ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Rental Agreements and Lease Contracts: What You Need to Know

Updated on May 27, 2010

Before you sign or draft a renter’s agreement or lease contract, its important that you know what to look for, what to include, what to exclude and how to negotiate.


In a stricken economy, more and more families are facing foreclosure of their homes and turning to renting as a viable alternative to housing. Thus, the rental market has actually improved while other areas of the U.S. real estate market have faced significant downturns. Both renters and landlords alike, however, can become victims of a faulty rental contract.


Why the Rental Contract Is Important

The rental contract stipulates what a tenant can and cannot do in his rented home. If the landlord wants the renter to keep the yard maintained or be responsible for all or a specific portion of other home maintenance, this must be stipulated in the lease contract. The purpose of the lease is to clarify the responsibilities of the renter and the landlord alike. This protects the renter from falling victim to unethical landlords who make demands not included in the lease. It also protects landlords from tenants who make unreasonable demands or make a claim of verbal agreements that never existed.


Rental contracts protect landlords and tenants.
Rental contracts protect landlords and tenants.

Verbal Rental Agreements Can Be Misunderstood

Even if you are renting to or from a close friend or family member, a lease agreement can help both of you by clarifying any verbal agreement that the two of you have concerning the property and its uses. If you don’t want your renter allowing other individuals to move into the home without your prior approval, you can put this in the lease agreement. If, however, you expect your friend or family member to be responsible for home maintenance and repairs, ask that this be included in the lease--otherwise, it might not get done.


A rental agreement in writing provides you with legal protection in the event that the landlord or renter does not meet the terms he or she originally agreed to. Verbal agreements rarely stand up in court and almost never carry the same weight as a signed and dated piece of paper supporting your claim. 


A lease contract in writing gives you stronger legal standing.
A lease contract in writing gives you stronger legal standing.

The last thing you want is to be stuck living in or owning a house, apartment or condo when a problem exists that you cannot readily fix due to a previous misunderstanding. Thus, you should ask for a rental contract to protect both yourself and your family members from emotional stress and potential financial ruin. 


How to Write the Rental Contract

For landlords, its always a good idea to visit with a qualified real estate attorney when drawing up your lease agreement. The cost involved for an attorney visit is almost always worth the peace of mind that having a legally airtight rental lease will provide. Before you can begin, however, you must make a list of the things you want to include in your renters’ lease. Some sample lease aspects are as follows:


  • The amount of rent you expect renters to pay
  • The date rent is due
  • Late fees and additional charges
  • Maintenance renters are responsible for
  • Subletting guidelines or prohibitions
  • Whether pets are allowed
  • Conduct required of guests
  • Circumstances that would result in eviction
  • Eviction procedures 


Although it isn’t necessary to have a lease notarized to make it binding, doing so gives your contract with the renter added legal importance.


Negotiating Items In a Lease

Renters should take care to read a lease contract carefully before agreeing to sign. If you plan to rent, ask your landlord if you can take a copy of the lease home to review before signing it. You may also hire an attorney to take a look at the lease and determine if all the requirements the landlord is requesting are allowed in your state.


Negotiate the lease before you sign.
Negotiate the lease before you sign.

Make a list of any questions you have about the lease, and present these questions to your landlord. If any part of the lease seems unfair to you, ask the landlord to modify or remove it. Remember, leases aren’t set in stone until you sign on the dotted line. Until then, however, everything is negotiable.


Landlords should be willing to consider their renters’ requests to modify portions of the lease if they can see a legitimate cause for doing so. 


working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)