We own a single family home in Pennsylvania that we are planning on renting out. Do we need to hire an attorney to draft a residential lease agreement? What exactly do these agreements entail?
Preparing a lease or rental agreement is fairly straightforward, and many rental property owners (including first-timers) have no problem doing it themselves.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association recommends that, at a minimum, a residential rental contract contain the following terms:
To get started, check out Nolo's kit for Pennsyvlania landlords. If you want to include some complicated clauses (for example, regarding repairs and maintenance of your house), you may want an experienced Pennsylvania landlord-tenant attorney to review the document before you present it to a prospective tenant for signature.