Key terms you can expect to see in a lease or rental agreement.

Your lease or rental agreement may be as short as one page or longer than ten. It may be typed or handwritten, easy to understand, or full of legalese. Most landlords use preprinted forms they buy in stationery stores, order from a landlords’ association, or find in a software program.
 Most leases and rental agreements contain “the usual suspects” of rental provisions or clauses. You’ll often see them as numbered paragraphs. Unfortunately, the provisions are often dressed up in fancy legal language or buried in gargantuan sentences. Following is a list of the most common terms you’ll find in a lease. Other articles on the Nolo site cover preparing a state-specific lease or rental agreement. and go into details on state rules relevant to lease terms on security deposit, rent, notice of entry, and occupancy standards.