Introduction: Your Landlord Companion

• Library: Every Landlord's Legal Guide (Nolo) (2020 Ed.)

Introduction: Your Landlord Companion

Whether you own one rental property or a hundred, you want to run a profitable business, protect your investment, and avoid legal hassles. Your success depends heavily on knowing and complying with dozens of state, federal, and local laws. Fortunately, you don't need a law degree—just this book.

We'll take you step by step through everything from accepting rental applications to returning security deposits when tenants move out. Learn how to prepare a lease, handle repairs, and deal with tenants who pay rent late, make too much noise, or cause other problems. This book covers not only straightforward procedures (such as how to legally reject a prospect) but also advises you on how to deal with more complicated situations (like what to do when a tenant threatens to withhold rent until you make certain repairs). This book also provides:

State-specific legal info. Use the book's comprehensive State Landlord-Tenant Law Charts to find your state's laws on: security deposits, required landlord disclosures, rent withholding, how to handle abandoned property, unconditional quit terminations, and much more.

Legal forms and letters. This book includes dozens of forms, letters, notices, checklists, and agreements for you to use in your landlord business. Each form is easy to complete and has comprehensive instructions. You'll find filled-in samples in the text and downloadable forms on the companion page for this book on the Nolo website (see below for details). With these forms, you'll be able to create your own rental applications, leases, letters to tenants on issues such as repairs, security deposit forms, termination forms, and much, much more.

Getting Expert Help Throughout this book, we'll alert you to situations in which it's wise to get expert help beyond

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