Warranty of habitability

Everyday problems are not enough. For constructive eviction, the conditions must be so serious that you cannot really live in the home. Examples courts have accepted include a serious insect problem, no electricity, and no heat.

Heat is part of a home that is fit to live in. In general, your landlord must keep the home fit to live in and free of health and safety hazards. The exact heat rules, such as dates and temperatures, come from state and local law, so check your state's guide.

In general, your landlord must keep your rental home fit to live in, even if your lease says nothing about repairs. Lawyers call this the warranty of habitability (the rule that a rented home must be safe and fit to live in). A few states are different, so check your state's guide.

Not every problem makes a home unfit to live in. The test is health and safety, usually measured against local housing codes. No heat, no electricity, and a serious insect problem are the kind of conditions that fail that test. Faded paint, small nail holes, or a worn carpet normally do not.

Alabama law requires your landlord to follow building and housing rules that seriously affect your health and safety. Your landlord must also make repairs and do whatever is needed to keep your home fit to live in.

Your landlord must also keep shared areas of the building clean and safe. Your landlord must keep the electrical, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems in good working order. This also covers other equipment your landlord provides, such as elevators.

In a single-family house, you and your landlord can agree in writing that you take over some of the landlord's duties. This can include trash removal, supplying your own water and heat, and specific repairs listed in the agreement.

Your landlord must make all repairs. The landlord must also do whatever is necessary to put and keep your home in a condition fit to live in.

In a one- or two-family home, you and your landlord may agree in writing that you do specified repairs and maintenance tasks. The deal must be made in good faith. It cannot be made for the purpose of evading (getting around) the landlord's duties.

In New Mexico, your landlord must substantially follow the minimum housing codes that seriously affect health and safety. Your landlord must make repairs needed to keep your home safe. Your landlord must keep the electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems and appliances in good and safe working order. This covers the ones your landlord supplies or must supply.

Arizona law requires your landlord to follow local building codes that seriously affect health and safety. Your landlord must also make all repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep the plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning systems in good working order. Your landlord must also keep shared spaces clean and safe, and provide a way to remove trash.

Arkansas law sets repair standards for rental homes. They apply to a lease or rental agreement entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021. A lease to purchase, or a lease with a purchase right, is not covered. The standards are implied, so they apply even if the lease does not mention them. A landlord is excused when temporarily prevented by an act of God or a failure of public utilities (water, electric, gas). Another force majeure event (a major event no one controls) also excuses it.

For a lease entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021, a rented home must have three things. They are an available source of hot and cold running water, an available source of electricity, and a source of potable (safe to drink) water. The home must have them when you get possession and for the whole lease. A landlord is excused when temporarily prevented by an act of God or a failure of public utilities (water, electric, gas). Another force majeure event (a major event no one controls) also excuses it.

For a lease entered into or renewed after November 1, 2021, a rented home must meet three more standards. It must have a sanitary sewer system (waste pipes) and plumbing that meet the building and housing codes in place when installed. It must have a functioning roof and building envelope (its outer shell). It must have a functioning heating and air conditioning system, to the extent the system served the home when the lease was signed. The home must meet them for the whole lease. A landlord is excused when temporarily prevented by an act of God or a failure of public utilities (water, electric, gas). Another force majeure event (a major event no one controls) also excuses it.

Arkansas law excuses a landlord who is temporarily prevented from meeting the repair standards. An act of God is one cause. So is the failure of public utilities (water, electric, gas), or a problem they cause. Another force majeure event (a major event no one controls) also excuses it.

A landlord must follow any stricter housing standard of a local government with jurisdiction (legal authority) over the home.

Texas law makes your landlord fix any condition that puts an ordinary renter's health or safety at risk. You must be paid up on rent when you ask for the repair. If you owe rent, you lose your repair rights until you pay.

Your landlord must give you a home that is safe, well maintained, and follows the Massachusetts Sanitary Code. The State Sanitary Code sets the minimum standards for a home that is fit to live in. Heat is part of those standards.

Your landlord must give you a home that is safe, well maintained, and follows the Massachusetts Sanitary Code. The State Sanitary Code sets the minimum standards for a home that is fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in the whole time you rent it. This right covers everyone living there, not just the person who signed the lease. This rule applies even though it is not written in your lease. It is called the "Warrant of Habitability."

Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in. California law calls this the warranty of habitability (the landlord's legal promise that the home is safe and fit to live in). The promise is part of every rental agreement, even if the lease says nothing about repairs. The home does not have to be perfect. It must meet basic living needs.

