Four Things to Know About Rental Agreements & Leases

1. Get help writing up your rental or lease agreement, especially if you are new to the business. You don’t have to hire help, you can find adequate standard agreements for sale in many office supply stores, book stores, and local government agencies or right here on Apartments.com. Sometimes the lender that financed your rental property may have materials you may use as well.
   
   
2. If you make changes in an agreement, make sure they are in writing and that everybody signs off on it.
   
   
3. Know the rules that relate to how a landlord may raise the rent if necessary, to deal with taxation or utility increases for example. Make sure that your agreement specifies what you can and can not do in writing.
   
   
4. Don’t try to put off potential problems by avoiding them. Rather, meet challenges with full transparency and full disclosure. This may help you avoid lawsuits relating to issues of non-disclosure later.