Lease Addendums and Amendments: What They Mean for You

A lease addendum is a separate page that adds terms to your lease, such as a pet agreement, a parking agreement, or a disclosure the law requires, while an amendment changes a term the lease already has, such as the end date or who is on the lease. During a fixed-term lease, your landlord generally cannot raise the rent, add a charge, or shift a cost to you without your agreement unless the lease already allows it, and some states limit the new rules a landlord can impose after you sign. Some addenda are mandatory, including the federal lead paint disclosure for housing built before 1978. Any change you agree to should be in writing and signed by the landlord and every tenant on the lease.

Addendum or amendment: does the label matter?

Not for how it binds you. Once signed, either document becomes part of your lease, and California's tenant guide notes that breaking lease terms can give a landlord grounds to evict. What differs is what the document does:

Read every page labeled an addendum for what it changes. One that adds a monthly charge raises what you pay each month even though the rent line in your lease stays the same. Our guide to understanding your lease terms explains the lease sections these documents add to or replace.

Can your landlord add rules or fees in the middle of your lease?

During a fixed term, generally not on its own. California's tenant guide says a landlord cannot raise the rent during the term unless the lease expressly allows increases, cannot raise the security deposit during the term unless the lease permits it, and cannot shift repair duties to you after you move in unless you agree, with the lease revised in writing. That repair arrangement also requires a genuine rent reduction, and the landlord remains responsible for compliance with state and local housing codes. Washington law bars any rent increase from taking effect before the lease term ends.

Several states also limit building rules adopted after you sign:

• Oregon: a rule must be reasonable, apply fairly to all tenants, and be given to you in writing. A rule adopted after you sign that substantially changes your bargain is not valid unless you consent to it in writing.
• Arizona: a rule adopted after you sign is enforceable only after you get 30 days' notice, and only if it does not substantially change your rental agreement.
• Washington: after 30 days' written notice, a new rule takes effect when your lease term ends, or sooner only if you and the landlord both agree.

If you and the landlord disagree about whether a rule is a substantial change, a court decides.

A month-to-month tenancy gives the landlord more room. In California, the landlord can change the terms with at least 30 days' written notice, and if you stay after the notice takes effect, the new terms become part of your tenancy (Civ. Code 827). Rent increases follow their own notice periods, covered in handling a rent increase at lease renewal.

If you decline a mid-lease addendum that requires your consent, your current lease continues without that change. Under Ariz. Rev. Stat. 33-1342(B), however, qualifying rules that do not substantially change your rental agreement can take effect after 30 days' notice without your signature. California's guide notes that a landlord cannot end a fixed-term tenancy while the lease is in effect unless you breach a term, such as by not paying rent.

At renewal, a landlord can propose new terms, and you can accept them, negotiate, or move out at the end date. New York rent-stabilized renewals are an exception: the renewal must keep the same terms as the expiring lease unless a specific law requires a change. In the state housing agency's example, a landlord could attach riders required by New York City's lead paint and recycling laws, but not a new $20 late fee or a no-pets rule.

Which addenda does the law require?

California's guide notes that its required disclosures often appear as addenda or attachments to the lease. Two of these change your rights directly:

• HUD tenancy addendum: its terms override any conflicting term in the owner's lease, and you can enforce it against the owner.
• Texas flood notice: if the landlord does not provide it and flood damage to your belongings costs 50% or more of their market value to repair or replace, you can give the landlord written notice of termination within 30 days after the loss. Under Texas Property Code section 92.0135(f), termination takes effect only when you surrender possession, meaning you move out and give possession back to the landlord.

For what the lead disclosure must include and what to do if you never received it, see lead paint tenant protections.

How to sign a change so it holds up

1. Get it in writing. California's tenant guide says an agreed change can be handwritten into the lease with you and the landlord initialing next to it, or the lease can be retyped with the new term and signed by everyone. An oral promise to change a written lease is hard to prove later; see verbal vs. written leases.
2. Identify the lease. List the landlord, every tenant, the unit address, and the date of the original lease, then state the exact term being added or replaced and the date the change takes effect.
3. State what stays the same. Add a line that all other lease terms remain in effect, so it is clear the change replaces only the terms it names.
4. Collect every signature. Have the landlord or its agent and every tenant on the lease sign and date it.
5. Keep a fully signed copy. Store it with your lease, and ask for the countersigned version if you signed first.
6. Bring in the housing agency if you have a voucher. The owner must give the agency a copy of any agreed lease change right away. A change in who pays utilities, a new lease term, or a move to another unit, even in the same building, needs agency approval and a new assistance contract, and the owner must notify the agency at least 60 days before a rent change.

Before signing a pet addendum, compare its deposit, pet rent, and rules with the limits in pet clauses in rental leases.