28+ Sample House Rental Agreement

What is a House Rental Agreement?

A house rental agreement is a written document that tenants need to sign before they could live in a house that they would want to rent. It is an agreement between the tenant and the landlord about all the things that they have to follow about the rental of a particular property. This contract may last for a certain number of months or even a year. Some may not have a particular timeframe but mostly have a renewal yearly. There is a short term rental agreement and long term rental agreement. The contract is drafted by the landlord. It was their assurance that they would be paid with the rent and their property will be taken care of. They cannot rely on verbal agreement in these times. There are a lot of fake people these days that would just run away with their rents. But if they have a contract, they could have something to hold against their tenants. A house rental contract can be in free rental agreement forms or templates or the landlord can simply make one for their property in a Word file. It is usually a one page document containing the terms about the lease or rent. This may be in the form of a letter or can have some short clauses. Home rental nowadays has become formal that you cannot rent without a property rent agreement.

Tips on House Rental Agreement

As many people do renting these days, tips on house rental property should be considered. There are common tips that we can find on the internet. Some of these are:

Consider your rental as a business. Do not underrate the way that you earn money with your rental property. Consider it as a business. If you do that, you will be more careful with it. Be professional and always use a house rental agreement. Treat it as a business so always screen your tenants before deciding to let them rent your property. To have a good business, follow all the laws regarding tenancy. Make the tenancy agreement comply with all the possible laws that could govern it. You would also have no legal problems if you would follow the law.You can search for tenants online. Advertise your property in the internet. Go with the flow of technology and you will see that you can get tenants faster. Majority of renters now search online to get a house or an apartment. Do not be left out. Take a good photo of your property and list it on sites like Trulia. Make your rental listing appealing. Have a good shot of every corner of the rooms of your property. Include the details that the renter would want to know in a place that they would rent. Highlight the best features of your property. Do the good ways of selling. Anyway, you are somehow selling your property. If you can make your listing attractive, you can attract good rent payers.Hire a rent manager. Maybe you are overwhelmed with all the dealings that you have to do to make rentals on your property. You can resort on having a property manager that can help you. It is a good investment. You can save your time and you will not experience the hassles of getting tenants, collecting the rent, and handling all tenant’s issues. You just can sit and relax and have your income with your property. Your rental business can also be done more professionally if you will hire a property manager.Have a reasonable price for rental. Make your rent price right. Consider the actual price that you can set with the property that you have. If your property is costly because it is new, you can have a high price. But if it is old, set a lower price. Do not overprice your property. Be considerate to the tenants. You can do good to them and you can also do good to yourself. No one would rent an overpriced apartment. Rental agreement for house should contain a reasonable price.Have a screening process for tenants. You should screen your tenants before letting them to rent your property. A simple question and answer would not do. You should somehow investigate further. Ask them questions that would somehow reveal their personality. You must know whether they are bad or good. You are entrusting your property in their care so you have to be sure that they would take care of it. It is better to screen your tenants first than to be sorry afterwards when they run away with paying the rent. Tenant screening will make you to find qualified renters. You should know whether a tenant has criminal history or whether they have a good background in renting.Take good care of good tenants. Keep good renters. If you could find tenants that are good in paying or do not make late payments, take good care of them. Be nice to them always and show full respect. These days, there are also rarity in good tenants because it is so usual that payments happen to be late. But if the tenant always pay in full and they have a good attitude towards you, you can consider them good tenants also. You can also keep them if you want. We should be considerate in the needs of others because we do not live alone in this world. We have to be good to others. Take care of your tenants and they will pay you in good terms in exchange. They would also take care of your houses.Save money everyday to be able to pay the rent. If you are a tenant, you have the obligation to pay the rent monthly. Paying could be hard sometimes especially if you earn only a little amount of money. To be sure that you can keep your payment on time, you can save a little every day and you will never know that you will be able to earn your rent in full for a couple of days. Divide your rent to 30 and do everything to save that amount of money everyday. Slowly, you can accumulate the money that you need. You would not be faced with the problem of finding the money to pay the rent at the end of every month. Save in advance and you can pay on time always.Review the rent agreement before renting. Before committing, you must read the whole house rental agreement carefully first. Be sure that you agree with all the terms and conditions that are written on it. Know if you can follow all the responsibilities that it conjures. If there are things that you do not like, you can talk to the landlord about it. They can alter the agreement if possible. In this case, it is better that the both of you will talk first about everything so that both of you will know what could be placed in the house rental agreement. Agree first on certain things concerning the rental. When everything was done, it is also essential that you review the document before signing it.The landlord and the tenant should talk always. Have an open communication between you and your landlord. Things like repair and maintenance happen once in awhile, so you have to have an open communication with each other. Be friendly with each other so when a problem arise, it would be easier for the both of you to talk about it. The landlord can inspect their property by asking the tenant how it is going in a nice way. Tenants could tell whatever problems they have encountered to the landlord every time they were about to pay their rents. Both of you can talk for awhile. You can talk about the neighborhood and you can talk directly about your concerns with the house. Keep an open line to solve every problem easier.Consider the safety of the place. Safety of places must be the first that a tenant should consider in searching for a house to rent. Choose an apartment in a place that is not famous with robbers. You might also want to consider open places. Avoid dark places as that is prone to bad things or incidents. Look on the house if everything was properly installed. Search if the walls and roof are durable. You cannot live on a somehow broken place. It would be dangerous for you and your family. First thing that you have to be sure of is the safety of the house that you are going to rent.Follow all the regulations within the agreement. Whatever the landlord and the tenant have agreed upon, they must follow. All the rules and regulations that they have put in the agreement they must comply with. So put rules that both of you can do easily. Do not break the contract. Pay on time. Take care of the house. For the landlord, pay for the repair if you have agreed on it. Do not evict the tenant for unreasonable things. Be good to each other. You will somehow do business for a couple of months or years so the landlord and the tenant should have a good relationship.

