RenterAbout This Site
Search for how long your landlord has to return your deposit and you will be told thirty days. That is correct in Texas and Ohio, wrong in California, badly wrong in New York, and misleading in Arizona — where the fourteen days exclude weekends and holidays, and the clock does not start until you ask for the money. One number, five different answers, and the pages giving it rarely say which state they mean.
That is the gap this site exists to close. Every guide answers one problem, in one jurisdiction, with the section number attached and a link to the official text so you can check it yourself. Where a rule has a trap in it — Ohio forfeits your damages if you never gave a written forwarding address; Georgia's treble-damages penalty does not reach a landlord who owns ten units or fewer — the trap is the first thing you read, not a footnote.
What we cover
Detailed state guides for Texas, California, New York, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia and Florida, plus nationwide guides on the federal rules that apply in all 50 states — Fair Housing assistance-animal accommodations, FCRA tenant-screening rights, rental scams, and landlord harassment. States are added one at a time, and only after their statutes have been read in full. That is slower than scraping a summary, and it is the reason there are seven states here rather than fifty.
Editorial standards
- Primary sources only. Every legal claim links to the governing statute or an official government source — state legislature sites, HUD, the CFPB, the FTC, or the relevant court's own pages. Never to another blog.
- No cross-state reuse. One state's rules are never applied to another. Texas deposit law (30 days, $100 + 3×) and New York deposit law (14 days, forfeiture) are researched and written separately, because they are genuinely different laws.
- Worked examples, labeled as such. Scenario numbers apply real statutory formulas and current published fees to illustrative facts. Every one is explicitly labeled a worked example — none is presented as a case we handled.
- Calculators are gated by verification. Our legal calculators only compute for states whose formulas we have verified against the statute. Select an unsupported state and the tool says so rather than showing you another state's math.
- Honest imagery. Guides use a mix of original diagrams made for this site and licensed photography obtained under licences permitting commercial use. Nothing here is presented as a photograph of a real case document, a real tenant, or a real dispute, and no image is used to imply an experience we have not had.
- Dated and re-verified. Each guide shows its publication and last-updated dates. Statutes change; when they do, the affected guides are updated and re-dated.
Mistakes we have already corrected
A corrections policy is worth nothing without examples, so here are real ones. Guides for California, New York and Florida once rendered Texas section headings above the correct statutes, because the page template had Austin hardcoded into it. The site footer cited the Texas Property Code as the verification source on Ohio and Georgia pages. An earlier version of this page claimed the photographs were our own when every image was an illustration. Each was found, fixed, and is listed here rather than quietly patched.
Corrections policy
If any statute, deadline, fee, or procedure on this site is wrong or out of date, we want to know the same day. Report it through the contact page with the page URL and the official source that contradicts us. Corrections are made promptly and the guide's updated date is changed to reflect the revision.
What this site is not
We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Reading these guides creates no attorney–client relationship. They explain what the statutes say and what the standard procedures are, so you know what to expect and what questions to ask. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state — and for disputes bigger than DIY, we point to tenant-side attorneys and free legal aid in every relevant guide.
How this site makes money
Two ways, both disclosed: display advertising, and referral fees if you hire an attorney through our directory. Neither affects what we write. No landlord, property manager, law firm, or advertiser pays for coverage, placement, or edits, and no advertiser reviews content before publication.
Contact
Corrections, questions, or feedback: [email protected], or use the contact form.
