Residential Lease Agreement Clauses Explained: Key Terms

[00:00:00][Music] hi I'm Harvey Blanco the Brown Blanco group Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of Nevada and we want to thank you for choosing the brown Blanco group for your real estate needs we have prepared this video for our clients so they better understand the documents we use and while we don't review every section of the document we do try and clear up some of the most relevant concerns we are recording this video in March of 2020 if you're watching long after that date there are likely changes that have taken place with this document and this video may have some parts that are outdated also know that we operate in Southern Nevada and these forms are specific to our market while you may be able to glean some value from this video please know that no two markets operate exactly alike and finally I need you to know that I'm not an attorney and none of what I'm saying should be interpreted as legal advice the residential lease agreement this is a document provided by our local board Las Vegas Realtors for us to utilize to create an agreement between the tenant and the landlord here in Southern Nevada so let's just get right into the document you can see of course it's titled residential lease agreement the next line has the address of the property being leased and then the the parties involved first this lease was prepared on the 1st of March in 2020 and then the owners are here mr. and mrs. homeowner and then the tenants are listed here mr. and mrs. tenant oops then the premises again is identified here as 74 75 West hired that was to be our office I'm just using an address it tells the tenant with parking space they can utilize also the term of this agreement is usually about a year in this case we're going from March 15th when the ten is going to move in until the end of March next year the grand total of their entire term will be $12,500 that's every month's rent including that half month that they're leasing this March the tenant agrees to pay without demand to the landlord total one thousand dollars per month on the first day of each calendar month rents due with the first okay and it will be sent to our office in this case excuse me now the first line here in the numbers is the first month and a half's rent so you've got the March 15th through April 30th so they're gonna pay $1,500 and then they'll be paid through the end of April they're also going to put in a thousand dollar security deposit they're gonna put a $50 key deposit they've already paid an 80 dollar application fee but then they're gonna put in an additional $500 pet deposit and a $350 cleaning deposit so there's lots of deposits applied to this this is monies that will be utilized I should have become necessary at the end of their tenancy this shows that the $80 is already paid these are the balances do this is the total amount they're paying to move in right here and this is the balance do it before they actually do move in now at the bottom of each page you're gonna see the address of the property that they're leasing the owners names and the tenants names and then the tenants will initial at the bottom of each page right by their name okay only the tenants need initial at the bottom of each page okay now we're going through 14 pages this page one of 14 so bear with me the next page we have any additional monies that might be due it's a rare occurrence but every now and then there might be additional of fees due for a various personal items or perhaps involved in the transaction let's get on to additional fees late fees and you met the tenant fails to pay when their rights to the tenant shall pay a late fee of 5% oh and that just applies on the second day recently Nevada changed the rules and so the landlord's found it necessary to shorten the amount of time late fees are initiated in order to accommodate the fact that it's capped at 5% so this in this case rent is due the first it's late or the second and 5% will be added should it be late dishonor checks if you write a bad check as a tenant it's going to be $50 you also could be subject to criminal sanctions as well it's a possibility that the criminal sanctions or penalties for the issuance of a check which you knew were based on insufficient times could be a problem for you as well additional rent so whenever you have a bed check a bed charge a bad check charge or any other fees that are added to your rent as a result of problems all unpaid charges or any fees owed by 10 including but not limited notice fees addiction fees three fees whatever it is will become additional rent at the beginning of the month after the tenant is built so if this month you don't pay on time next month that 5% will be considered additional rent so so if you don't pay the full amount the following a month you're gonna be late again so just know that whenever there's additional fees make sure you get them cleared up if there's a mistake and sometimes we do we make a mistake if there's a mistake we'll clear it up for you if not you've got to pay that full amount the following month security deposits the security deposit will remain in a separate trust account but remember the security deposit shall not be applied to or in lieu of rent the security deposit is not your last month's rent the screen positive to use for anything that becomes damaged above and beyond normal wear and tear anything that the tenant is responsible for the kiss damage that security deposit can be applied to that as well now the security deposit rules are very strict we're gonna follow NRS 1/18 rules and we're gonna make sure that we follow all those rules and how we distribute the security deposit at the end of the tenancy but just know that it's it's never the landlord's objective to take to scary deposit it's never objective to do that we'd love to return the entire thing to the to the tenant just depends upon the condition of the property okay moving on to page 3 the condition of the property tenant agrees by signing this that they've already examined the property and it's in good repair it's in good good condition trust accounts the broker shall retain all interest earned if any on the security deposits to offset administrative fees there are no interest payments on our trust accounts we get no interest off of those the eviction costs should there need to be an eviction the tenant should we charge 350 now that's an administrative fee of above and beyond the actual fees it cost to post notices and everything so it's 350 just to start with so don't get involved with an eviction here we're talking about some