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Articles & Books From Laurence Harmon
Article / Updated 10-27-2023
Dozens of federal, state, and local laws govern the residential rental industry and the landlord-resident relationship. All of these laws are important. The following calls to your attention ten important laws for you to know and follow when you're a landlord.
The Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act prohibits you from discriminating against applicants or residents based on any of the seven protected classes:
Race
Color
Sex
National origin
Religion
Handicap
Family status
The Fair Housing Act establishes only the minimum protections.
Article / Updated 10-27-2023
How you choose to structure your business as the landlord depends in part upon your willingness to share its future and yours with others. Forming a corporation is a fairly complex legal endeavor that involves the following steps:
Choose and register a name for your corporation that complies with state requirements.
Article / Updated 10-27-2023
Residents often need or want to take on a new roommate, sublet the rental unit, or assign their rental contract to someone else. To deal with these types of situations, consider this advice when you’re a landlord:
Require that all prospective roommates be screened and added to the rental contract.
Prohibit residents from subletting their rental units.
Article / Updated 08-28-2023
The Internet is an exceptionally popular and productive medium for residential advertising, because many people begin their search for apartments online. However, posting advertisements and listings online is so easy that you need to be particularly vigilant in complying with fair housing law in all of your online advertising.
Article / Updated 07-10-2023
When landlords fail to maintain habitable and nuisance-free rental properties and fail to remedy serious issues raised by residents, several consequences may follow. However, for you to be held legally liable and for residents to have a right to take recourse, the following five conditions must be met:
The issue makes the resident’s premise uninhabitable or a significant threat to the resident’s life, health, or safety.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-20-2022
Being a landlord certainly sounds easy. All you have to do is line up responsible residents, maintain the property, and count your money as the rent rolls in, right? Actually, no. Owning and leasing residential real estate requires that you comply with a host of federal, state, and local laws. Certain residents may complicate your life by taking legal action against you or forcing you to take legal action against them.
Howdy, landlord! Get on the right side of the law with Dummies Landlord's Legal Kit For Dummies contains all the resources landlords need to unpack the legal side of renting properties. Inside you'll find worksheets, templates, and friendly explanations that will help you find success. Once you have your property and your tenants, you'll need to make sure you operate within your rights, complete all the necessary admin, and handle taxes in an accurate and timely way.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Landlord's Legal Kit For Dummies has more than 150 forms that can help make being a landlord easier. Following the law and making sure you're complying with legal developments can improve the odds of staying out of trouble and increase your probability of success with your income-producing real estate investments.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
As the landlord, you may think that changing the terms of a rental contract is necessary. But, when can you do that? When you and your resident sign a rental contract, neither party can change the terms of the contract except in the following situations:
You and your resident have a month-to-month rental contract, and you’ve given the resident notice of the change as required by your state.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The covenant of quiet enjoyment is a promise to residents that you, as the landlord, will protect the residents’ right to undisturbed use of the rental property. A nuisance is anything that a reasonable person would consider to be offensive or seriously annoying, in violation of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, including the following:
Foul odors
Intrusive neighbors (or landlords)
Loud noise or music
Solicitors
Smoke, particularly tobacco and marijuana smoke
Vibrations from nearby machinery
You have an obligation to your residents to prevent nuisances and eliminate any nuisances that you become aware of.
