Every Landlord's Legal Guide

The legal forms and state rules every landlord and property manager needs

To keep up with the law and make money as a residential landlord, you need a guide you can trust: Every Landlord's Legal Guide.

From move-in to move-out, here’s help with legal, financial, and day-to-day issues. You’ll avoid hassles and headaches―not to mention legal fees and lawsuits. Use this top-selling book to:

• screen and choose tenants
• prepare leases and rental agreements
• avoid discrimination, invasion of privacy, personal injury, and other lawsuits
• hire a property manager
• keep up with repairs and maintenance
• make security deposit deductions
• handle broken leases
• learn how to terminate a tenancy for nonpayment of rent or other lease violations
• restrict tenants from renting their place on Airbnb, and
• deal with bedbugs, mold, and lead hazards.

The 16th edition is completely revised to provide your state’s current laws, covering deposits, rent, entry, termination, late rent notices, and more.

Comes With Access to Free Downloadable Forms: includes access to more than 30 essential legal forms including a lease and rental agreement, rental application, notice of entry, tenant repair request, security deposit itemization, property manager agreement, and more. IMPORTANT NOTE: You DO NOT have to pay more to use the downloadable forms—please see Appendix B in the book for the link to and instructions for using the downloadable forms that come with the book.

ISBN-13: 9781413329759

Media Type: Paperback(Sixteenth Edition)

Publisher: NOLO

Publication Date: 05-31-2022

Pages: 544

Product Dimensions: 8.40(w) x 10.80(h) x 1.20(d)

Marcia Stewart is the coauthor of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home, Every Landlord's Legal Guide, Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants, First-Time Landlord, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Leases and Rental Agreements, Renters' Rights, and The Legal Answer Book for Families. Janet Portman, Nolo's Executive Editor, oversees editorial work on all Nolo books, articles, and websites. She specializes in residential and commercial landlord/tenant law, legal issues related to courts, and criminal law. She is the author or a coauthor of Every Landlord's Legal Guide, Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants, First-Time Landlord: Your Guide to Renting Out a Single-Family Home, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Renters' Rights, Leases & Rental Agreements, The California Landlord's Law Book: Rights and Responsibilities, and California Tenants' Rights. Portman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University and a law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. Before joining Nolo in 1994, she practiced law as a public defender. Ann O’Connell is a legal editor at Nolo specializing in landlord-tenant and real estate law. Before joining Nolo as an editor, Ann was a freelance writer for Nolo and other publications and law firms. She has passed the bar exams in California, Nevada, and Colorado, where she is both an active attorney and a real estate broker. Ann practiced civil litigation in California and Colorado, and had her own firm in Colorado. At her firm, she focused on real estate, landlord-tenant, and small business cases. Ann earned her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from UC Berkeley Law.

What People are Saying About This

Joe Catalano

"Tips on how to screen and choose the best tenant, write a lease and hire a trustworthy property manager."
— Joe Catalano, Newsday

From the Publisher

"Complete, detailed, accurate, practical, easy-to-understand and superb.... Every residential landlord in all 50 states should be required to read this outstanding book and to keep it handy for reference."
Los Angeles Times

"…the bible for landlords."
–Chicago Tribune

"Start with... Every Landlord's Legal Guide.... You are now equipped with the information needed to be Trump, the Landlord."
-San Francisco Examiner

Robert Bruss

"On my scale of one to 10, it rates an off-the-chart 12."
— Robert Bruss, nationally syndicated columnist

Table of Contents

1. Screening Tenants: Your Most Important Decision 2. Preparing Leases and Rental Agreements 3. Basic Rent Rules 4. Security Deposits 5. Discrimination 6. Property Managers 7. Getting the Tenant Moved In 8. Cotenants, Sublets, and Assignments 9. Landlord's Duty to Repair and Maintain the Premises 10. Landlord's Liability for Tenant Injuries From Dangerous Conditions 11. Landlord's Liability for Environmental Health Hazards 12. Landlord's Liability for Criminal Activity 13. Landlord's Right of Entry and Tenants' Privacy 14. Ending a Tenancy 15. Returning Security Deposits and Other Move-Out Issues 16. Problems With Tenants: How to Resolve Disputes Without a Lawyer 17. Late Rent, Terminations, and Evictions 18. Lawyers and Legal Research Appendixes A. State Landlord-Tenant Law Charts B. How to Use the Interactive Forms on the Nolo Website Index