Walk It Through: The First Apartment
A lease signed at eighteen, a pet fee, a clause that gives up the deposit, and a year to year term.
Just after turning eighteen, a renter signs a lease for a first apartment alone.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One first lease. A cosigner, a sublease, roommates on separate leases and rent increases are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Notice periodThe time a landlord has to return a deposit: within 60 days of the end of the tenancy, or within 45 days of a new tenant moving in, whichever is shorter.
- Reasonable wear and tearThe ordinary decline of a rental through use, which is subtracted from any damage a landlord charges against the deposit.
- Security depositA refundable deposit a tenant furnishes to secure the terms of a rental agreement or as security for damage to the premises.
- Periodic tenancyA tenancy that runs from period to period, such as month to month. One shorter than a year may be ended by written notice for one full period before the end of a period.
- AgeIn the Human Rights Act, the age of 40 or above.
- Legal capacityThe power to make contracts, buy and sell property, sign legal documents and sue or be sued, which no one who has attained the age of eighteen years lacks because of age.