Renting & City Housing
The clauses that matter, the conditions a landlord must maintain, and how a tenancy ends.
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Renting & City Housing
Reading a Residential Lease Before Signing
A residential lease is negotiable before you sign and partly overridden by law afterward. This walkthrough covers each clause and flags the terms your state, not the landlord, controls.
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Renting & City Housing
Rent Control and Rent Stabilization: How the Systems Differ
Three different systems get called rent control. This explainer separates old-style hard ceilings, board-set stabilization with renewal rights, and newer statewide anti-gouging caps.
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Renting & City Housing
Roommates, Co-Tenants, and Who Owes the Rent
When several people sign one lease, each usually owes the entire rent rather than a share. This explainer covers co-tenants, subtenants, exits, deposits and roommate disputes.
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Renting & City Housing
Subletting and Assignment: Getting Permission Properly
Subletting keeps you on the lease and liable; assignment transfers the rest of the term. This how-to covers consent standards, the written request, refusals and the paperwork.
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Renting & City Housing
Bed Bugs, Mold, and Pest Infestations in Rentals
Pests and mold in a rental usually fall under the implied warranty of habitability and the local housing code. What you do first, and in writing, shapes every remedy that follows.
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Renting & City Housing
Heat, Hot Water, and Utility Shutoffs in Tenancies
Heat and hot water sit at the center of habitability law, but the temperatures, dates, and shutoff protections are set by your state and city, not by any national rule.
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Renting & City Housing
Renting With a Housing Voucher and Source-of-Income Rules
Whether a landlord may refuse a housing voucher depends on state and local law, not federal law. Here is how a voucher tenancy works and where the legal lines fall.
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Renting & City Housing
Illegal Units, Basement Apartments, and Certificates of Occupancy
An unpermitted apartment is one occupied without the zoning approval, permits, or certificate of occupancy the local code requires. The tenant's position varies sharply by state.
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Renting & City Housing
Lease Renewal, Non-Renewal, and Month-to-Month Conversion
A fixed term usually converts to a month-to-month tenancy unless someone acts. Notice lengths, just-cause limits on non-renewal, and rent increase rules all come from state and local law.
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Renting & City Housing
Breaking a Lease for Military Service, Safety, or Health
Some reasons for leaving early are written into statute rather than left to the landlord's goodwill. One is federal; the rest are state law and differ sharply from place to place.
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Renting & City Housing
Tenant Organizing and Retaliation Protections
Complaining to a code office or forming a tenant group is protected activity in most states, and an adverse action that follows too closely can be presumed retaliatory.
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Renting & City Housing
Storage of a Tenant's Belongings After a Move-Out
Property left behind is usually not the landlord's to keep or throw away. State statutes set the notice, the storage period, the cost recovery, and the sale procedure.