How to handle security deposits, evictions, lease termination, and habitability issues — for renters and landlords.
How squatters’ rights work in Pennsylvania: the 21-year adverse possession rule, the narrow 10-year path added in 2018, the quiet title lawsuit an occupier must win, and how owners remove a squatter through ejectment rather than eviction.
Ohio has no fast squatter removal. “Squatters’ rights” means adverse possession, which takes 21 years of open, hostile, exclusive occupation. Removing a squatter runs through the same forcible entry and detainer eviction process used for tenants.
What New York law requires in a residential lease: when a lease must be written, the one-month security deposit cap, capped application and late fees, the non-waivable warranty of habitability, occupancy protections, and the clauses courts refuse to enforce.
The situations where New York law lets a tenant break a lease early without owing the balance, the written-notice rules for each, and how the landlord’s duty to mitigate limits what a tenant owes when no exception applies.
Illinois does not dictate a standard lease form, but state and federal law require specific disclosures and forbid certain clauses. Here is what a residential lease must contain and what it cannot.
A plain-language guide to rent stabilization in NYC: what it is, how to tell if an apartment is covered, how the annual Rent Guidelines Board increase is set, how stabilized and rent-controlled units differ, and how to raise a dispute with DHCR.
Illinois has no cap on deposit size, but sets firm return deadlines: 30 days for an itemized statement, 45 days to return the deposit.
What “squatters’ rights” means in New York City: the 10-year adverse possession standard, the 2024 law that excludes squatters from tenant protections, and the court process for removing a squatter under the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law.
A plain-language guide to New York eviction notices: the 14-day rent demand for non-payment, the 30/60/90-day termination notice for holdovers, the 14-day post-warrant notice, and the service rules that make each notice valid.
The New York warranty of habitability makes every residential lease carry a non-waivable promise that the unit is fit to live in. This article explains what the warranty covers, what a landlord must repair, and the remedies a tenant can pursue, including rent abatement.
The situations that let an Illinois tenant end a lease early without owing the rest of the rent, and how the landlord’s duty to mitigate limits damages when no exception applies.
How Illinois treats squatters: why they hold no possessory right, the 20-year and 7-year color-of-title adverse possession rules under 735 ILCS 5/13-101 and 13-109, and how an owner removes an occupant through the courts rather than self-help.