State Guides
18 articles in this category
Texas Sublease Agreement: What to Put in Writing
Texas law does not let a tenant sublet on a whim. You generally need your landlord's written consent first, and you stay on the hook for the original lease. Here is what a Texas sublease should spell out.
Arkansas Lease Agreement Requirements: What Landlords Must Include
Arkansas treats landlords and tenants differently than most states, and a few of those differences show up directly in the lease. This guide walks through the deposit cap, the small-landlord exemption, disclosures, and notice periods so your Arkansas lease holds up.
Washington DC Month-to-Month Lease: Notice and the Rules Landlords Miss
A DC month-to-month tenancy is not the easy off-ramp landlords expect. The 30-day notice is only half the story, because DC generally requires a legal for-cause reason to end even a month-to-month arrangement. Here is what trips owners up.
Florida's Radon Disclosure: What Every Lease Must Say
Florida law requires most rental agreements to include a specific radon gas notice, with wording set by statute. It is a short paragraph, but leaving it out means your lease is missing a legally required disclosure. Here is exactly what the notice says, who it applies to, and how it fits with the federal lead-paint rule.
Are Lease Options and Rent-to-Own Agreements Legal in Texas?
Rent-to-own deals are legal in Texas, but the state regulates them more tightly than almost anywhere else. If your agreement is an executory contract for conveyance, strict disclosure and recording duties kick in. Here is what that means for sellers and buyers.
Ohio Lease Agreement Requirements: What Landlords Must Include
Ohio gives landlords more room than many states, with no statewide rent control and no cap on security deposits, but that freedom comes with specific duties that trip up landlords who assume the lack of limits means a lack of rules. Here is what an Ohio lease has to get right.
New York Lease Agreement Requirements: What Landlords Must Include
New York rewrote much of its rental rulebook with the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, and the changes reach every residential lease in the state. A lease drafted from an out-of-state template or an old form can quietly violate current law, and in New York that is an expensive thing to get wrong.
NCGS § 42-14 Explained: What North Carolina's 7-Day Notice Rule Means for Landlords and Tenants
Most landlords and tenants in North Carolina assume month-to-month rentals require 30 days notice to terminate. That assumption is wrong, and it catches people off guard in both directions. The actual statutory minimum under North Carolina General Statutes § 42-14 is seven days. Not 30. Not 15. Seven days notice is all that is required to end a month-to-month tenancy in North Carolina, making it one of the shortest termination notice periods of any state in the country...
What Is the Maximum Late Fee in New York?
New York has one of the strictest late fee laws in the country. The cap is low, the grace period is mandatory, and a landlord who has been charging above the limit on every late payment has been collecting illegal fees that a tenant can demand back. If you are a landlord in New York and you have not checked your lease against the current statute, it is worth doing before the next late payment arrives...
How Long Can a Guest Stay Before Becoming a Tenant in Georgia?
Georgia law does not set a specific number of days after which a guest automatically becomes a tenant. There is no statute that says 14 days, 30 days, or any other fixed threshold. What Georgia law does recognize is that when a person establishes residency in a rental unit, they may acquire tenant rights regardless of whether they are named on the lease or have any formal agreement with the landlord. The line between guest and tenant is behavioral, not just calendrical, and the lease is the document that defines it...
North Carolina Lease Agreement: What Landlords and Renters Need to Know
North Carolina sits firmly in the landlord-friendly column of U.S. rental law. There is no statewide rent control, no mandatory notice period before entering a rental unit, and eviction timelines are among the faster ones in the country. But landlord-friendly does not mean no requirements. The North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 42 governs all residential tenancies in the state and imposes specific rules on security deposits, required disclosures, late fees, and habitability that every lease needs to reflect. Miss them and the lease either fails to protect the landlord or actively works against them in a dispute...
Arizona Lease Agreement: What Both Sides Need to Know
Arizona sits comfortably in the landlord-friendly column of the national landlord-tenant spectrum. There is no statewide rent control, no cap on application fees, and no mandatory grace period before late fees kick in. But the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, codified in ARS Title 33 Chapter 10, still imposes specific requirements on what a lease must contain, what disclosures are mandatory, and what lease terms are void regardless of what both parties agreed to. A generic lease template that misses these requirements does not become compliant just because a tenant signed it...