Articles : The Secrets to a Great Lease Agreement

One of the most important aspects of renting property is having a good, ironclad Lease agreement. A Lease is a legal document and must contain certain necessary components. The Lease that you use should be easy to understand. This is often referred to as a "plain language" Lease. This indicates a contract that is not full of legal terms and hard to understand language but instead a contract that is clear, concise, and comprehensible to the average "Joe".

There are many obvious parts to a Lease as well as to any legal contract. There must be an offer (the rental property) and compensation (rent) and an agreement between two sides (Landlord and Tenant), which is evidenced by signatures usually at the end of the agreement.

There are also many unobvious components to a rental Lease. For instance, each state may have different sets of requirements. There may be clauses or an addendum that must be included. It is important to check with your states Attorney General's office or the Department of Real Estate. ezLandlordForms.com offers a great feature in their Lease building process called the "State Assist." The State Assist" provides you with the required clauses that are automatically inserted into your Lease while you create it. ezLandlordForms' State Assist also provides information required in your state through the entire Lease creation process.

Below is a list of ten of the very important parts of a good Lease agreement:

1. Names of all of the Tenants.
   
   
2. Number and limit of occupants.
   
   
3. Rent How much? How to pay? When to pay? Consequences for not paying.
   
   
4. Security Deposit How much? What it is used for? *Please note in some states there are regulations on how much security deposit may be taken as well as what kind of account it may be in.
   
   
5. Term of the Lease (Will you use a specified term such as MM-DD-YY to MM-DD-YY or perhaps go on a month-to-month basis?)
   
   
6. Repairs and Maintenance Who will be responsible for what?
   
   
7. Utilities Who will pay for what?
   
   
8. Restrictions What may or may not be permitted on the property such as pets, subletting, etc.)
   
   
9. Consequences What will happen if any term of the Lease is broken
   
   
10. Signatures and dates It may be wise to have your tenants initial all pages or even the more relevant parts of your Lease after you have explained it to them.