Landlord and Tenants: Roles and responsibilities

In this article, I am going to examine the nuts and bolts of duties and responsibilities of landlord and tenants which come under the landlord-tenant law in the United States. According to the real property law in the U.S., both landlord and tenant have different duties and responsibilities towards each other. Landlord and tenant roles and responsibilities vary state-to-state in the U.S. Mutual duties of landlord and tennat include signing a contract that details the terms of renting and amount of the rent payment due. This agreement is signed to determine the terms of tenancy for the landlord and tenant. Let’s now have a detailed view of landord and tenant responsibilities separately.

Landlord responsibilities:

After signing the rent agreement, it is the primary duty of landlord to handover the physical possession of the property to tenant. After handing over the possesion of property to tenant, landlord can not anytime enter the premises according to his wish. Landlord has to give 24 hours prior notice before entering the premises.

It is also the responsibility of landlord to make his residential property good enough so that it has basic necessary things on it which are required for human habitation. According to the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment, a tenant has all the rights to enjoy the premises without any disturbance from landlord. Tenant screening is also another important responsibility of landlord as per landlord-tenant law.

Tenant responsibilities:

I will start with basic responsibilty of the tenant that is to pay rent to the landlord on time as specified in the rent agreement. Another responsibilty of tenant is to keep the premises in a good condition. Both landlord and tenant should decide in the rent agreement what repairs will be made by tenant to keep the premises in a good condition. Tenants have full right of privacy.

Another duty of the tenant is to return the property to landlord in the same condition in which he received the property. And at the end of tenancy, landlord is liable to return the security amount to the tenant.

To conclude, both landlord and tenant have their own rights and responsibilties which are necessary to avoid any conflict in the future. Although, basic laws in all states are same but they differ slightly state-to-state in the U.S. These rights and responsibilities have been figured in federal laws, state laws, and a many court decisions.