As a renter, it’s essential to comprehend the major state and federal laws that affect your rights and responsibilities. You can be a better and more informed tenant by knowing these laws. This can get you to have the best experience and avoid issues with your landlords someday. Here are a handful of the most important laws you should know about as a renter:
- Warranty of Habitability. Even though it goes by different names in different states, usually implied warranty of habitability laws are state laws made to guarantee that your rental unit is livable. In most states, this specifies the rental home meets certain minimum standards for things such like heat, water, and electricity.
- Choosing a Tenant. State and federal laws provide landlords the right to choose their tenants. However, the laws likewise point out that a landlord’s decision must be based on creditworthiness, income, or history. They cannot decline to rent to someone predicated on things namely skin color, religion, sexual orientation, familial status, and disability.
- Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act is a federal law that stops landlords from discriminating against tenants based on protected characteristics such as race, religion, gender, national origin, and disability. This law was enacted in 1968 and grants renters who really feel discriminated against because of one or more of these characteristics to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), regardless of which state they live in.
- Limiting the Number of Children. Under the Fair Housing Act, a landlord cannot refuse to rent to a tenant based on how many children the tenant has. The law moreover specifies that a landlord cannot disallow children from using outdoor or common areas.
- Service Animals. Under federal laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, service animals are entitled to a reasonable accommodation, and landlords cannot solely forbid nor can they charge an additional pet fee or raise the rent on the account that you have a service animal. But on the other hand, landlords can require that a service animal is vaccinated, licensed, and registered according to all state and local laws.
- Discriminatory Advertising. HUD’s federal Fair Housing Act also states that landlords cannot use discrimination in their advertisement of a rental property. Take one example, publishing an ad stating that the landlord will not rent to single adults, people of a certain age, or won’t allow wheelchairs are all cases of discriminatory advertising.
- Security Deposits. There are laws as to how a Denton property manager must handle your security deposit. In the majority of cases, the law allows a landlord to collect and then hold your deposit and perhaps utilize it to carry about repairs if you are negligent and damage something while staying in the house. There are federal limits established on how much a landlord can charge for a security deposit – that is furthermore defined by state law.
- Illegal Lockouts. Though there is no one federal law that makes locking out a tenant prohibited, laws in every state expound the legal eviction process that makes locking a tenant out of their rental house a crime. Eviction is a legal process that will have to be complied with correctly, or the landlord risks having the court rule in the tenant’s favor.
If you’re seeking a Denton rental home and property manager who understands and will adhere to all tenant-landlord laws in Texas, Real Property Management Lakeview is who you can depend on. Browse our listings online to find your next rental home!
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
