Top 5 Red Flags All Tenants Should Avoid

Leases can be difficult to understand because they use complicated legal language, detailed clauses and are often lengthy.  Did you know the average lease is over 30 pages? Just reading your lease can easily take 2-3 hours, but actually understanding it could require you to read it multiple times, taking up your whole afternoon.  This can make it easy for you to miss a detail or hard to figure out exactly what you're agreeing to. Despite all this, it is extremely important to get to know your lease.  

To make it easier and more convenient, upload your lease to a tenant empowerment platform like www.leasewisely.com to get a summarized and re-formatted version of your lease highlighting key information by breaking it into smaller sections to help you focus and understand it better.

Although it is important to read your lease, it is equally important to know what to look for.  Many leases have “Red Flags” that can be identified before signing.  Read our list of the “Top 5 Red Flags” to look for in your lease and then upload to the LeaseWisely platform to see if your lease has anything to be concerned about.

1. No Digital Lease

Lack of an electronic copy of your lease can create several issues for a tenant, such as document accessibility, landlord transparency, and risk of miscommunication.  Digital documents are standard practice and preferred for convenience, record-keeping, and storage.  It will also make it harder for someone to alter the lease without proper procedure.   

2. Excessive Administrative Costs, Penalties & Late Fees

Watch out for unreasonable or hidden fees for late payments, maintenance, or lease breakage.  All fees and costs should be easy to find and understand in your lease.  Burying costs in ambiguous clauses is not the way to start a healthy and positive resident experience.

3. Verbal changes, agreements, or extra fees not documented in the lease

Your lease is a valid legal document with enforceable terms and conditions once signed by both parties.  It is meant to protect both the landlord and the tenant, so if it is not included in the lease, it is not enforceable.  Make sure anything agreed upon throughout the negotiation or move-in inspection is documented in your final rental agreement or you risk losing that end of the deal.

4. Restrictions on Basic Rights

Clauses that infringe on your privacy or limit legal rights should raise alarms.  Remember, you have rights that protect your financial, mental, and physical health.  Make sure to understand any clauses that do not align with state laws and feel confident to ask about policies that make you uneasy, like landlords entering without notice.

5. Automatic Renewal Without Notice

Leases that auto-renew without a clear opt-out process can trap you in another term if you miss a date resulting in a costly mistake.  Leases should offer you direction on the Renewal and Notice to Vacate process including key deadlines, communication, and the outcomes of each scenario.  If you choose to sign a lease with an auto-renewal, add the notification dates to your calendar with alerts so that you have time to make a decision and only choose to renew if it is your desire to do so.