What a residential lease should cover
- Names of all landlords and tenants, and the property address
- Lease term (fixed-term end date, or month-to-month) and rent amount/due date
- Security deposit amount and the conditions for its return
- Who's responsible for utilities, lawn care, snow removal, pest control
- Pet policy, and any pet deposit or fee
- Occupancy limits and subletting rules
- Maintenance and repair responsibilities
- Rules on late fees, NSF checks, and lease termination
- Required disclosures (lead paint for pre-1978 buildings is federally required; many states add more, mold, flood zone, bedbug history, etc.)
Why we don't auto-generate a full lease
A lease is a binding legal contract, and the rules governing what's enforceable, required disclosures, deposit handling, notice periods, habitability standards, vary by state and sometimes by city. A generic template that's missing a required disclosure or includes an unenforceable clause can cause real problems later. For a document this consequential, we'd rather point you to reliable sources than generate something that might quietly be wrong for your jurisdiction:
- Many state real estate or apartment associations publish free, state-specific lease templates
- Your state's attorney general or housing authority site usually lists required disclosures
- A local real estate attorney can review a template once, cheaply, and you can reuse it
What we can help with: the pieces around the lease, rental applications, move-in/move-out checklists, deposit calculations, and maintenance request forms.