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Updated over 14 years ago on . Most recent reply

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120
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Sean Gallagher
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Millsboro, DE
7
Votes |
120
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When making the rental contract, need help, codes etc

Sean Gallagher
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Millsboro, DE
Posted

Every state, im pretty sure, has their own landlord/tenant code book correct? So say you have rentals in de, pa, va, md, you have you buy a landlord/tenant code book and read them front to back and understand the do's and donts of all those states before making a contract or even starting a rental to do it right. I have delaware's code book and the way its worded is a little tough to understand at times but im doing my best to comprehend, the important parts like max to charge for security deposit, when youre able to have a late fee, how much it can be, when to evict how to execute this.. Its all very complicated so I may have to read it front to back a few times.

My question is how many of you actually do this? My girlfriends mom has been renting for awhile and their landlord never gave them a short summary of the landlord tenant code book which is stated in the book that they should recieve one, do any landlords on here do this?

Trying to avoid problems in the future for my first rental, i know most tenants dont have money to bring lawyers in and pick the landlord apart but thats no reason to slack in areas i could get into trouble for.

I guess I could find a contract already written and modify it to best suite my rental.

Most Popular Reply

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13,451
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Steve Babiak
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Audubon, PA
8,349
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13,451
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Steve Babiak
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Audubon, PA
Replied

Even within a single state there can be great variation in what is required. For example I have rental property inside Philadelphia and in the Philadelphia suburbs. Philadelphia has far more in the way of requirements to meet.

And there are many layers that have to be accomodated as well, What I mean here is that, there will be federal level requirements (Lead Based Paint disclosure document for pre-1978 construction), there is state level stuff (in PA for example, we have to use a plain language lease - no legalese), and then there are local requirements (Phila has their own Lead Based Paint disclosure, and a tenant handbook that the landlord has to give to the tenant as a couple examples here).

I would venture to say that having one lease document that is universal throughout all states might be a tough thing to come up with, and you'd certainly have to include things that would be considered extraneous in some areas (because they are required things in a few locations).

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