Lease agreements are documents that outline the rules associated with a rental. The specific terms and conditions of the agreement will be contained within the lease contract for all participating individuals to sign. Writing a lease agreement is a necessity for anyone who is considering leasing out property.
How the Lease Process Works
A lease serves as a protective mechanism by clearly defining the rights of both the landlord and the tenant before they enter into a working relationship with one another. The lease is presented to the prospective tenant for him or her to review the conditions set forth in the document and decide if those conditions are acceptable. The tenant is free to decline the lease and seek a home elsewhere if he or she does not agree with the landlord’s terms.
The University of Pittsburgh's Apartment Lease Guide suggests that a landlord may consider working with a tenant to reach a compromise and modify a lease to best suit both parties. It recommends that in cases of lease modification, a landlord should write the new rental agreement into the lease. Both parties should initial next to the changes.
Include All Terms and Conditions Within the Lease
A lease should clearly spell out all the terms of the rental agreement. Both the property owner and the renter must sign the lease in order for it to be legally binding. Some common conditions included in a lease agreement are:
- The length of the lease period and conditions for renewal
- The amount to be paid and the frequency at which it should be paid
- Whether a security deposit is required and where the security deposit will be held
- Fees associated with late payments
- Responsibility for utilities
- Special stipulations regarding the upkeep of the property to be rented
- Conditions under which either party may opt to break the lease
- The consequences for violating the lease
Review Sample Lease Contracts
Before a property owner begins to write a lease agreement, he or she should take the time to review sample lease agreements to see how they are structured. A sample lease agreement can be found in several ways:
- Online searches will often turn up lease templates or sample leases.
- Visit an attorney and ask to purchase a rental agreement sample. Some attorneys are more than willing to sell blank copies of their paperwork.
- The property owner can ask friends or family with whom he or she shares a close relationship to surrender copies of their own leases for review.
Have an Attorney View the Final Draft of the Rental Agreement
No matter how straightforward a landlord may believe his lease contract to be, the words and phrases he labored over for clarity may come back to haunt him if he ever ends up fighting a former tenant in court. Legal clarity and standard clarity are two separate entities. Because rules can easily be misinterpreted or deconstructed entirely if they are not worded properly, having an attorney review a lease agreement before presenting it to a tenant to sign is simply a smart business practice.
Candice Edwards - Candice Gillingwater is a credit specialist and consumer advocate currently living in Georgia. Her goal is to educate the public about ...
