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How to write a lease agreement

Updated 2026-10-18, 12 min read

Engraving of a fountain pen on a lease signature line
A lease is a sequence of decisions written down before anyone disagrees.

1978

Target housing built before 1978 needs the lead-based paint disclosure and the EPA pamphlet in the lease packet — 24 CFR § 35.88, checked 2026-10-18.

Most bad leases are not badly worded; they are incomplete. Write the clauses in a fixed order and the gaps become visible while you can still fill them.

The order to write in

  1. 01Parties — every adult occupant, named, jointly and severally liable.
  2. 02Property — address, unit, parking space, storage, what is not included.
  3. 03Term — start, end, and what happens at the end if nobody acts.
  4. 04Rent — amount, due date, method, late fee where lawful, and how a partial month is prorated.
  5. 05Deposit — amount, where held, what it covers, and the return process.
  6. 06Use and occupancy — occupants, guests, pets, smoking, business use.
  7. 07Maintenance — who does what, and how a request is made and answered.
  8. 08Entry — notice period and permitted hours.
  9. 09Default — what breaches, what cures, what notice.
  10. 10Disclosures and signatures — the attachments law requires.

Proration belongs in the rent clause

Name the method — actual days, a 30-day month, or a 365-day year — so the first and last months are arithmetic rather than argument. The prorated rent calculator shows what each one produces.

Engraved stack of lease pages under a brass clip
The lease begins as a blank stack: what matters is the order you put the clauses in.

The rent clause carries more weight than any other

State law generally says only when rent becomes payable — California's phrasing is that on a monthly holding rent is payable at the termination of each period as it successively becomes due (Civ. Code § 1947, checked 2026-10-18). Everything else about rent is yours to write.

  • Due date and grace period, if any, stated as a date not a description.
  • Accepted methods, and who bears the fee on each.
  • Late fee — only where the statute allows, at or below the cap it sets.
  • Returned-payment charge, and what happens after the second one.
  • The proration method, named.

Disclosures the law attaches

Federal law requires a lead-based paint disclosure and the EPA pamphlet for target housing built before 1978 — the regulation names the pamphlet *Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home* (24 CFR § 35.88, checked 2026-10-18). States add their own: mould, bed bugs, flood history, utility sharing, rent-control status, the name and address of the owner or agent.

Missing the lead disclosure on pre-1978 housing carries federal penalties per violation, and the tenancy is not saved by the tenant knowing anyway. Attach it, get it signed, keep it for three years.

Engraved desk lamp over a drafting blotter
The desk where a tenancy is finished — signatures, keys and the disclosures that ride with them.

Clauses that quietly void themselves

  • Waivers of the statutory habitability duty — void in California (Civ. Code § 1942.1, checked 2026-10-18) and unenforceable in most states.
  • "Non-refundable" deposits, in states where every deposit is refundable by definition.
  • Automatic forfeiture of the deposit on early termination.
  • Blanket professional-cleaning requirements regardless of condition.
  • Access "at any time without notice" — see landlord right of entry.

One unenforceable clause can taint the paragraph around it. When in doubt, write less and cite the statute.

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