Landlords, do you write your own lease? (apartment, disclosure, tenant)

[sll3454]

Do you use a purchased form, a lawyer, or write your own?
How do you know you are meeting all state legal requirements?
Have you used legalzoom or rocketlaw for your forms?

[Bluecielos]

I bought a lease from Office Max and found that it was too generic and didn't apply to my state that well. So I wrote my own lease. I used the landlord tenant law for my state to get the statutes and saw what I could and could not do and then wrote my own. I also got a copy of a lease from my realtor and from a friend to get ideas.

It has worked well for me for about 3 years. I even had to take one tenant to court and it held up there.

But it is always a work in progress! The tenant I recently had to take to court to have evicted had taken to driving her truck on my lawn and parking it by her back deck (I have no idea why someone would do this, but that's another story). SO now there's a part in my lease that says vehicles are only allowed in the garage and drive way and if they are anywhere else on the property they will be towed. hehe Another example is when I had a tenant take out the engine of his car in the driveway and had tools and tarps all over the placefor days, so now my lease says that car repair can't be done in the drive way. Live and Learn!

[hobodbf]

I purchased the Residential Lease for my tenant from Staples. Only costs about $10. The packet is pretty comprehensive and is valid for all states, so it says.

[Ultrarunner]

They are free from my local Apartment Owner's Association...

My Rental Agreement started out as one page with a second condition and inventory sheet back in 1982/83.

Today, it is nearly 30 pages with all the government required disclosures about everything from Lead Paint, Meagan's Law, City Ordinances and Rent Control.

The Department of Real Estate also has a good form except isn't specific enough for areas with rent control.

The only time a Lease comes into play is when there is a problem... and that is not the time to learn your Rental Agreement is deficient.

[bentlebee]

I used one from my State and made a addendum that is about 10 pages and after every tenant it get's longer.......that is the only way to protect my self and my property and be fair to the tenant.

I have very high late fees for which the tenant is signing to acknowledge he is aware of it...with the last tenant it was profiting for me since he paid the late fees and never complaint about it, which makes it less annoying for me when a tenant is paying late....

I never had any tenant refusing to sign a lease due to high late fees, btw I just started to give a little discount for paying early... and it works...

[ShaneSA]

I bought a state and county specific lease on-line several years ago. I also learned from errors of omission and added things about cars, repairs, unlicensed cars, guests, etc. it is now 11 pages long and so far I and tenants are happy with it.

[Lacerta]

We created ours from other leases we had seen, and then modified it to fit with local law. We have been to court with it multiple times, and other than one thing that a judge told us we should ADD, we've never had a comment about any legalities in it. It meets everything stated in our Tenant/Landlord Guidelines from our state Attorney General, and the few laws that are actually on the books regarding rental properties in my state.

As others have said, it is constantly evolving. As I tell my tenants when they sign, "Everything in here is in here because someone tried it". Every time someone does something idiotic, another clause gets added to the lease.