Landlord/ Tenant’s Renting Agreement and Negotiation

In particular, lease agreements generally stipulate that you as the tenant have examined the premises and found them to be in good condition. Well, that may be so, but go through the apartment or house with a magnifying glass before you sign on to rent it. Check all the light switches, make sure the stove works and the toilets flush, and point out every little ding that you can to your landlord. That way, when the time comes for you to leave, you won’t have to lay out cash for problems that weren’t of your doing. Likewise, walk through with your landlord after you’ve packed up and left. Although laws differ, in many cases the landlord has to document in writing those problems that compelled him or her to withhold part or all of your security deposit. So trail along with the landlord so that you know precisely what he or she is talking about.

Don’t be afraid to negotiate some of the terms of your lease. Whether you can do this is largely a question of supply and demand. If you live in an area where decent apartments are had only by the swift, you probably can’t dicker all that much about what’s in the lease if you don’t want it as is, there’s going to be somebody else who does. However, if your apartment rental market is a bit slower for instance, you visit an apartment you like whose want ad has been in the paper a couple of week the landlord may be open to revamping some of the provisions of the lease just to get a warm body in there. And don’t just focus on the monthly rent; if the security deposit seems prohibitive, ask your landlord to trim it. By the same token, if the landlord asks for a couple of months’ notice before you leave, see if he or she could see their way to making that one month instead.

Know your rights as a tenant. Although there are some federal fair housing laws in place, most statutes relating to tenants and renting are more localized. If you’re having a problem with your landlord or would just like to know what protections are in place, contact a local housing authority to see if it can fill you in on local rent laws. In some larger metro areas, there are also renters’ rights and advocacy groups around; these can prove an excellent source of legal ammunition should you need it.

Finding a central source of tenant information and associations isn’t easy, but your best bet may be at Tenant Net (http://tenant.net/main.html). While the site focuses primarily on New York City and State, it also provides some tenant information on other states.

Last, if you deal fairly with your landlord, you’re likely to get the same treatment in return. For the most part, landlords want to rent their property out without any hassles or headaches; so if you treat the place and your landlord with a certain amount of dignity, you’ll likely get along famously. That can come in pretty handy if you need to have your landlord cut you some slack. For instance, a landlord and tenant who get along well will agree on an early out from a lease a whole lot easier than two who are at each other’s throats. And, if nothing else, trying to get along with your landlord can take a good deal of stress out of your day-to-day life (one source interviewed for this book knew of a tenant-landlord relationship that was so horrific that, every time the landlord tried to show the apartment in hopes of forcing the tenant to leave, the tenant would cook fish so that the place would stink to high heaven. Needless to say, those sorts of annoying histrionics are usually unnecessary.)