How We Verify Our Data

Our lease documents include real deadlines, such as how many days a landlord has to return a deposit, the notice required before entry, and the grace period before a late fee can be charged. Because these values matter, we work hard to base them on official government sources. This page explains how we try to get them right, and where our responsibility ends and yours begins.

We work from official primary sources

Wherever possible, we base each per-state value on an official government source: the state landlord-tenant statute itself, read on the legislature's own site. Where we can, we load the live official page and record the non-search URL along with the sentence the value rests on.

We try not to treat a Google or Bing result snippet as the final authority, even when it quotes an official site, because snippets can truncate the exemptions, provisos, and effective dates that change what a rule actually means. We also do not rely on legal aggregator sites such as Justia, FindLaw, or Nolo as the source of truth. They are useful for finding a statute number, but we treat the codified statute as the better guide.

We try to read the full statute, not just the headline number

Deadlines often hide their real meaning a few subsections down, so we try to read the full statute rather than repeat a quick search result. In our 2026 review, reading Alabama's deposit statute in full indicated a 35-day return deadline rather than the 60 days the data previously held. When a state appears to have no rule, we try to say so rather than invent one: Georgia has no statutory residential late-fee cap, so we set that value to "no statutory cap" rather than guessing a number.

What our last review covered

In May 2026 we reviewed all 51 US jurisdictions (50 states plus the District of Columbia). The review looked at security-deposit return deadlines, deposit interest and separate-account rules, late-fee caps and grace periods, entry-notice requirements, month-to-month termination notice periods, and required disclosures, reading each value from the official statute where available and logging it with its URL and source text. Some examples of values confirmed or corrected in that review:

• Washington deposit return shown as 30 days, per RCW 59.18.280.
• Connecticut deposit return updated to 21 days, reflecting Public Act 23-207.
• Illinois deposit return shown as 45 days, per the Security Deposit Return Act.
• Alabama deposit return updated from 60 to 35 days after a full read of the statute.
• North Carolina month-to-month notice set to 7 days, per N.C. Gen. Stat. 42-14, with the statute text shown on the page.

Several of these values print into the lease you generate, which is why we treat them as the highest-stakes data on the site. They also reflect what we found at the time of that review. Any of them can change afterward, and local rules can differ, so please confirm the current rule before you rely on it.

Not legal advice, and no guarantee

Your Lease Agreement is a self-help document-preparation service, not a law firm, and nothing on this site is legal advice or a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney. We put real effort into getting these requirements right, but laws change often, many cities and counties add their own rules (rent control, just-cause eviction, extra disclosures) that can override the general state figure, and official sources are sometimes unclear or out of date themselves. We cannot promise that every value is accurate, complete, or current. The information on this site and the documents you generate are provided for general informational purposes, on an "as is" basis, without warranties of any kind, express or implied.

You are responsible for confirming any requirement before you rely on it. We link the governing statute on every state page so you can check the current rule yourself, and for anything significant or specific to your situation you should consult a licensed attorney in your state or your local housing authority. To the fullest extent permitted by law, 7H Ventures LLC is not responsible for any loss or damage arising from use of this site or the documents it generates.

Found something that looks wrong? Tell us

If you believe a value is out of date or incorrect, email [email protected] with the state, the field, and a link to the official source. We review reports against the primary source and update the data when a correction is warranted.

Your Lease Agreement is operated by 7H Ventures LLC, based in Georgia. Data last reviewed May 2026.