Know Your Rights: Tenants

A notice on your door is not a court order.

The heat is out. The deposit never came back. The rent just jumped, or there is a notice taped to your door. You have rights in every one of those situations, and they work best for the tenant who knows the steps.

Know Your Rights: Tenants explains renters' rights across the United States in plain English, then shows you what to do next and exactly what to say and write. No legal training needed.

Inside:

• Before you sign: applications, screening reports, fair housing, and how to read a lease clause by clause
• Security deposits: limits, lawful deductions, normal wear and tear, and how to demand your money back
• Repairs: the written request, the second notice, and the remedies your state may allow
• Privacy, rent increases, late fees, roommates, and subletting
• Retaliation, harassment, and illegal lockouts
• Eviction, stage by stage: notices, court papers, hearings, defenses, and settlements
• Special situations: vouchers and subsidized housing, military service, domestic violence, foreclosure

Built to use: more than 45 word-for-word scripts, 8 sample letters, checklists for move-in, move-out, and eviction court, a repair log, a state-by-state quick reference for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and a glossary of 81 terms.

General legal information, not legal advice. Landlord-tenant law varies by state and city and changes often.