Can a Landlord Make a Tenant Responsible to Pay for Certain Repairs?

An apartment or home rental contract is just that: a contract. The language within any contract can be negotiated to agreement by both parties, the tenant and the landlord.

Unless there is a state law prohibiting something specific, a lease agreement can contain any number of provisions and statements of financial responsibility.

As a tenant, if you don’t like a provision within a lease agreement, you can negotiate a change to the document BEFORE you sign it or you can decide not to sign the document all together.

If you have an issue with the terms of the lease AFTER you sign it, you have almost no legal recourse (except for violations of local or state law); the time to raise an objection to a term within a lease is before you sign it.