Real Estate Investing Information Blog

A rental agreement is a contract, typically written, between the owner of a property and a renter who needs to have provisional possession of the property. As a minimum, the agreement identifies the parties, the property, and the term of the rental, and the amount of rent for the term. The owner of the property may be referred to as the lesser and the renter as the occupant.

A rental agreement is often called a lease, particularly when real estate is rented. In addition to the fundamentals of a rental (who, what, when, how much), a real estate rental may go into much additional detail on these and extra issues. The real estate may be rented for housing, parking a vehicle(s), storage, business, agricultural, institutional, or government use, or additional reasons.

• Who: The parties concerned in the contract, the lesser (occasionally called the owner or landlord) and the lessee (sometimes called the renter or tenant) is recognized in the contract. A housing lease may identify whether the renter is living alone, with family, children, room-mate, and visitors. A rental may define the rights and obligations of each of these. For instance, a "sub-let" to a stranger might not be permitted lacking permission of the landlord. This also applies to whether or not pets may be reserved by the renter. On the other hand, the renter may also have exact rights against intrusions by the landlord, except under disaster circumstances. A renter is in control of the property, and a landlord would be trespassing upon the renter's rights if admission is made without proper notice and authority (e.g., 24 hours' notice, daytime, knock first, apart from for emergency repairs, in case of fire, flood, etc).

• What: Rented real estate may comprise all or part of almost any real property, such as an apartment, house, building, business office(s) or suite, land, farm, or just an inside or outside space to park a vehicle, or store things. The premises rented may comprise not only exact rooms, but also access to other ordinary areas such as off-street parking, basement or loft storage, laundry facility, pool, roof-deck, balconies, etc. The agreement may identify how and when these places may be used, and by whom. There may be detailed explanation of the current condition of the premises, for judgment with the condition at the time the premises are surrendered.