Description

Use this lease if you're interested in renting a home to a tenant for a fixed period of time (usually a year). During the life of the lease, the landlord can't increase the rent or end the tenancy, and the tenant is responsible for paying rent on time.

Important to Know:

• If you prefer to create a monthly agreement, use Month-to-Month Residential Rental Agreement.
• State laws vary concerning key issues such as the maximum amount a landlord may collect for a security deposit; and how landlords must hold, use and return deposits. For this information, turn to Every Landlord's Legal Guide,  Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants or The California Landlord's Law Book: Rights & Responsibilities.

Nolo also offers state-specific leases and rental agreements for landlords. If you live in one of these states, you may want to consider purchasing one of Nolo's comprehensive Landlord Kits:

• Arizona Landlord Kit
• California Landlord Kit
• Florida Landlord Kit
• Georgia Landlord Kit
• Illinois Landlord Kit
• New Jersey Landlord Kit
• Ohio Landlord Kit
• Pennsylvania Landlord Kit
• Texas Landlord Kit
• Virginia Landlord Kit
• Washington Landlord Kit

System Requirements

Operating system: Windows- and Macintosh-compatible. The computer you use to purchase an eForm must be the same computer you will download it to. (For example, don't purchase the eForm using your computer at work if you intend to download it later on to your home computer; instead, wait until you're on the computer you intend to download the eForm to and then make your purchase. After you've downloaded the file, you will be able to "transfer" it to another computer by copying it to external media or by email.) In addition, you will not be able to download this file if:

• cookies are disabled on your computer, or
• a firewall prevents you from downloading files from the Internet.

Software: Before you can use an eForm, additional software must be installed:
To expand the ZIP archive you download after making your purchase, you'll need:

• A decompression utility such as the following, both of which can be downloaded for free:

• 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org) (for Windows users).
• StuffIt Expander (http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit/expander.html) (for Macintosh). Please note: Many recently manufactured Macs have a native capability to decompress zip files. See your computer's user manual for verification of this and instructions for access.

To open, fill out and print an eForm, you need a word processor that "reads" RTF (rich text format) files:

• Windows XP, Vista & 7 all come with WordPad, an RTF-compatible word processor.
• Macintosh OS X comes with TextEdit, an RTF-compatible word processor; non-OS X users need Word 5.0 or greater, WordPerfect 2.1 or greater, or another RTF-compatible word processor.