of the items that will be included with the property we've got 2 door keys we've got 2 mailbox keys we got a garage transmitter we had other things here we would add them in as well and they could be monies could be deducted from the key deposit should these things not be returned at the end of the agreement as well conveyancers and uses tenants shall use the home as a single-family home a single-family residence it should not be used for business it should not be used for things that are unsanitary or things other than just your basic home so just and you have to not be a nuisance to your neighbors also that's important occupants in this case we have three people living in the home that mr. mrs. Tennant and their child moved to all their full names in this spot guests now this is the this as I call this the flophouse clause the tenant agrees to pay $50 per day for each guest remaining on premises for more than 14 days if you have people staying for more than 14 days you need to let the landlord know and they're probably would waive this if it's a special circumstance if somebody's hurt or they need help or whatever they're probably going to waive this but if it's a if it turns out to be something becomes a long-term problem then we may want to add them to the lease and in that case we want to you know do some vetting of that extra person who's living in the property utilities utilities are a side as possible normally all the consumption-based utilities would be paid by the tenant and then in this case we've decided that the the owner will be paying the trash and the sewer in this case the owner is also going to be paying for a pool service in this case but everything else is basically the the cost goes to the tenant at the bottom of the page again the address the homeowner the 10 if the tenants need to initial the bottom of this page as well the tenant is responsible to connect those utilities if you don't connect those utilities in a reasonable amount of time they're gonna get shut off and then you're not gonna have water electric or gas you're just not gonna have it the landlord won't maintain the connection of those consumption-based utilities for you just won't do it it's not smart it's better that it be in your name back actually better the being your name anyway it should be something that you want to maintain and help improve your credit and maintain your strong credit no additional phone calls or cable lines without permission of the landlord don't add stuff to the home and you're gonna see there's a clause in here basically says don't do any major improvements on a property without written permission from the landlord alarm system is this you're welcome to use it and then if look if the utilities if we do default when the utilities we could decide to re-implement utilities and then just bill you for it if we have to it's not gonna be our first choice but we need to have a zero balance when you move out that's really important now we have the special clause in here because certain jurisdictions in Southern Nevada treat water & trash differently when you live in North Las Vegas or Henderson they become part of your water bill therefore we make them a tenant responsibility we don't want to have to break up that bill so if you live in North Las Vegas or Henderson your bills gonna be a little bit bigger as a result of that because you're gonna be also paying for the trash and sewer excuse me tests notice this basically says that in the sum of the matter we have pests there's all kinds of things going creepy-crawly around our valley here just know that if you move in within the first three days and you see an issue with pest let us know and we'll have a spray done we'll have a pest control company go out and do some remediation of the pests and put some spray down but then after that first one you're going to be responsible to maintain the property and continue that service going forward pets no pet shall be on the premises at any time without written permission of landlord when you submit your application you should also submit a pet approval to to go along with that if you have a pet normally we hold another five hundred dollars per pet as additional deposit because pets can do damage to the property if you have a pet in the house that you didn't make us aware of it's a thousand dollar fine immediately and then we reserve the right to decide whether I do get to keep the pet but if it only that's only after we've already collected a thousand dollars so don't do that don't bring a pet into the house and not let us know about it really really important excuse me restriction is tennis shall not keeper permit or keep on the premises water beds boats campers trailers mobile homes recreational commercial vehicles or any non operative vehicles you can't work on your car in the driveway or on the property in any way alterations this is what I was talking about before you can't make any major changes in a property without permission of the landlord or us the property managers default failure by you the tenant to pay rent to perform any obligation under the agreement or comply with any Association government governing documents if there's an HOA document and you don't follow that that could be considered a default upon default the landlord may at its option terminate a tenancy so that becomes part of it then the next thing it happens is you end up forfeiting your security deposit if you default any personal property could be forfeited as well and so and then in terms of collecting a bad debt if it turns out that you still owe money after the security deposit deducted then whatever lost right is not cooperate 'add the landlord reserves the right to submit it to a company for collection which means sharing your personal information including social security number with that collection company in order to make that collection don't let that happen don't don't don't make the landlord or us collect funds after the fact any failure by the landlord this is enforcement any failure by the lamo to enforce any terms of the agreement or not constitute a waiver of that if we decide or the landlord decides hey listen we understand why you did that in we're okay with it doesn't mean you can do it again in the future or anything else you do is okay too so that's what that means abandonment if if at some point we're fearful that the property's been abandoned and you've been gone for a period time more than 15 days in this case and not paid rent that we can consider the property abandoned and that creates a whole other host of issues for us if at any time the tenant does abandon the