Nearly all states and cities in the U.S. have rules establishing a baseline of “habitability” for residential rental units. Typically, landlords are responsible for ensuring that the rented unit is fit for human beings to live in – a standard that varies from place to place, but typically includes things like roofs that don’t leak,…Read More
Many tenants have dogs, and many landlords make allowances for a tenant to keep one or more dogs. A well-drafted lease can help protect landlords from the costs of repairs for pet damage, but it may not be able to protect a landlord from a lawsuit if a tenant’s dog bites another person. Landlord liability for…Read More
How much do you charge each tenant as a security deposit? How much can you charge according to state law? Nearly every landlord knows the answer to the first question, but fewer know the answer to the second one. While you’re not required to charge the maximum security deposit allowed by law, you are prohibited…Read More
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), domestic violence accounts for approximately one in every five violent crimes nationwide. Seventy-seven percent of these encounters take place at or near the victim’s home. With millions of adults renting homes and apartments nationwide, landlords need to know their responsibilities when it comes to domestic violence –…Read More
Most states prohibit self help evictions, instead of requiring landlords to go through a cumbersome and often lengthy eviction process in order to remove tenants from a rental property. The stated purpose for these laws is to protect tenants, who usually need time to find another place to live. This tenant protection, however, often comes…Read More
While a specific landlord’s options are always limited by the specific facts of the situation and the terms of the lease, landlords that find themselves in situations in which they need to evict one or more unauthorized tenants typically find they do not have free reign to do so. What are a landlord’s options in this…Read More
Bed bug infestations in rental units are an itchy, crawling nightmare for landlords and tenants alike. The bed bug’s preferred meal is human blood, and bed bugs are particularly well-adapted for getting it. They thrive at temperatures near seventy degrees, they’re nocturnal, and they can hide in even the smallest cracks. Their immunity to most…Read More
Most landlords are aware that, in most situations, landlords cannot refuse to rent to families with children. However, some landlords may attempt to mitigate the noise, clutter, and other effects children can cause by writing a number of rules into a lease. Even these rules, however, can land a landlord in legal trouble. Landlords Are…Read More
Bed bugs in a rental unit pose a number of headaches for landlords. Immune to many commercial pesticides, extremely tolerant of both cold and heat, and able to live for over a year without a meal, bed bugs are tough to eradicate – and the problems don’t stop there. The stigma of a bed bug…Read More
Many landlords ask that a tenant pay rent for the first and last months of the tenancy when the lease is signed or an agreement to rent the property is made. Asking for the first month’s rent payment makes sense: it covers the current or upcoming month, the first month the tenant will actually be…Read More
