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When you rent a home out to a tenant you must create or download off the Internet what is called a residential lease agreement. This lease agreement is a contract between landlord and tenant that lays out all the terms of the lease and once signed is a binding agreement between the two parties. While there are no hard and fast rules about how this agreement is laid out there are some laws in each state pertaining what must be in it.
The key to understanding a residential lease agreement is to break it down into the important elements that each lease agreement contains. The first thing that a lease agreement should contain, most likely at the top of the page is the landlord’s information, depending on the landlord this could include contact information such as an address and phone number but may also include the landlord’s company name, a fax number, email address and company logo.
The next important part of a residential lease agreement is the terms of use, this is the part of the lease that lays out for the tenant what they may or may not do while living on the landlords property. It could include such things as rules regarding pets, parking, sub-letting and what changes a tenant is allowed to make.
Next on the lease agreement is the information about the rental, where it is located and sometimes a description of the property. Following this is the terms of the lease that the tenant must agree to, this includes things such as rent, how long the lease is good for, what happens when the lease runs up, how and where the rent should be paid and any deposits the tenant is responsible for making. Also included in or near this section will be information on what a tenants grace period is, what type of late fees he could incur, and what return payment fees will be assessed in the event of a bounced check.
There should be a section about repairs and who is responsible for what maintenance and repair that the home will need during the time of the lease. This may also include who is responsible for what utilities and may give some information as to what the contact information for your utilities is.
You may find information at the bottom about right of entry and renters insurance, in some states the landlord is required to notify the tenant that his insurance does not include the contents. Finally at the bottom of your residential lease agreement will be a place for both of you to sign making this a binding contract designed to protect both parties.