property depression have the following rates the landlord may at the Lando's option and the premises and and again super damages basically hopefully covering it out of security deposit but I mean he may dispose also may dispose of any abandoned personal property pursuant to the battle law which means yours we give notice but then that property is is disposed of if you are gonna leave if you are gonna leave just let us know give us 30 days notice 30 days prior to the end of the under the lease you can't give 30 days notice at any point your lease is for a year you need to stay for the year if however at the end of the lease you don't talk to us and we don't get an answer from you as to whether night you continue you want to continue leasing beyond that first year your rent will automatically go to a month a month rent and increase by 10 percent so make sure you do talk with us about your intentions at the end of the first term if you want to extend for another term great if your intend to move out great just let us know so we're aware and we can make the appropriate moves necessary upon termination of the tenancy you're gonna surrender to vacate the premises remove all your personal property return all the keys and other items back to us as well and also leave the house in good clean and sanitary condition normal we're accepted and in case of emergency there's phone numbers here for you to contact in our particular case it's always good to use the portal our ability in portal which you should have access to you can use that to pay your rent and you can also use it to let us know about issues that are coming up at home if it isn't a murder to see however put it in the portal but also call us and let us know hey I just had our hot water heater just broke and we need some help and we'll get we'll get on it right away maintenance this is an interesting section in that basically you need to report any damage to the property you need to let us know anything that's going wrong and you take good care of the home it also has our non I call the non frivolity clause basically the tenant shall be response for any minor repairs necessary premises up to including $75 so that's just to prevent tenants from calling us every time they forget to or they clog a toilet or something you know what take the plunger out get the toilet clear make sure it's okay when you're done if that's the case fine if not for $75 we'll send someone out there then take care of it for you the tenants shall change the filters change those air filters every month that's what the lease says that's what we expect you to do if you don't do it on a regular basis the air conditioning can be harmed that air conditioning is harmed as a result of your not changing those filters out you're gonna be held responsible for the cost to repair that system any broken glass is a tenant expense period no matter what the cause was unless the landlord threw a brick 3.0 doesn't happen I'm just kidding landlords will for all systems including the heating cooling electrical plumbing and sewer basically all the major systems the landlord is responsible for they wouldn't expect you to replace or repair those systems as long as they're not abused okay in this case we don't have a landscaping contractor involved that's pretty normal because landscaping is going to be pretty basic just trimming and and blowing of leaves and things of that nature if there's a pool contractor in this case we do have a pool contractor involved there's this pool there's the pool contractors name and number how to get in touch with him but you still have to do basic maintenance on the pool don't count on the contractor to do every single thing make sure you do the things on a daily basis necessary if the pool gets filled up with leaves and right after he's been there please get those leaves out of the pool so it doesn't damage the filter smoking will not be permitted on the premises we don't allow smoking in any of our homes none no smoking no smoking of anything in any of the homes you want to smoke go outside smoke detectors the smoke detectors are going to be installed they're gonna be properly working when you move in you need to maintain them at the bit they start beeping replace the battery check out see what's wrong make sure that they're still working and also we would recommend that you get a fire extinguisher for the property keep a fire extinguisher around just in case keep it somewhere near the kitchen because that's the place where most fires end up starting you should never remove smoke detected detection device I think that goes without saying the tenant agrees to grant the landlord right to enter the premises at reasonable times and for all reasonable purposes with 24 hours notice the landlord can enter unless there's an emergency the no lender can enter on short notice if necessary also excuse me the display of signs you're allowed to display during the last 30 days the landlord can display a sign in the yard and also show the property to new prospective tenants now the tenant needs to sign off on that lockbox agreement in order to make that happen but that's something this Agreement says that the tenant will do so give the landlord the ability to lease the property at the end of your tenancy I know it's kind of a pain in the neck and normally we'll try to work with you as best we can but but with this agreement the landlord is given the right to to post a sign and have have prospective tenants see the property in the last 30 days of your lease associations remember you are responsible to the Association if you break any of the rules of the Association you will be accountable for any of the fees or fines that are billed to the landlord they'll be passed on to you and paid and paid by you and add it to rent should you not pay them in a timely manner they'll be added to the ring inventory simple this is the stuff that's included with the home these things are marked make sure when you move in that these are appropriate that you do have a dryer there is a dryer there that there is pool equipment that you do have auto garage drovers that these things are all in the home and that you have that because when you leave they should still be there tenant acknowledges to any appliances that are on-premise are for the tenants use and convenience however in the event of a break down set appliances 10 acknowledge that the property manager landlord are not responsible to any damages caused the tenants personal property if the refrigerator breaks go get a cooler and get your food in the cooler the landlord or the property management company will not be