First Apartment Checklist

• Read the entire lease before signing, including any attachments or addenda.
• Ask for a copy of the lease to review on your own time, before you commit.
• Confirm the rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods in writing.
• Confirm the security deposit amount and how it will be handled.
• Ask which utilities are included and which you'll need to set up yourself.
• Ask about the policy on guests, subletting, and adding a roommate later.
• Ask about the pet policy in writing, even if you don't have a pet yet.
• Walk through the unit in person before signing, if at all possible.
• Ask how maintenance requests are submitted and roughly how they're handled.
• Confirm who to contact for emergencies, such as no heat or a water leak.
• Save a copy of the signed lease and every related document in your Renter Shield evidence vault.
• Set a reminder for your lease renewal or end date so you're not caught off guard.
• Research your rights and your state's basic landlord-tenant rules before you need them.

If this is your first lease: students and first-time renters

Practical guidance, not legal advice. Most of what follows is set by the lease you sign rather than by a statute — which is why reading it before anyone signs matters more than anything else you do. Where a state law does apply, we say so and point to the source.

Read three clauses before you sign

Entry, deposit, and how repair requests are submitted. Those three decide most later disputes, and in several states — Texas among them — the lease, not a statute, is what controls entry. If a clause is missing or vague, ask for it in writing before anyone signs.

Cosigners and guarantors

A guaranty is a separate promise by someone else to pay if you do not. What your cosigner owes is set by the guaranty they sign — many run for the whole lease rather than only your share, and some continue through renewals. Read the guaranty document itself, not a summary of it, and give the person signing it time to read it too. If the wording is unclear, that is a reason to slow down, not to sign faster.

Joint and several liability

Many roommate leases are written “joint and several,” which means each tenant can be held responsible for the entire rent rather than only their fraction of it. Whether your lease works that way is a lease question. Look for the phrase, and ask the landlord in writing to confirm what it means for you before you sign.

If a roommate stops paying

Safe steps, in order: pay your own share on time and keep the receipt; put the situation in writing to your roommate and to the landlord, calmly and without accusation; save every message with its date. Do not withhold your own rent to put pressure on a roommate — that puts your housing at risk, not theirs. Then ask free legal aid what your lease’s liability wording means for you.

Subletting over summer or a term abroad

Whether you may sublet is a lease question, and many leases require the landlord’s written permission first. Ask before you list the room anywhere, get the answer in writing, and keep it. Taking money for a room without written permission is a common way people end up in breach of the lease — meaning they broke a promise the lease contains.

Sublet or assignment — the difference

A sublet means you stay on the lease and someone else lives in the unit under an arrangement with you; you generally stay responsible to the landlord. An assignment means you hand your side of the lease to someone else, who takes your place on it. Which one your lease permits, and on what conditions, is set by the lease.

Leaving before the lease ends

We cannot tell you whether you may end a lease early — that turns on your lease and your state, and getting it wrong is expensive. Read the termination clause, write down exactly what it says, and take it to free legal aid at lawhelp.org or to your campus student legal services before you give notice or move out.

Your security deposit

Caps, refund deadlines, and itemization duties are set by state law and differ widely — see your state’s renter-rights page for the verified rule and its source. Two habits help everywhere: give a written forwarding address when you move out and keep proof you sent it, and never treat a partial refund as final before you have checked your state’s deadline and itemization rules.

Move-in evidence

Photograph every room on the day you get keys, before anything of yours goes in: floors, walls, appliances, window screens, and anything already damaged. Make sure the photos carry a date. Send the same list to the landlord in writing and keep a copy. If your landlord, your lease, or a housing program gives you an official condition form, complete and return that as well.

Free help on and near campus

Many campuses offer free student legal services — search your school’s name plus “student legal services.” Many schools also run an off-campus housing office that will read a lease with you before you sign. Off campus, free legal aid is at lawhelp.org, and 211 routes you to local rental assistance.

If English is not your first language

Never sign what you cannot fully read. Ask for a copy to take away, and have someone you trust — a campus housing office, a legal-aid volunteer, or an interpreter — go through it with you. No deadline makes signing an unread lease the safer choice.

Disability-related requests

If you need a change to a rule, a unit, or an application process because of a disability and your request is refused, HUD takes fair-housing complaints and can explain what it covers.

Common questions