How to Write a House Rental Agreement

If you are a new landlord, you must be faced with the difficulty of creating a contract for your tenant. You can try these steps on writing a house rental agreement:

Step 1: Identify the parties that are going to sign the agreement.

Include the name of the renter that is going to live in the property. Add their contact information. Then mention your name and put the address of the property that they will be renting. You can put whether the house is an apartment or bungalow, or whether it was one-storey or two-storey. Do not forget the number of the house. Be accurate in identifying these things.

Step 2: Put the duration of the tenancy.

Check with a lawyer about the terms of short rental agreement and long term rental agreement. Know the rules about the termination of the agreement. You may want your property to be rented for three months or a year. You should put that in the agreement. If you do not trust the tenant yet, you may consider having it rented for only three months, more or less. But if you are decided on a tenant because you find him good, you can make a rental for your property for a year. Then just renew it every year. 

Step 3: State your rent price and security deposit.

The rent price must be clearly stated in the contract. It is the amount that they are going to pay every month. This price must be a fair price. There is also a security deposit that a tenant should give at the beginning of his tenancy. This security deposit would be the advance payment if ever tenants would come to pass on their rent.

Step 4: State all the things that can be included in the agreement.

Certain things like electricity, water, cable, gas, and other utilities can sometimes be included with the rent price. There are landlords who give this kind of package especially in some apartments. You must fairly include it in the agreement if you can add those things. If tenants would have to pay you for the electricity and water, you must clearly state it in the agreement so at the end of the month, they will pay it together with the pay for the rent.

Step 5: Give rules about pets and damaged property.

Some landlords would not want pets to be brought to their property. They simply just cannot take it because they think that pets could ruin their property. If tenants have pets, they must tell their landlord about it. And about damaged property, you must clearly state which of you will be going to pay for its repair. It happens sometimes so you better agree about it.

Step 6: Have a place for your signatures.

The house rental agreement should be properly signed. Above your printed names, the landlord and the tenant should put their signatures. This will make the agreement formal. This way, you can bring the case to court if ever a dispute happens someday.

FAQs

Can I Restrict the Landlord From Raising My Rent?

No, you cannot restrict landlords from raising your rent. It is their right to increase the rent price anytime that they want. Actually, rent control is illegal. Landlords can do everything about their property. It is legal for them to raise your rent.

Do I Need to Have a Copy of the House Rental Agreement?

In most cases, the landlord is the only one who has the copy of the house rental agreement. But if you want a copy, you can tell your landlord about it. Request a copy and they might give it to you. Sometimes it is good to have your own copy so you can refer to it in the future.

Are you a tenant? You must be sure that you are renting a property that has a house rental agreement. You can avoid the chance of forced eviction if you will have a contract. And if you are a landlord, it is better to secure a house rental agreement to protect your rights for your property. This kind of contract benefits both the landlord and the tenant.