responsible for spoils of that food just just keep that in mind insurance you are required as a tenant excuse me people are required as a tenant to procure renters insurance get it it's not that expensive it's going to cover all your personal property in the home it'll also it'll also cover some indemnify you against other issues as well if you have a pet that could be a risk to other people you're going to want that included in your renters insurance and we're also letting you know that the homeowner does have homeowners insurance but that home insurance doesn't cover your stuff that covers the building it doesn't cover your stuff which is why you need to have insurance drug-free housing I don't think I need to explain this clause just don't be doing illegal activities related in the property any kind of illegal activities for that matter additional responsibilities you may install or replace screens at your own expense if you're going to install solar screens you need written permission that would be a major change of the property with the exception of electric cooking devices outdoor devices need to be at least 10 feet away from the building the premises in this case has not been freshly painted and has not been touched up this is a designation that's important so when you move in as a tenant I want you to take a lots of pictures make sure you make make a record of anything you see that's not quite right and then the landlord at that time could decide to take care of it for you or just make it noted on your move-in checklist so that there's a notation when you move out oh yeah that scratch was already in the wall and so there's no question about we're not you're responsible for that make sure you transfer utilities to landlord or broker no less than three business days of vacating the premises locks may be replaced or Rokita at your expense however you got to provide us with a replacement key as well and if you do that without letting us know you'll have to pay additional monies for us to hire a locksmith to make it right you're welcome to conduct any risk assessments particularly related to lead-based paint or any other hazards that might exist you're welcome to do as much of that as you like you may display the flag of the United States you may display political signs you have to check with the HOA first also on political signs sometimes they are restricted but most time they're okay dangerous materials you shouldn't keep any day's materials on the property any changes to this lease agreement must be in writing conflict between the Lisa adventures an addendum to this lease and there's a conflict between the addendum and at least the addendum will govern the end of the document written after the lease will override the lease attorneys fees if there's a lawsuit the loser is going to pay everybody's attorneys fees on the battle law this is written in the state of Nevada under Nevada law nothing containing here shall be construed as waiving any of your rights or the landlord's rights if part of this contract was deemed invalid it would not invalidate the whole thing violations of provisions a single violation by a tenant of any the provisions agreement shall be deemed a material breach and cause for termination look if there's something going wrong or you need help with something let us know before we discover after the fact that's happened so it's better to let us know we want to work with people we understand there may be issues coming up we want to work with you but we need you to be forthright with us signatures it's okay to do electronic signatures it's okay to do facsimile signatures but the groom is accepted both jointly and severally by the tenants and by the universes for that matter if I were a party the transaction I would disclose that here if I was a partner in the deal or related to the landlord in any way or the tenant for that matter and in this case I am in fact well I put myself down but someone else may be representing a tenant but I'm representing the lam landlord in this case so again we're initialling and sign initially get the barb of the page tenants additionally at the bottom of the page this identifies where notices would be sent si notices 44 unless otherwise deprived I'll all the notices will be sent here all the notices will be sent to me at our office oops at our office and in those as the tenant will be sent some tenant at the home military provisions in the event a tenant is is in the military there are certain clauses this is a clause in the contract that allows them with proper written notice to terminate the agreement early but it has to be under very specific terms and we have to get proper written notice from your superiors in order to be able to to invoke the military provision of this lease foreclosure in the event that the owner is in default we would have to notify you to let you know that that's the case whenever there's a default like that the the lease would transfer with the property and has to be obligated by whoever takes over the property so you needn't worry but rents are still do so just remember that as well we haven't had to deal with us in quite a long time I hope not to deal with anytime in the near future during that foreclosure period that says shall honor all conditions of the current lease basically was saying you still have to pay your rent we'll let you know what's going on you won't be forced out in any short-term basis that will not happen again whoever takes over the property will have to honor the lease okay if that if some addendums that were attached that are attached to this Agreement HOA rules and regulations there's a foreclosure addendum that we use as well we also will provide you what we call our tenant handbook it kind of covers some of the things that are in the least it's somewhat redundant to a lot of things I just discussed but also has some other things some questions for some maybe things that weren't quite covered here no additional terms or conditions here again initial at the bottom of the page here's where we're all going to sign the landlord of the owner and the tenants are gonna sign here you're gonna sign here and here and you're gonna date it and then initial at the bottom of the page that's our residential lease agreement I hope this was helpful if you have any questions by all means just give us a call I hope you found this video helpful feel free to review our other videos at wwlp.com once again thanks for choosing the brown Blanco group for your real estate needs and if you ever have any questions just call or text me at seven zero two two zero three one one six five [Music]