Legal disclaimer

The lease generator, forms, calculators, guides and landlord-tenant law pages on make.lease are provided for general information. They are not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice, and they are not a substitute for advice from a licensed professional who knows the facts of your situation.

MakeLease is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. No attorney-client relationship is created when you use the site, create a lease, read our content or email us. Messages you send to MakeLease are not privileged or confidential in the way communications with your own attorney would be.

Landlord-tenant law is mostly set by states, and it differs a great deal from one state to the next. On top of state law, many cities and counties have their own ordinances that add requirements, such as:

• rent control or rent stabilization limits on how much and how often rent can rise;
• just-cause eviction rules that restrict when a landlord can end a tenancy;
• security deposit rules, including caps, interest and return deadlines stricter than state law;
• required notices, registration, inspections or disclosures.

Federal rules, such as fair housing law and lead-based paint disclosure for older housing, apply as well. Always check the rules for the specific address of your rental property.

Our lease template is a general residential template you customize. The forms (notices, letters, addenda and checklists) are general starting points too. Neither is a state-specific legal document prepared or reviewed by an attorney for your situation.

Before you use a lease or form, review it and adapt it to your state and local law and to your property. You are responsible for the terms you choose, the information you enter, and for making sure the final document includes any clauses, disclosures or notice periods your jurisdiction requires and leaves out anything it prohibits.

Calculator results are estimates based on the numbers and assumptions you enter. They are not investment, lending, appraisal or tax advice, and they do not predict actual returns, cash flow, loan terms or tax owed. Check important decisions with a lender, accountant or other qualified professional.

Our landlord-tenant law pages follow a published process:

• each fact cites an official source, such as a state statute on the legislature's website;
• each fact shows a "last verified" date, the date we last read that source;
• each page shows a review label that says who checked it.

Unless a named attorney has reviewed a page, it is labeled "Researched and cited by MakeLease · not yet attorney-reviewed." Where we found no statewide statute, or where cities and counties set the rule, the page says so rather than guessing. Read the cited source yourself before relying on a fact, especially if the last verified date is not recent. The full process is in our editorial policy.

MakeLease provides the tool for signing a lease electronically and keeps an audit trail of each signature, including the signer's name, the time of signing, IP address and browser details. Whether a particular electronically signed document is enforceable depends on the applicable law, the type of document and the circumstances, including whether each party agreed to sign electronically. Some notices and documents have special delivery or signature requirements in some states. MakeLease does not guarantee that an e-signed document will be enforceable in every situation.

The generated lease PDF and the signature records are stored separately. Downloading the PDF does not produce a document with the collected signatures embedded or a certificate of completion.

Laws change, and courts interpret them in ways a summary cannot fully capture. We work to keep our content accurate, but we do not warrant that any information, template, form or calculation on make.lease is current, complete, error-free or suitable for your purpose. Use of the site is also subject to our terms of service.

If you spot an error, please email help@make.lease with the subject "Report an error".

A lease generator is a good fit for a routine rental. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state when:

• you are considering or facing an eviction;
• you have received a fair housing or discrimination complaint, or a tenant has threatened one;
• your property is in a city or county with rent control, rent stabilization or just-cause eviction rules;
• you are in a dispute with a tenant over the deposit, repairs, damage or unpaid rent;
• your situation is unusual, such as a commercial or mixed-use space, a sublease, or government-assisted housing.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, a local bar association referral service or legal aid organization may be able to help.