Tenant Resource Guide
Tenant Rights
215 articles9 sections10 state guides
Core rights, leases, and rent
- What Are Your Basic Rights as a Tenant?Start here You have the right to a livable home, fair treatment, privacy, your deposit back, and a court process before eviction. State law sets the deadlines and limits.
- Illegal Lease Clauses: What Your Landlord Can't Enforce Lease clauses that waive rights your state won't let tenants give up, like repairs, deposit rules, notice, or court, are void. The rest of the lease still applies.
- Rent Control Basics: How It Protects Tenants California, Oregon, and Washington cap yearly rent increases at 10% or less. How to tell if your unit is covered, local limits, and how to challenge an increase.
- Your Right to Rent Receipts and Payment Records States such as New York, Texas, and Washington require a rent receipt for cash, and some on request. See what a receipt must show and how to prove payment without one.
- Your Rights When Your Rental Property Is Sold or Foreclosed A sale does not end your lease, and your deposit moves to the buyer. After foreclosure, federal law requires 90 days' notice and lets most tenants finish their lease.
Repairs and unsafe conditions
- Bed Bugs: Tenant Rights and Landlord Obligations State bed bug laws make the landlord pay for inspection and treatment. You report promptly and prepare the unit, and you pay only in narrow cases.
- Constructive Eviction: When Conditions Force You Out Constructive eviction lets you move out and stop paying rent when the landlord makes a rental unusable, but you must give notice, leave promptly, and risk a lawsuit.
- Lead Paint in Rentals: Disclosure Rules and Tenant Protections For pre-1978 rentals, the landlord must disclose known lead paint and give you EPA's pamphlet before you sign. Repairs that disturb old paint need certified workers.
- Mold in Your Rental: Know Your Rights No federal law sets mold limits, but habitability rules and housing codes generally require landlords to fix mold from leaks and building defects. Report it in writing.
- Repair and Deduct: Fixing Problems Your Landlord Won't Some states let you fix a serious defect and deduct the cost from rent, with caps from $500 or less in Illinois to four months' rent in Massachusetts.
- Your Right to a Habitable Home: Implied Warranty of Habitability Your landlord must keep your rental safe to live in, with heat, water, sound wiring, and no infestations. Cosmetic flaws don't count, and notice starts the deadline.
- Can You Legally Withhold Rent? When and How Only where state law allows it, only for serious health or safety defects, and only after notice and time to repair. Texas bars it; Maryland uses court escrow.
Screening and discrimination
- Disability Accommodations and Modifications: Your Rights as a Renter Landlords must adjust rules for a disability and allow physical changes. In private rentals you pay for the changes; federally funded housing usually pays.
- Tenant Protections for Domestic Violence Survivors VAWA bars evicting survivors from federally assisted housing because of abuse. In any rental, states such as California and Texas let survivors end a lease early.
- Fair Housing: Protections Against Rental Discrimination Landlords can't refuse you, change terms, or advertise preferences based on race, religion, sex, disability, children, and more. File with HUD within one year.
- Service Animals vs. Pets: Your Rights in Rental Housing Landlords generally must waive pet rules and fees for trained service animals. Since May 2026, emotional support animal rights depend largely on state law.
- Your Rights During Tenant Screening and Background Checks Landlords can check your credit, rental, and criminal history. If a report leads to a denial, you get a notice, a free copy, and the right to dispute errors.
Privacy and quiet enjoyment
- Your Privacy Rights: When Can Your Landlord Enter? A landlord needs a valid reason and usually advance notice to enter, typically 24 hours in California and Maryland or 2 days in Washington. Emergencies need no notice.
- Right to Quiet Enjoyment: What It Means for Tenants Quiet enjoyment means your landlord can't seriously interfere with your home through lockouts, shutoffs, harassment, or abusive entry. Remedies include damages.
- Security Cameras in Rentals: Tenant vs. Landlord Rights Landlords can usually record video in shared areas but not inside your unit, and audio needs consent. Your own cameras are allowed within your lease and recording laws.
Retaliation and organizing
- Retaliation Protections: When Your Landlord Can't Punish You Landlords can't raise rent, cut services, or evict to punish repair requests, code complaints, or organizing. Protection windows run from 90 days to one year.
- Forming a Tenant Association or Union: A Step-by-Step Guide You can form a tenant association without your landlord's permission. HUD rules and laws in states such as New York, California, and Texas protect organizing.
State-specific rules
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Washington
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Texas
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Pennsylvania
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in New York
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in New Jersey
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Massachusetts
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Maryland
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Illinois
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in Florida
- Your Right to Habitable Housing in California
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