Byline Washington State Rental Agreement Made Easy

Alter lease

[Music] hello again everyone I'm attorney Robert fleshes before you enter into a residential lease agreement as a tenant or if you're a landlord drafting a rental agreement to give to a tenant you really need to watch this video I'm going to tell you about seven possible provisions that could be included in the lease that could be illegal rendering the entire lease void which means the lease isn't enforceable and if you find this video helpful please consider subscribing to my channel remember that every state has different landlord tenant laws but the seven contract terms that I'm going to discuss in this video are probably illegal in most states the illegal terms that I'm discussing do not impose criminal liability on the landlord first let's talk about the form of the lease many landlords download boilerplate leases from the internet in order to avoid paying attorney to prepare a valid and effective residential lease or to pay for a state-approved lease containing enforceable terms in many states there are vendors that will produce valid leases with all of the terms that are allowable in a particular state some boilerplate leases that a landlord can download for free on the internet contain illegal terms or terms that your particular state doesn't allow many times landlords actually add terms into the lease that they dream up on their own that are illegal or unenforceable for tenants instead of just signing a lease tenants need to read the entire lease not only to know what you're getting into but to see if there are any illegal terms the lease before signing it for landlords you need to review your state laws regarding tenant agreements so that a court won't void your lease if there's ever a dispute and you're relying on the terms of the lease to evict a tenant here are the seven lease provisions that are probably unenforceable in most states in most leases a landlord has a provision that any damage caused directly by the tenant or their guests or invitees imposes liability on the tenant well that provision is okay but a provision that makes the tenant liable for damage that arises clearly out of the tenants control is usually illegal for example let's see some kids are playing baseball outside your building one of the kids and not yours smacks the ball and it smashes your window kids playing baseball the premise this is something that you can't control and the resulting damage to your rental you and it was damage that you couldn't control either another lease provision that's usually illegal is when a landlord makes a tenant waive the landlord's statutory or legal obligation to deliver the rental unit in a fit and habitable condition or even maintain the premises for you so that landlords provision is attempting you to accept a beat-up uninhabitable unit or without the landlord having any liability for such a condition or a unit where the toilet doesn't...