Basic landlord laws in US

If you’re a landlord and you want to protect your real estate investment, you need to have the knowledge that relates to all the state statutory and common laws governing the landlord-tenant relationship.

In the US, most of the laws were based after Model Residential Landlord Tenant Code or on Uniform Residential Landlord And Tenant Act. The legal basis of the tenant- landlord relationship is grounded on the following:

• Property law
• Power of the contract

Landlord laws recognize the differences of residential leases from commercial leases. That’s because of the risk of an unequal bargaining power that the residential lease has over a commercial lease.

Other than that, below are some of the most basic landlord laws in the United States:

1. As the landlord gives the keys to the tenant on the property being rented or leased, the property becomes the tenants’ especially when it’s a commercial property.
2. A landlord may only enter the premises of the property when emergency arises.
3. The statutory law upholds the tenants’ enjoyment; it is in fact a covenant that ensures his or her occupancy will not be disturbed by the owner of the property or by anyone who has a superior legal title to the property.
4. Housing codes make sure that the rented properties are habitable when a tenant is renting it. Otherwise, the tenant should not pay the rent.
5. The tenant has the duty to pay the rent unless the state laws say otherwise.
6. If rental price provision is absent, state statutes will dictate or set the reasonable rental value.
7. A landlord may quickly evict its tenant under summary eviction statutes if the tenant violates the specified lease statutes.
8. Landlords can recover monetary damages on an unpaid rent. Only the state statutes may dictate or define what methods will be used to obtain the unpaid rent.