Maintenance Tasks That Are Your Responsibility as a Tenant

Your basic duties as a tenant are to keep your home clean and sanitary, get rid of garbage properly, use the plumbing, electrical, heating, and other equipment the way it is designed to be used, and pay for damage beyond normal wear and tear that you, your household, your guests, or your pets cause. Florida, Washington, and California spell out these duties in their landlord-tenant statutes. Routine chores such as changing smoke alarm batteries or clearing a clogged drain become yours when your lease or a state law assigns them. A lease usually cannot hand you the landlord's duty to keep the home safe and livable, though Florida lets a written lease for a single-family home or duplex change it, and California, Texas, and Washington allow narrower written exceptions.

What state law requires every tenant to do

The three statutes overlap closely:

Each state adds its own items. Washington requires you to maintain the smoke alarm as the manufacturer recommends, including replacing batteries, to pay for extermination when you caused the infestation, and to return the unit in its move-in condition apart from wear from ordinary use. Florida adds a duty to keep yourself and your guests from unreasonably disturbing the neighbors. California's state tenant guide gives examples of improper use: overloading electrical outlets, flushing large foreign objects down the toilet, and letting a fixture become filthy. A California landlord can agree in writing to take over the cleaning and trash duties.

Damage by other people counts as yours. The California guide says you must repair damage caused by anyone you are responsible for, such as family members, guests, or pets.

Small tasks your lease can assign

Routine upkeep is mostly set by the lease. California's guide notes that a rental agreement can make either you or the landlord responsible for less serious repairs and that these agreements are usually enforceable. How the common chores work:

• Smoke alarm batteries. Washington makes battery replacement your job by statute. In Texas, unless a written agreement waives the landlord's inspection and repair duties, the landlord must confirm the alarm works when you move in and inspect and repair it when you report a malfunction you did not cause. The landlord does not have to provide batteries afterward if the alarm worked at move-in.
• Drain clogs. Texas allows a lease clause, underlined or in bold, that makes you pay for stoppages caused by foreign or improper objects in pipes that serve only your unit. The landlord still pays for backups caused by deterioration, breakage, roots, ground conditions, faulty construction, or malfunctioning equipment.
• Light bulbs and HVAC filters. None of the statutes above assigns these, so your lease controls. If it is silent, ask the landlord in writing who handles them.
• Appliances. Washington requires the landlord to keep the appliances it supplies in reasonably good working order, and Florida and Washington require you to use them properly. See repair responsibilities for broken appliances.
• Yard work and snow. In a house or duplex, the lease may make these yours; see who handles yard work and snow removal.
• Wall repairs. Nail holes and repainting raise their own deposit questions; see wall damage and painting rules.

What a lease cannot shift to you

Each state draws the line differently:

• California: you can agree to do some repairs and maintenance in exchange for lower rent. The state guide says the deal must be made in good faith, with a real rent reduction, and the landlord stays responsible for meeting state and local housing codes. A landlord cannot shift repairs to you partway through the tenancy unless you agree, and the guide says the rental agreement should then be revised in writing.
• Florida: a lease clause that waives your rights under the landlord-tenant law is void. In an apartment building, the lease cannot change the landlord's duty to meet building, housing, and health codes (or, where none apply, to keep the structure and plumbing in repair), but the duties to provide pest extermination, locks and keys, clean and safe common areas, garbage removal, and heat and water apply "unless otherwise agreed in writing." In a single-family home or duplex, a written lease can modify the landlord's maintenance duties.
• Texas: the landlord's duty to repair conditions that materially affect health or safety cannot be waived, except that you can agree to make repairs at the landlord's expense, or at your own expense only if the landlord owns just one rental home that starts the lease free of such conditions. At the start of the lease, the landlord must also have no reason to expect such a condition to arise or recur during the lease or any renewal or extension. Any clause making you pay must be written, underlined or bold, specific, and agreed to knowingly, voluntarily, and for consideration (something of value in return, such as lower rent). A clause meeting those rules can also make you pay for drain stoppages from objects, damage to doors, windows, or screens, and damage from windows or doors left open, unless the landlord's carelessness caused it. A landlord who knowingly uses an illegal waiver owes you actual damages, one month's rent plus $2,000, and attorney's fees.
• Washington: a written agreement can exempt you and the landlord from the statute's repair and tenant-duty rules only if it is not in a standard form lease, neither side has a substantially stronger bargaining position, it does not undercut the state's policy of safe and sanitary housing, and a county prosecutor, the attorney general's consumer protection division, or your own attorney approves it in writing.

What happens if you skip your duties

1. You pay for the repair. Florida, Texas, and Washington excuse the landlord from repairing conditions that you, your family, or your guests caused (in Texas, unless the condition is normal wear and tear). The California guide says tenants are responsible for repairing damage that results from their neglect or abuse.
2. You can lose your own repair rights. California removes the landlord's repair duty when your own failure substantially caused the unlivable condition or substantially interfered with fixing it, and you cannot withhold rent until you correct your part; a minor lapse does not end the landlord's duty. Washington gives you no defense or remedy under its landlord-tenant law for a defect caused by you, your family, or your guests, or when you unreasonably refuse the landlord access to make repairs.
3. Deposit deductions. Texas lets a landlord deduct damages and charges you owe under the lease, but nothing for normal wear and tear. California allows a cleaning charge only to bring the unit back to the cleanliness it had when you moved in. See normal wear and tear vs. damage for how the line is drawn.
4. A notice to fix it or move out. A landlord can treat a skipped duty as a lease violation:

Report problems early

Reporting problems is also your job. California requires you to tell the landlord when a deadbolt, window lock, or smoke or carbon monoxide alarm stops working. In Texas, the landlord's duty to repair a condition that affects health or safety starts only after you give notice to the place where you pay rent, and only if you are current on rent when you give it. Our guide to reporting maintenance issues covers what to put in a written request and how to keep proof that you sent it.