Tenants: What You Need to Know

Renting a space to live can be an exciting milestone in life. However, difficult landlords in the rental market are not uncommon. In the rental market, knowledge is power. Knowing your rights as a tenant can save you from bad leases and some major headaches.


Envision the apartment of your dreams. Hardwood floors, natural lighting, stainless steel appliances, en suite bathrooms, complete with a laundry room in your unit. You’ve toured it. You love it. It’s yours for the leasing. Move-in day arrives, you move in your last box, sit down on your couch, and that’s when you hear it. You moved in next door to a loud heavy metal band with what sounds like a wolf howling nonstop.


What do you do? Who do you call? You just signed a one-year lease (we hope you read it before signing). What are your rights?

Your rights are dependent on federal laws, state laws, and local laws, but here are the basics of tenant rights:

The Right to Fair Treatment & No Discrimination

A federal law called the Fair Housing Act states that landlords must treat each tenant fairly and cannot “discriminate against current or prospective tenants on the basis of their race, gender, familial status, religion, ethnicity, national origin, or disability.”

The Right to a Habitable Home

Landlords must rent you a house or apartment that is safe to be lived in. You have the right to have hot water, running water, electricity, and a space that is free from infestations of pests and rodents. City ordinances also usually require certain quiet hours and provide a non-emergency number to call if noise is a problem during these hours.

The Right to Timely Repairs & Maintenance

Your landlord must maintain the rental property described in your lease terms. The landlord has the option to repair the problem or can ask you to correct the problem, provide a receipt, and have that amount deducted from your rent. If you, the tenant, refuse to repair the problem, the landlord is still required to fix the problem in your unit.

Security Deposit Rights

The majority of landlords require a security deposit before a lease is complete. The security deposit is used to pay for any repairs or cleaning needed at the end of your lease term. Additional deposits may be required by the landlord for pets and other liabilities. Your security deposit rights include the right to be informed of how your security deposit is used when your lease ends and how quickly remaining deposit amounts are returned. Check your state laws and local laws for more on your security deposit rights.

The Right to Privacy

Every tenant has the right to privacy in their rented space. A landlord should always give advance notice (24 hours) of entering the premises for repairs, safety checks, and pest control.

Every tenant also has reasonable rights to personal information privacy. However, landlords do have the right to conduct a background check and credit check before leasing. They also have a right to enter your property in case of an emergency and to show your unit to prospective renters (if advanced notice is given).

Read more..

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Domestic Violence from a Former Prosecutor’s Perspective

Image
Domestic Violence calls are some of the most dangerous to carry out in an officer’s commitment to protect and serve. Early in my career, I served as a prosecutor for several towns in New Jersey and regularly would have to handle domestic violence cases.  Many times, by the time they came to see me the parties had calmed down and one or both, wanted to drop the charges against the other and “forget the whole thing”. I would think to myself that I was getting a very well-behaved version of the two or more people in front of me.  They had time to process whatever made emotional to the point of lunacy in some cases.  They had time to ponder the issue and the result of the police being called.  Now they were scared and wanted to sweep it under the rug. But when people act irrationally and violently, even if they get the chance to calm down later, there is a price to pay.  That price is often unanticipated. I remember a young New Jersey trooper five years ago who was
Read more

Faith, Family and a Return to Brown County

Image
It was the spring of 1995. I was a twenty-four-year-old seminary student driving up Route 68 through Paris and Maysville, Kentucky, headed for Brown County and an interview to become the Pastor of Decatur and Mount Olivet United Methodist Churches. Growing up in the shadows of Atlantic City, the Big Red Machine was all I knew about the area. When I first turned my car onto Russellville-Winchester Road, those who have become so dear to me and I, myself, had no idea that the first meeting would be so important.  That night my destination was Richard “Butch” Arn’s house. Butch had agreed to be the head of the search committee for the new pastor. I was to meet with him and his family before we headed to meet the rest of the gathered faithful.  Butch is one of the greatest men I have ever met. Still, I wonder if he would have even opened the door on that night if he knew that only three years later, in June of 1998, I would marry his daughter and leave with her to return to my n
Read more

I Was Called as a Juror, Now What?

Image
  You might look back on childhood and fondly remember how exciting it was to receive mail. Well, as an adult, the correspondences you receive are typically not that thrilling. One of the most dreaded pieces of mail you might get is a summons for jury duty. This is when you are called to serve on the jury of an upcoming trial. If this is the case for you, don’t panic. There are simple steps to ensure that your experience is successful or that your excuse for not attending is submitted effectively. You need to respond to your summons in an expedient manner. Failing to reply can result in jail time. If you have a conflict that prevents you from serving during the specified dates, you can request your service to be postponed or explain why you do not have the availability to serve at all. Excusable reasons include, but are not limited to, lack of childcare, medical issues, student status, military conflict, or financial hardship. Fill out the proper forms that have arrived with your
Read more