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Renter's Rights

We offer a legal help service so you can protect your rights as a renter. Your landlord or apartment complex has certain responsibilities to you as a renter, including:

• Your rights under the Fair Housing Act
• Your right to a return of your deposit
• The obligation to maintain the property
• Proper access notification
• A legal eviction notice
• Notice of legal rent increases
• Elimination of health hazards

All states have different laws that protect tenants' rights. Below is a brief over view of rights of renter is some states.

Renters Rights in California.

Your rental must be habitable. In California, the laws make both the Tenant and Landlord accountable for keeping the rental in livable conditions. Your Landlord is legally responsible to fix and maintain the rental property so that the premises have acceptable conditions. California law is very detailed in outlining what the Landlord and Tenant are responsible for concerning repairs and maintaining the rental.

The Landlord's responsibilities to keep the rental livable include:

• Effective waterproofing and weather protection of roof and exterior walls, including unbroken windows and doors.
• Keeping all plumbing facilities in good working order, including hot and cold running water, connected to a sewage disposal system.
• Keeping gas, heating and electric systems, including lighting, wiring, and equipment facilities in good working order.
• Providing adequate trash receptacles.
• Keeping floors, stairways and railings in good condition.
• Providing safe fire or emergency exits leading to a street or hallway.
• Keeping stairs, hallways, and exits litter-free.
• Keeping storage areas, garages, and basements free of combustible materials.
• Providing natural lighting in every room through windows or skylights. Windows in each room must be able to open at least halfway for ventilation, unless a fan provides mechanical ventilation.
• Providing a kitchen with a sink that cannot be made of an absorbent material such as wood.
• Providing a working toilet, wash basin, and bathtub or shower. The toilet and bathtub or shower must be in a room which is ventilated and allows privacy.
• Providing working smoke detectors in all units of multi-unit buildings, such as duplexes and apartment complexes. Apartment complexes also must have smoke detectors in common stairwells.
• Providing operable deadbolt locks on the main entry doors of rental units, and operable locking or security devices on windows.

There are many more tenant laws that protect you, but, as a Renter, you have your fair share of responsibilities as well. LegalHelpLawyers can put you in touch with an experienced California Landlord-Tenant lawyer who can explain your rights and obligations as a tenant.

Renters Rights in Florida

Florida and federal law prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, familial status, and religion. Various local laws add prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of age, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation and other factors.

In Florida, a landlord may not:

1. Refuse to rent to you or sell you housing.
2. Tell you housing is unavailable when in fact it is available.
3. Show you apartments or homes in certain neighborhoods only.
4. Advertise housing only to preferred groups of people.
5. Deny you property insurance.
6. Refuse to make certain modifications or accommodations for persons with a mental or physical disability, including persons recovering from alcohol and substance abuse, and HIV/ADIS-related illnesses.
7. Harass, coerce, intimidate, or interfere with anyone exercising or assisting someone else with their fair housing rights.

A rental agreement provides for the rental of a specified place for a specific amount of time. In Florida, an agreement for a year or longer must be in writing or else it is invalid, but a shorter agreement can be either written or oral. An oral agreement means that you do not write anything down. If the agreement does not specify the rental period's length or how the lease will end, then the term of the lease is determined by the payment schedule. The landlord should specify all rules and fees that he plans to impose.

A written lease contains obligations for both the landlord and the tenant. Unless the lease says differently, the landlord cannot raise the rent during the term of the lease. But, unlike most oral leases, written leases usually commit a tenant to rent payments for a fixed amount of time, whether or not the tenant lives in the apartment. In Florida, a landlord does not have to make any special efforts to re-rent your place if you breach the lease by moving out early.

A written lease also minimizes disputes by recording both parties' responsibilities in writing. Therefore, it is important to read the lease carefully before signing and if any modifications are made both you and the landlord need to initial them.

The following clauses are not valid in a lease agreement in Florida:

Exculpatory Clause - This type of clause relieves a landlord from any liability resulting from a negligent or wrongful act committed by the landlord. The landlord may only free himself from liability from situations under the exclusive control of the tenant.

Automatic Forfeiture of Deposit - This states that the tenant will lose the whole deposit no matter what. If you move out early, then you will be liable for the uncompleted part of the lease, so your landlord may take what you owe out of your advance payment.

There are many more tenant laws that protect you, but, as a Renter, you have your fair share of responsibilities as well. LegalHelpLawyers can put you in touch with an experienced Florida Landlord-Tenant lawyer who can explain your rights and obligations as a tenant.

Renters Rights in New York

Virtually all New York leases require tenants to give their landlords a security deposit. The security deposit in New York is usually one month's rent. The landlord must return the security deposit, less any lawful deduction, to the tenant at the end of the lease or within a reasonable time thereafter. A landlord may use the security deposit: (a) as reimbursement for the reasonable cost of repairs beyond normal wear and tear, if the tenant damages the apartment; or (b) as reimbursement for any unpaid rent.

New York Landlords, regardless of the number of units in the building, must treat the deposits as trust funds belonging to their tenants and they may not co-mingle deposits with their own money. Landlords of buildings with six or more apartments must put all security deposits in New York bank accounts earning interest at the prevailing rate. Each tenant in New York must be informed in writing of the bank's name and address and the amount of the deposit.

In order to start a proceeding to evict a tenant, the landlord, or his or her lawyer, must prepare a petition requesting a court hearing, which must be served on the tenant and filed with the court.

Following appropriate notice, a landlord may bring a summary non-payment court proceeding to evict a tenant who fails to pay the agreed rent when due and to recover outstanding rent. A landlord may also bring a summary holdover eviction proceeding if, for example, a tenant significantly violates a substantial obligation under the lease, such as using the premises for illegal purposes, committing or permitting a nuisance, or staying beyond the lease term without permission.

To evict a New York tenant, a landlord must sue in court and win the case. Only a sheriff, marshal or constable can carry out a court ordered warrant to evict a tenant. Before a marshal may conduct an eviction, he or she must first request that the court issue a Warrant of Eviction. In New York City, city marshals and deputy sheriffs are the only public officers authorized to request a Warrant of Eviction from the court. A landlord may not take the law into his/her own hands and evict a tenant by use of force or unlawful means. For example, a landlord cannot use threats of violence, remove a tenant's possessions, lock the tenant out of the apartment, or willfully discontinue essential services such as water or heat.

Renters Rights in Arizona

Under Arizona law, your landlord has 14 days after you deliver possession of the premises and make demand to do one of two things:

1) Return your security deposit in full; or

2) Deliver to you an itemized written notice of the damages or unpaid rent to which the deposit has been applied, along with any remaining amount of the security deposit.

A landlord may not require a security deposit in excess of one and one-half month's rent.

Landlords may evict tenants for a variety of reasons, however, all eviction notices must be in writing. The amount of time a tenant has to either vacate the premises or fix the problem, if possible, is dependent upon the type of eviction. For example, if it is discovered you have an unauthorized pet, the landlord could give you 10 days to either vacate the premises or get rid of the pet. If the problem involves such things as criminal activity or threatening other residents or apartment staff, the required notice to vacate is 24 hours and there is no opportunity to fix the problem. Once an Arizona eviction notice is given, there is a very short period of time, sometimes as little as 2 days, before a trial may be held.

If you receive an eviction notice in Arizona, you are encouraged to seek legal help from a Renters Rights Attorney as soon as possible.