If you don’t want to find yourself trapped in a nightmare with your tenants, you need to make them sign a comprehensive lease agreement before they move onto your property. These agreements are important because they allow you to define your rights to the property, how it can be used, and what kind of action can be taken when tenants refuse to pay rent. If you don’t have all of the right elements of a lease agreement in writing, a bad tenant can force you through long legal battles or make you responsible for large expenses.
Ragan & Ragan can help you draft a custom lease agreement that protects you from all angles. You’ll rest a lot easier knowing that you have legal options when a tenant damages your property or violates the lease. Of course, a lease agreement protects you in many other ways…
How a Strong Lease Agreement Protect You
By helping you collect and present required disclosures
New Jersey law requires you to disclose a lot of information to tenants. For example, you are required to disclose if the rental unit is in a flood zone, or if lead was used in construction. It’s even necessary to disclose that the tenant has a right to window guards. Failing to disclose legally-required information can make you responsible for fines and make your contracts unenforceable.
By setting terms for you to access and inspect the property
In New Jersey, tenants are strongly protected from unwanted visits from their landlord. In fact, it can be very difficult to visit your property to assess how it’s being used by a tenant unless you create specific terms in your agreement that allow you to do so. You must preserve the right to timely inspections, but it’s important to work with an expert. These terms must still be compliant with laws that require a certain amount of notice before a visit.
By setting terms for the use of the property
Certain behavior will cause more wear and tear on a property, and you have a right, within reason, to control how a property can be used by your tenants. For example, you can ban the use of open flames in certain areas, or the use of cigarettes indoors because of the permanent smell. If you don’t spell out banned behaviors in your lease agreement, it can be very difficult to stop them later. It’s particularly important that you create a lease agreement so that you can state that you do not condone any illegal activity on the premises of your rental property.
Let Us Draft a Customized Lease Agreement for You
To protect yourself, you need an agreement that is compliant with all disclosure laws and sets fair terms for the use of the property. All lease agreements we create include the required information, and we can add the custom terms that make the agreement the perfect match for your property. Contact us about creating a lease agreement for you.