In order to protect tenants from abusive landlords or rental practices, most states and municipalities have enacted regulations. While these regulations are great, they won’t help you unless you know what they are and how to use them to your advantage. Tenant laws cover vary significantly from state to state and municipality to municipality. By familiarizing yourself with you’re the laws that apply to you and the homeowner you will be in the best position to defend yourself from malfeasance.
A renter’s security deposit is one of the most significant items that tenants and landlords argue over. Most residential leases and rental agreements require that the tenant provide the landlord with a deposit to protect the landlord against damages or failures to pay. The deposit is often quoted in numbers of months of rent (for instance, two-months’ worth of rent) and the landlord holds that deposit until the lease agreement is terminated and the landlord agrees that all payments have been made.
For some renters (such as those with poor credit), the security deposit may be significant (six-months rent or more). As too many renters have found, landlords may simply keep the deposit, citing damages that are either normal wear and tear or that existed before the tenant established residence.
Your respective state or municipality may have regulations that impose limits on the security deposit or otherwise work to protect tenants from abusive practices. They may also have stipulated that a lease agreement must be accompanied by a document of inspection, which identifies damage to the property that exists at the beginning of a lease (signed by both the lessee and lessor). Regulations may also stipulate how disputes are settled or limits on when the deposit must be returned to the renter.
Another issue that renters face is unjust eviction. While the landlord may have the right to evict a tenant in certain circumstances, those circumstances are not universal. Landlords can’t just evict tenants at will. They must follow proper procedures and timelines in order to evict a renter. Renters should understand the regulations pertaining to them to determine when an eviction has complied with the procedures and when it hasn’t. Fighting an illegal eviction notice is worthwhile, but fighting a proper eviction could cost you thousands of dollars.
These are just two examples of regulations that renters should familiarize themselves with so that they are treated fairly and justly. However, you can’t determine whether something is unjust or illegal unless you are familiar with the regulations that apply to your specific situation.
January 25th, 2012 at 3:57 pm
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