shared items? Who decides what’s shared? Who buys and how is reimbursement handled?
• Cleaning supplies: who buys, who uses more, who restocks?
• Minor maintenance: burned-out bulb, filter, plunger — how’s that cost split?

There’s no right answer. There’s the answer everyone agreed on before moving in.

Guests

Guests are the most common topic in shared rental conflicts. Settle this beforehand:

• What’s the cutoff time for guests on weekdays?
• Do roommates need advance notice when you’re having someone over?
• Can guests stay overnight? For how many consecutive nights?
• How does it work with drinks, noise and smoking inside the apartment?

A reasonable agreement: guests welcome until 11pm on weekdays without notice. For weekends and special situations, give at least one day’s notice. A guest staying more than two consecutive nights is a separate conversation.

Cleaning, dishes and maintenance

A weekly cleaning schedule works when everyone agrees what “cleaning” means. Worth clarifying:

• How often is the apartment cleaned?
• Dishes in the sink: what’s the maximum time before they need washing?
• Bathroom and common areas: who takes care of them, how often?

Nobody needs to be meticulous about cleaning to live in a shared rental. Everyone needs basic respect for shared space — and everyone’s “basic” has to be compatible.

Deadline periods

Exam weeks need quiet. Thesis deadlines, work sprints, job interviews — every roommate has moments that need active respect from the others. It’s not asking for total silence; it’s knowing something’s happening.

A simple WhatsApp group or dry-erase board with “busy week for roommate X: from day A to B” solves this before someone’s asking for silence at 11pm with a frazzled neighbor.

College is more than just classes

Living away from home for the first time, managing your own money, dealing with a plumbing issue, negotiating rent split with someone you barely know, fixing an emergency at 10pm on a weekday — all of this is college too.

The friendships that last, the stories you’ll tell in twenty years, the person you become over those four or five years — a lot of that happens inside and around this shared rental. Florianópolis rent is real, but it can’t be the reason you don’t live this experience with who you want, in the neighborhood that makes sense, the way that’s yours.

What keeps rent from becoming the villain of the story is exactly what’s in this post: choose your roommates well, agree on what needs agreement, and don’t let misunderstandings turn into resentment.

How to find the right roommate

The network for finding shared rentals in Florianópolis is more accessible than it seems:

• Official UFSC classifieds — the student council and some academic centers maintain groups and boards for housing supply and demand
• Class WhatsApp groups — people who passed the entrance exam together usually stay in the same group; posting there reaches people facing the same problem
• Upperclassmen from your course — someone leaving a good shared rental recommends the place and can introduce the other residents
• People from your hometown — someone from your hometown shares context, which eases cohabitation in the first months
• Friends in common — a recommendation from someone you trust is worth more than any improvised interview

Profile matters more than initial chemistry. You might not know the person well yet — but knowing they have a routine similar to yours, take financial commitments seriously, and have basic respect for shared space is enough to start.

Conflicts happen — the question is how you handle them

The real estate agency has no responsibility for disagreements between residents. The contract is between tenants and landlord. What happens inside the apartment is the residents’ business.

This needs to be clear from the start. If conflict emerges, there’s nobody external to turn to for resolution — the solution is internal.

A simple strategy that works: agree beforehand, before any problem arises, how conversation will work when it does. How often do roommates talk about the apartment? Weekly? Monthly? A formal meeting or over dinner?

Difficult conversations prevent difficult actions — and even harder conversations later. Accumulated discomfort turns small problems into big situations. Dishes in the sink aren’t about dishes after three months of silence.

What the law says when someone wants to leave

When a roommate wants to leave the shared rental, the lease doesn’t automatically end. Required:

• Contract amendment signed by all tenants and the landlord
• Landlord’s consent — the owner must agree to the change
• New guarantor or new collateral if the departing person was the guarantor

Until the amendment is signed, whoever left remains legally responsible for lease obligations. Leaving a shared rental without formalizing the departure is a real risk — especially if the other roommates stop paying afterward.

Regente handles this entire process. If you’re in a shared rental managed by Regente and a roommate is leaving, reach out before they move out — not after.

FAQ — Shared Rentals and Rent-Splitting in Florianópolis

Is it mandatory to put all roommates on the lease?

Not mandatory, but recommended. Someone not on the lease has no tenant rights — and can be asked to leave without the same legal protections. Someone on the lease has more responsibility, but also more guarantees.

What does joint and several liability mean in practice?

It means each tenant is responsible for the entire debt, not just their share. If one of three roommates doesn’t pay, the landlord can collect the full amount from any of the other two. This is Lei 8.245/91, Art. 2.

Does the guarantor have to live in Florianópolis?

No. Regente accepts a guarantor with a paid-off property anywhere in Brazil, as long as income and background check meet criteria. For student rentals, the guarantor’s minimum income is 4x the rental expenses.

Can I leave the shared rental whenever I want?

You can leave, but you need to formalize the exit with a contract amendment. Until the amendment is signed, you remain legally responsible for lease obligations — even though you’ve physically moved out.

Can the condo prohibit shared rentals?

The condo can have rules about maximum occupants per unit. Before you finalize the apartment, check the building’s internal regulations. This doesn’t appear in the lease.

Before you finalize the shared rental

The right shared rental, with the right people and the right agreements, is one of the best ways to experience Florianópolis as a student. Cost drops, space increases, and the experience beats living alone in a studio.

What turns it into a problem is exactly what can be prevented: not agreeing on what needs agreement, not saying what needs to be said.

Regente has ideal shared rentals in Trindade and Itacorubi — the two neighborhoods most sought by UFSC and UDESC students. The process is 100% digital. See the rental guide for UFSC students and rental prices by neighborhood to work out the budget before choosing a property. Talk to a consultant to see what’s available.