Common Lease Clauses
Explained Simply
Pick a clause and your city - get a plain English guide specific to your location and state law.
Early Termination Clause
What happens if you need to break your lease before it ends. Fees, notice periods, and your rights by state.
Holdover Clause
What happens when you stay past your lease end date. Many landlords can charge 150–200% rent.
Security Deposit Rules
How much can be charged, what it covers, and when you must get it back - specific to your state.
Pet Policy Clause
Pet deposits, breed restrictions, and what ESA (emotional support animal) laws mean for your rental.
Rent Escalation Clause
When and how your landlord can raise your rent during the lease term. Fixed vs CPI-linked increases.
All Lease Clauses
Browse every clause guide we've published - 15 and growing - including maintenance, late fees, notice to enter, subletting, and more.
One Rule.
Sixteen Answers.
A deposit cap in one city is no cap at all in the next. Every guide on this site opens with the chart for its own clause, built from the statutes themselves.
Your City. Your Rights.
Tenant laws vary dramatically by state and city. Pick your city for guides written specifically for where you live.
Understand Anything
in Your Lease
No lawyers. No fees. Just clear answers specific to your state and city.
Pick Your City
Select your city from our list of covered locations. Every guide is specific to local and state landlord-tenant law.
Find Your Clause
Choose the lease clause you want to understand. We explain what it means, what's legal, and what to watch for.
Know Your Rights
Plain English explanation, red flags to watch for, and exactly what you can do if a clause is abused.
Checkable, Not
Just Confident.
Legal writing online asks you to take its word for things. Every claim here points at something you can open yourself.
Statutes, Not Summaries
Every figure on a guide - every cap, deadline and notice period - is checked against the state’s own published statute before the page goes live. Where the state publishes it online, the citation links straight there.
Real Clauses From Real Cases
The sample lease wording we decode is quoted from published court opinions, and we tell you what the judge decided about it. The opinion is linked, so you can read the original rather than trust our summary.
Where We Stop
This is research and explanation, not legal advice, and we are not a law firm. What a clause means for your lease depends on your full document and your state - for that, your state’s tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney is the right next step.