Some people say it’s the difference between friends forever or enemies for life.

It’s the time of year when many students look forward to moving off campus with friends, but there are many issues roommates should discuss before they move in together.

Andrea Evans, a junior in elementary education, said she and one of her roommates were best friends when they moved in together last summer. Yet their living situation became so unbearable that Evans moved out in December.

“Everybody says ‘don’t live with your friends’ but I wouldn’t go out in the newspaper and just live with anybody,” she said.

Evans said issues that created the biggest problems between her and her roommates included cleaning, guests, drinking attitudes and bill payment.

Evans said before they moved into the apartment, all roommates agreed they would use the air conditioning sparingly to save money. However, shortly after moving in, one roommate developed a problem with allergies, and the air conditioning was on full-time. She said they were paying about $100 a month for electricity because of the air conditioning.

Evans also said the phone was a problem. She said they had a call-waiting service on their line, but many times her roommates wouldn’t use it and she would miss calls.

Evans also said differences in social lives proved to be another problem.

Stephanie Chervinko, a program assistant at the Off-Campus Center, said roommates should discuss potential problems before they move in together.

She said the Off-Campus Center has roommate questionnaires for students to fill out to help determine if they are compatible.

The questionnaires ask students to consider basic issues, including what type of place they want to live in, cleaning expectations, overnight guests and other important lifestyle questions.

Chervinko said bill payment is one of the most important things roommates should discuss.

“Students should not be afraid to talk about how they’re going to manage their money,” Chervinko said. “That’s something that a lot of arguments can get started on.”

She said the Off-Campus Center also offers “Roommate Rental Agreements” that students can fill out in Room B6 of the Memorial Union. She said the document is signed by all roommates and outlines how much they each plan to pay.

“Sometimes it can come in handy if there is a problem with a roommate not holding up his end on finances,” Chervinko said.

She said the signed document would be helpful if the problem resulted in a trip to small-claims court, since most leases don’t protect tenants if a roommate stops paying bills.

“In a situation that somebody up and leaves, the landlord isn’t required to [go after them] to get the rent,” Chervinko said.

Julie Lenz, a property manager with Hunziker and Associates, said if a roommates leaves, the roommates left in the unit would be held responsible for the full rent.

“It’s going to hurt the [tenants] that are living there,” Lenz said. “If they’re not paying full rent eventually they could be evicted. We don’t go after [the roommate that left], we just go after the people in the unit.”

She said if roommates end up in small-claims court, Hunziker can help them by showing the court a copy of the lease and rental checks.

“I would just always make sure you know the person before you move in with them,” Lenz said.

Evans said roommates should put agreements in writing. She said the most important things to settle are cleaning duties and bill payment.

She said her new roommate situation is much better. “It’s a lot better because there’s just two of us,” she said. “My new roommate is so easy going and personality-wise we get along a lot better,” she said.

Chervinko agreed roommates should put agreements in writing.

“I really think that it’s a good idea for roommates to talk about these issues and write it up and post it somewhere so they have a record of what they talked about and what the agreement was,” she said.