Book Title:

Every Landlord’s Legal Guide, Eighth Edition (Paperback)
by Marcia Stewart, Janet Portman, Ralph E. Warner

Editorial Reviews:

Book Description

The all-in-one resource every landlord needs.

The best, most effective way to make and save money as a landlord is to keep up with the law – and with Every Landlord’s Legal Guide, you can do it.

From move-in to move-out, Every Landlord’s Legal Guide helps you handle the issues you’re likely to face, helping you avoid hassles and headaches – not to mention legal fees. Here is everything you need to:

  • choose tenants
  • prepare a lease or rental agreement
  • collect and return deposits
  • avoid discrimination charges
  • hire a property manager
  • keep up with repairs and maintenance
  • minimize liability
  • deal with problem tenants
  • and more

Every Landlord’s Legal Guide provides over 30 documents you’ll need, including leases and rental agreements, as tear-outs and on CD-ROM.

The 8th edition is completely revised to provide your state’s current laws, and discusses how new federal bankruptcy laws affect your ability to evict tenants.

Amazon.com

Anyone who has ever been a landlord knows that the rental business is tightly regulated. As the authors of Every Landlord’s Legal Guide point out, “a landlord either knows and follows the law or doesn’t stay in business long.”

This book clearly outlines what the law requires of a landlord and, just as importantly, offers advice on how to be conscientious yet profitable. This useful book is filled with helpful information on finding good tenants, agreements and leases, liability issues, and even terminations and evictions. The advice is extremely thorough. For example, the chapter on the landlord’s maintenance duties contains information on who is responsible for minor repairs, ways to avoid problems by instituting a preventive-maintenance program, and even possible tenant responses to landlord negligence.

The book is rounded out with a chapter on finding a lawyer and an appendix of state laws that may affect your business. Dozens of sample forms are included both as blank hard copies in the book and as templates on the enclosed disk.

This book is extremely user-friendly: Stilted legalese is translated into simple English, handy icons highlight particular points in the text, and sidebars provide in-depth analysis on a variety of issues. The authors maintain that success is based on “choosing tenants carefully, keeping good tenants happy, teaching mediocre tenants how to improve and getting rid of bad tenants by applying policies that are strict, fair and legal.” This book will help you do just that.

From Library Journal

This new title is a thorough and pragmatic examination of the legal issues that confront landlords of residential real property. In 17 chapters, it covers such topics as rent, discrimination, working with property managers, landlord liability, tenants, privacy rights, and security deposits. The chapters summarize the law and explain it with true-to-life illustrations. Icons are used to point out a practical tip, a question that might need a lawyer’s interpretation, or an instance in which a rent-control ordinance might apply.

The book is liberally sprinkled with sample agreements, letters, and lists of specific state requirements with regard to landlord/tenant laws. Forms to help with rent applications, tenant references, security deposit itemization, and safety and maintenance updates, to name a few, appear in print at the end of the book and on an accompanying 3.5″ DOS-based computer disk.

Every Landlord’s Legal Guide makes plain the important legal concepts and provides real guidance for landlords.

About the Author

Marcia Stewart has been a Nolo editor and author since 1989, writing and editing books on landlord-tenant law, real estate, and other consumer issues. She is the co-author of Every Landlord’s Legal Guide, Every Tenant’s Legal Guide, Leases and Rental Agreements, and Renters’ Rights. She has edited dozens of Nolo books, including Every Landlord’s Guide to Finding Great Tenants, How to Buy a House in California, and Nolo’s LeaseWriter Plus software for landlords, and Parent Savvy.

Ralph “Jake” Warner stepped aside as day-to-day manager of Nolo in 2004, after 32 years as president of the company. Widely regarded as a pioneer of the self-help law movement, Warner founded Nolo with Ed Sherman in 1972. He began publishing do-it-yourself law books written by him and his colleagues after numerous publishers rejected them. When personal computers came along, he added software to many Nolo books. When the Internet arrived, he pioneered online marketing of books.

Janet Portman is the Managing Editor at Nolo. She specializes in residential and commercial landlord/tenant law, legal issues related to courts, landlords and tenants, and neighbor disputes. She is the co-author of Every Landlord’s Legal Guide, Every Landlord’s Guide to Finding Great Tenants, Every Tenant’s Legal Guide, Renters’ Rights, Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business, Leases & Rental Agreements, The California Landlord’s Law Book: Rights and Responsibilities, and California Tenants’ Rights. Ms. Portman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University and a law degree from Santa Clara University. Before joining Nolo in 1994, she practiced law as a public defender.