Landlord Rulebook pages are written to be accurate, useful, fair to landlords and tenants, and honest about where each fact comes from and what a page cannot know. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Landlord and tenant law varies by state and city, and changes. Ask the court, your state agency, a lawyer or legal aid about your case.
How a page is made
- Research. We start from statutes, court pages, agency documents and our figures register, and note what they do and do not settle.
- Writing. A draft is written from that research under the Landlord Rulebook name.
- Fact-check. A separate check compares each rule, limit, deadline, fee and date with its source, and reworks every sum on the page.
- Graphics. Any charts or diagrams repeat figures from the text and add no new facts. A legal deadline in a graphic shows its statute and read date.
- Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps and anything that could mislead someone about a notice or court step. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.
Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.
Our sources
Every limit, deadline, fee, percentage, form and rule links to a primary source at the claim: statutes, court pages, state agencies, HUD, FTC, CFPB, EPA and the IRS. A state rule reaches a page only if we read it in the statute or on the state’s official court or agency page. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is not confirmed. Our how we check page explains how each kind of fact is handled.
Commercial sites are named only for labelled estimates or as claims being checked. Costs with no primary source appear as published ranges, side by side, each named and dated, never averaged.
Rules for legal pages
A wrong line about a deadline or an eviction can cost someone money or a home. So every page follows these rules:
- A clear note near the top. Every page says it is general information, not legal or tax advice, that the law varies by state and city and changes, and who to ask about your case.
- No national rule that doesn’t exist. There is no national deposit limit or notice period. We explain how it works, then give only the state rows we have read.
- Statute and read date. Every state figure shows both. Unit counts are stated where a rule depends on them, and cities are named where they override a state.
- No personal verdicts. Pages explain rules and the questions to ask. They never say what you should do, what you may charge, whether you would win or whether to sue.
- Eviction pages cover the lawful process only. Self-help evictions are named as what not to do where the statute says so. Each page says when to stop and get a lawyer, and points tenants facing an eviction to the court and legal aid. Nothing here helps anyone get around a notice or a court step.
- No notices or leases to copy. Sample wording shows what a letter should cover and never replaces a required state or court form. Forms are linked at the court or state.
- Tax figures carry their year. We don’t guess at a year the IRS has not published.
What we do not claim
- We are not a law firm, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.
- We do not claim to have managed the properties, filed the cases or done the work we describe.
- We do not invent authors, quotes, landlord stories or tenant comments.
- We do not rank lawyers, screening firms, software or lease sellers, and we do not call anything “best”.
- We do not call a rent, a fee or a charge “fair” or “lawful” for your situation. Calculators give estimates.
- Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They do not show properties, tenants or cases we know of.
Fairness
Pages are written for both sides of a lease, because landlords and tenants both read them. Sellers’ claims are reported as claims, and we do not name a company when we question one. Honest disagreement stays on the page: where courts split, or where an agency’s enforcement policy and the statute point in different directions, we show both and do not pick a winner. Sometimes the honest answer is that the rule is unsettled and a court or a lawyer has to answer it.
Calculators
Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. Every default that is a rate or a rule says where it comes from, or that it is our assumption, and you can change it. They give estimates, never a verdict. A state with no rate we have read shows “not confirmed”.
Updates and corrections
Rules, caps and deadlines change, so pages are rechecked on the schedule set out on our how we check page, and sooner when we learn a source they rely on has changed. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.
Sister site
We sometimes link to one sister site, Radon Handbook, on radon disclosure. It is connected to us, which is why we call it a sister site. It is also funded by display ads, so a visit there can earn ad money too. It sells no leads and makes no referrals.
Advertising and independence
Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads and make no lawyer referrals. We sell no leases, forms, screening reports, software or insurance quotes. Our about page has more on how the site works.