General Landlord and Tenant Questions

Articles - FAQs

• What is a lease or rental agreement?
• The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
• Landlord’s Liability for Dangerous Conditions on Rentals
• Can a tenant ever terminate their legal obligations of a lease during its term?
• Can a tenant refuse to let an agent onto property after receiving 24 hours notice? The lease does not cover the issue.
• I am a long-time (15-year) renter in an apartment house. There have been yearly increases over the years but this year the owner wants a whooping 25% increase! Can this happen?
• I have been paying rent on a home owned by my mom for the last 16 months. There is no rental agreement between us. Now she wants to evict me and has threaten to bring the marshalls if I don’t remove myself and belongings in 1.5 months. Can she do this?
• The signout sheet given to me by the manager of our apartments following a walkthrough indicated everything was fine except for dusty blinds. The landlord, however, now wants to charge for dusty blinds and pet odor. There was no mention in the walkthrough or on the signout sheet of foul pet odors. Can they do this?
• We signed a year’s lease on a rental unit for our college-bound son, with the understanding that his roommates would pay their share of the rent. One roommate left without paying his third of the rent. The landlord has filed eviction papers and we are expected to pay the unpaid rent. How can we get out of this lease?
• What is "repair and deduct"?
• Who is a landlord?
• Who is a roommate?
• Who is a tenant?
• The Joys of Being a Renter—Paying Rent in Advance and Noisy Neighbors
• Who is a subtenant?
• Rent Payments When Owner Stops Paying the Mortgage
• What can happen in an "unlawful detainer (eviction) action"?
• If a tenant has been gone for over 6 months and not paid rent, can I re-rent the apartment?
• What happens to the security deposit at the end of the lease?
• With the owner's permission, I've lived in a trailer on his ranch property for over 25 years. Do I now own the land on which the trailer sits? What's the law on squatter's rights?