An Affidavit of Shared Residence is a sworn, notarized statement in which the person whose name is on the lease or deed confirms that someone else lives at the address full-time. You fill one out when you need to prove where you live but your name isn’t on any lease, deed, or utility bill there. School districts and motor-vehicle agencies ask for it most often. To use one, you complete the agency’s own form with the primary resident, both of you sign it in front of a notary with photo ID, and you turn it in with documents proving the primary resident’s address.
When Agencies Ask for One
Two situations drive almost every request. The first is school enrollment: public districts use the affidavit to confirm a student actually lives inside district boundaries, not that a family is borrowing an address. If a child lives with a grandparent, aunt, or family friend, the district asks that adult to sign. The second is a driver’s license or state ID application. If you can’t produce the two address documents your state requires in your own name, someone who lives at the same address and does have those documents signs a certification for you.1Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Certification of Address2Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. Certification of Nevada Residency
Social service offices, public housing authorities, and benefits programs sometimes request similar proof. Whether your state accepts a shared residence affidavit as one of its REAL ID address documents depends on the state, so check the agency’s accepted-documents list before you start.3eCFR. 6 CFR 37.11 – Application and Documents the Applicant Must Provide
What to Gather Before You Start
Missing a single supporting document is the most common reason agencies send people back. Pull everything together before you sit down with the form.
The primary resident needs documents proving they control the property:
- A current, signed lease or rental agreement showing their name and the shared address.
- If they own, a recent mortgage statement or the recorded deed.
- A recent utility bill in their name at the address. How recent depends on the agency. Some want a bill from within 30 days, others within 90, and university residency offices may ask for 12 consecutive months.4Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Proof of Tennessee Residency
Both parties need valid government-issued photo ID — a driver’s license, state ID, or passport — at the notary appointment. The notary uses it to verify each signer before applying the seal.
Use the requesting agency’s form, not a generic template. School registrars hand them out at enrollment, DMVs post them online, and benefits offices include them in application packets. Agencies routinely reject forms that don’t match their format.
How to Fill Out the Form
Most shared residence affidavits ask for the same core information even though the layouts differ.
- Full legal names of the primary resident and the applicant, printed exactly as they appear on identification. Some forms also ask for the names and dates of birth of any children covered.
- The complete property address, including apartment or unit number. P.O. boxes don’t count; agencies need a physical dwelling.5New York City Public Schools. Parent Affidavit of Residency
- The relationship between the two parties: relative, friend, or other. School forms care because enrollment rules often turn on whether the arrangement is genuinely about housing rather than school access.6Prince George’s County Public Schools. Shared Housing Affidavit
- Duration of stay. Some forms ask for a move-in date, some for an anticipated length of stay, and others simply require you to attest that the applicant lives there “on a full time basis (seven days a week year round).”7Shelby County Schools. Shared Residence Affidavit
- The sworn declaration near the bottom. Both signers attest the information is true under penalty of perjury. Don’t sign this line until you are in front of the notary; signing beforehand can invalidate the document.
Check every field against your supporting documents before you leave for the notary. If your utility bill reads “123 Main St. Apt 4B” and you write “123 Main Street #4B” on the form, a careful clerk may flag the inconsistency.
Getting It Notarized
The affidavit isn’t legally effective until a commissioned notary public witnesses the signatures and applies an official seal. The notary confirms that each signer is who they claim to be and is signing voluntarily. The notary does not verify whether the residency claim itself is true.
Each signer must appear before the notary in person with a valid photo ID. Most notaries handle both signatures in a single session if the two of you show up together. There’s no universal rule that both signers must appear at the same time, so if scheduling is hard, ask the notary whether they’ll take the signatures at separate appointments.
Notary fees are modest. Most states cap the charge at roughly $2 to $15 per notarial act. Banks and credit unions often notarize for account holders free of charge, and some public libraries, courthouses, and shipping stores offer the service for a small fee. Call ahead to confirm availability.
Remote Online Notarization
A growing number of states allow remote online notarization, where signers appear on live video rather than in the same room as the notary. Pennsylvania made it permanent under Act 97 of 2020, requiring notaries to use tamper-evident technology approved by the Department of State.8Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Electronic or Remote Notarization Remote fees run higher, often $25 to $30 per act. Before you book one, confirm the requesting agency accepts it. Some school districts and DMV offices require a wet-ink seal on the original, which rules out a remotely notarized digital copy.
Submitting the Completed Affidavit
Turn in the notarized affidavit to the agency that asked for it, together with the primary resident’s supporting address documents. How you submit depends on the agency.
- School districts often require in-person delivery. Clear Creek ISD in Texas, for example, accepts Pre-K and Kindergarten affidavits by email but requires affidavits for grades 1 through 12 to be submitted in person by appointment. Other districts accept scanned copies sent to a central enrollment office.9Clear Creek Independent School District. Residency Affidavits
- DMVs want the original notarized form at your appointment. Most won’t accept mailed or emailed copies for a license or ID application.
- Benefits agencies vary. Some accept uploads through an online portal, others want certified mail or in-person drop-off.
Ask for a dated receipt or confirmation number when you hand it over. A DMV may verify the affidavit on the spot; a school enrollment office could take a week or more.
Check the Lease First
If the primary resident rents, signing an affidavit that declares someone lives in the unit full-time can conflict with the lease. Most residential leases include a guest or occupancy clause that limits how long an unlisted person can stay, often 10 to 14 days in a six-month period. Anyone staying longer is typically treated as an unauthorized occupant, which can be grounds for the landlord to terminate the lease. The affidavit itself becomes a written admission that the stay exceeds a typical guest visit.
Before completing the form, the primary resident should review the lease and take one of these steps:
- Get written landlord approval, either by having the new resident added to the lease or by securing a signed letter of consent.
- Check local roommate laws. In some jurisdictions, tenants have a statutory right to at least one roommate regardless of the lease, though they usually must notify the landlord within a set period after the roommate moves in.
Ignoring the lease puts the primary resident at risk of eviction and can also undermine the affidavit’s credibility if an agency cross-checks the arrangement with the property owner.
Keeping the Affidavit Current
These affidavits aren’t permanent. School districts commonly require annual renewal; Tennessee, for example, requires resubmission to the school each year.10Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Shared Residency Verification Procedures DMV certifications usually cover a single transaction, so a license renewal down the road may need a fresh one.
When the shared living arrangement ends, both parties have work to do. The person who moved out should update their address with every agency that received the original affidavit. For driver’s licenses, most states require notification to the DMV within 10 to 30 days.11Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Rule 4501:1-10-01 The primary resident should tell the school district or other agency that the person no longer lives at the address. Pickerington Local School District in Ohio, for instance, requires immediate notification to its Welcome Center when a shared resident moves out of the district.12Pickerington Local School District. Shared Residency Affidavit Annual Renewal Form Leaving an outdated sworn statement on file can complicate future applications or raise fraud concerns.
Penalties for False Statements
Every shared residence affidavit carries a perjury warning, and the consequences are real. Under federal law, knowingly making a false material statement under penalty of perjury carries up to five years in prison.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Ch. 79: Perjury14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally15Illinois State Board of Education. Affidavit of Enrollment and Residency16Kentucky Department of Education. Kentucky Department of Education Residency Affidavit
The practical fallout often hurts more than the criminal charge. A student enrolled with a fraudulent address can be expelled mid-year, and the family may be billed retroactively for the full cost of the education. A license obtained with a false address affidavit can be revoked. Signing the form makes each person individually responsible for the truth of their statements, so both the primary resident and the applicant are on the hook.