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Real Estate Law

Real estate property is generally defined as land and the things permanently attached to the land. Things that are permanently attached to the land, also can be referred to as improvements, include homes, garages, and buildings. Substances that are beneath the land (such as gas, oil, minerals) are also considered permanently attached. Other items which can be attached to the land, such as mobile homes and tool sheds, are not considered to be real property.

Know your rights when you rent a house or apartment.

  • Bring your paperwork

    The best way to win over a prospective landlord is to be prepared. Bringing the following information when you meet prospective landlords will give you a competitive edge over other applicants: a completed rental application; written references from landlords, employers, friends and colleagues; and a current copy of your credit report.

  • Review the lease

    Carefully review all of the conditions of the tenancy before you sign on the dotted line. Your lease or rental agreement may contain a provision that you find unacceptable -- for example, restrictions on guests, pets, design alterations, or running a home business.

  • Get everything in writing

    To avoid disputes or misunderstandings with your landlord, get everything in writing. Keep copies of any correspondence and follow up an oral agreement with a letter, setting out your understandings. For example, if you ask your landlord to make repairs, put your request in writing and keep a copy for yourself. If the landlord agrees orally, send a letter confirming this.

  • Protect your privacy rights

    Next to disputes over rent or security deposits, one of the most common and emotion-filled misunderstandings arises over the tension between a landlord’s right to enter a rental unit and a tenant’s right to be left alone. If you understand your privacy rights (for example, the amount of notice your landlord must provide before entering), it will be easier to protect them.

  • Demand repairs

    Know your rights to live in a habitable rental unit -- and don’t give them up. The vast majority of landlords are required to offer their tenants livable premises, including adequate weatherproofing; heat, water, and electricity; and clean, sanitary, and structurally safe premises. If your rental unit is not kept in good repair, you have a number of options, ranging from withholding a portion of the rent, to paying for repairs and deducting the cost from your rent, to calling the building inspector (who may order the landlord to make repairs), to moving out without liability for your future rent.

  • Talk to your landlord

    Keep communication open with your landlord. If there’s a problem for example, if the landlord is slow to make repairs -- talk it over to see if the issue can be resolved short of a nasty legal battle.

  • Purchase renters’ insurance

    Your landlord’s insurance policy will not cover your losses due to theft or damage. Renters’ insurance also covers you if you’re sued by someone who claims to have been injured in your rental due to your carelessness. Renters’ insurance typically costs $350 a year for a $50,000 policy that covers loss due to theft or damage caused by other people or natural disasters; if you don’t need that much coverage, there are cheaper policies.

  • Protect your security deposit

    To protect yourself and avoid any misunderstandings, make sure your lease or rental agreement is clear on the use and refund of security deposits, including allowable deductions. When you move in, do a walk-through with the landlord to record existing damage to the premises on a move-in statement or checklist.

  • Protect your safety

    Learn whether your building and neighborhood are safe, and what you can expect your landlord to do about it if they aren’t. Get copies of any state or local laws that require safety devices such as deadbolts and window locks, check out the property’s vulnerability to intrusion by a criminal, and learn whether criminal incidents have already occurred on the property or nearby. If a crime is highly likely, your landlord may be obligated to take some steps to protect you.

  • Deal with an eviction properly

    Know when to fight an eviction notice -- and when to move. If you feel the landlord is clearly is the wrong (for example, you haven’t received proper notice, the premises are uninhabitable), you may want to fight the eviction. But unless you have the law and provable facts on your side, fighting an eviction notice can be short-sighted. If you lose an eviction lawsuit, you may end up hundreds (even thousands) of dollars in debt, which will damage your credit rating and your ability to easily rent from future landlords.

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Landlord Rights

  • Offer and advertise vacant units for rent.
  • Screen potential tenants.
  • Select the tenant who is to reside in the rental unit.
  • Determine the terms of the rental agreement, including: how much rent to charge the incoming tenant (within lawful limit); whether to allow pets; etc.
  • Collect first month’s rent and security deposit.
  • Landlord has a right to petition for additional rent increases.
  • Enter the rental unit under the following circumstances:
    • In an Emergency
    • To make necessary or agreed upon repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supply necessary services, or show the unit to prospective buyers, tenants, or workers; when a tenant has abandoned or given up the premises; as a result of a Court Order.
  • Initiate eviction proceedings for the following reasons:
    • Non-payment of rent.
    • Failure to comply with a material term of the lease.
    • Tenant causes or allows damage to the unit and refuses to pay for the damage.
    • Tenant refuses to sign a new lease which is substantially the same as the old lease.
    • After notice to cease, the tenant continues to be disruptive as to destroy the peace and quiet of other tenants.
    • Tenant refuses to allow access to the landlord who has a legitimate reason to do so.
    • To make needed repairs which cannot be completed while the tenant resides in the unit.
    • Owner seeks in good faith to demolish the rental unit and has received all permits to do so.
    • Owner seeks in good faith to recover possession of the rental unit to occupy as his/her principal residence or the principal residence of a parent or child, and there is no vacant or comparable unit otherwise available.
    • The owner or lessor wishes to recover a subletted unit which was previously occupied as his/her principal residence.
    • Tenant refuses to vacate temporary housing provided while repairs were being completed on tenant’s unit.
    • Owner wishes to permanently go out of the residential rental business and has followed all the procedures required by the ordinance to do so.



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