State law lists what makes a home fit to live in. It includes:

• A roof, walls, windows and doors that keep out water and weather.
• Working plumbing and gas.
• Hot and cold running water, connected to a sewer.
• Working heat.
• Working electric lights and wiring.
• Building and grounds free of trash, rodents and bugs.
• Enough garbage cans.
• Floors, stairs and railings in good repair.

If your home seriously lacks any of these, it is not fit to live in.

Since January 1, 2026, the list also includes a working stove and a working refrigerator. This applies only to a lease signed, changed, or renewed on or after January 1, 2026. The rule does not cover a single-room-occupancy (a small rented room, often with a shared bathroom or kitchen) unit. It also does not cover a residential hotel, supportive housing, or a home with a shared kitchen.

Chicago law makes your landlord keep the building up to city code. The landlord must make all needed repairs promptly. This duty is automatic and applies even if your lease says nothing about repairs.

The law lists what counts as a serious problem. Examples include no heat or hot water, broken plumbing, pests, leaks, and broken locks. A unit that is not fit to live in breaks the law.

Colorado law gives every renter a promise called the warranty of habitability (a promise that your home is fit to live in). Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in for as long as you live there.

Colorado law lists things your home must have to be fit to live in. This includes working heat, running water, and hot water. It includes working wiring, plumbing, and gas lines. It includes pest control and working locks on doors and windows. It also must meet building, housing, and health codes when breaking them puts your health or safety at risk.

Your landlord must follow all building and housing codes that seriously affect health and safety. Your landlord must also make repairs and keep your home fit to live in. If you, your family, or a guest causes damage to the home on purpose, fixing it is your job, not your landlord's.

Your landlord must also keep the electrical, plumbing, heating, and other systems in your home in safe working order. Common areas you share with other renters must be kept clean and safe. Your landlord must provide trash and garbage containers and arrange for pickup. Your landlord must supply running water and reasonable hot water and heat at all times. This does not apply if the building is not legally required to have them. It also does not apply if you control your own heat or hot water.

Delaware law says your landlord must provide a home that does not endanger (put at risk) your health, welfare or safety. This duty lasts at all times while you rent. The home must be fit for the purpose for which it is expressly rented. Your landlord must make all repairs needed to keep the home in good condition. Good means as good as it was, or ought by law or agreement to have been, when your rental began. Electrical, plumbing and other facilities your landlord supplies must be in good working order.

Your landlord must follow your city or county's building, housing, and health codes.

If none apply, your landlord must keep the structure in good repair: the roof, windows, doors, floors, steps, porches, walls, and foundation.

Your landlord must also keep the plumbing working, and keep door and window screens in reasonable condition, fixing damage once a year if needed.

For a single-family home or a duplex (a building with 2 homes), you and your landlord can make a written agreement. It can change who takes care of some of these repairs.

Get any change in writing, and keep a copy.

Your landlord has more duties if you rent a unit that is not a single-family home or a duplex (a building with 2 homes). This is true unless you both agreed otherwise in writing.

Your landlord must control pests such as rats, mice, roaches, ants, and bed bugs, and keep locks and keys working.

Your landlord must also keep shared areas clean and safe, remove garbage, and keep heat working in winter. Running water and hot water must work too.

Georgia law treats a lease for a home as promising that the home is fit for people to live in. This is true for oral or written leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.

Georgia’s housing agency says a landlord must keep a rental unit in good repair. The unit must be safe and fit to live in. The landlord must keep electric, heating, cooling and plumbing working. The fit-to-live-in duty covers leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.

A Georgia lease cannot cut the landlord’s duty to keep the property fit to live in or in good repair. The state housing agency says a lease that cuts these duties breaks the law. The fit-to-live-in duty covers leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.

Georgia law does not require landlords to supply appliances such as refrigerators or stoves. Local ordinances (city or county rules) may. Check your lease and local rules.

Your landlord must make all repairs and arrangements necessary to put and keep your home fit to live in. The landlord must do this at all times during the tenancy (the time you rent the home).

Your landlord must keep the electrical and plumbing working. The same goes for other things the landlord supplied, like appliances. They must stay in good working order and condition, subject to reasonable wear and tear (normal use).

Your landlord must maintain the rental to protect your safety and health. The landlord must follow city and county ordinances (local laws) and state laws about housing conditions.

You can sue your landlord if the landlord does not keep in good working order the plumbing or heating that the landlord supplied. Plumbing and heating are examples. You can ask for money the landlord must pay you and for a court order to do the work. Before you sue, you must give your landlord 3 days written notice. The notice must list each problem and demand that the landlord fix it. You can go to court only if the landlord has not fixed a listed problem within 3 days after the notice is served. You get this money only if you win your case and your landlord pays.

You can sue your landlord for failing to provide reasonable waterproofing (keeping out water) and weather protection of the home. Before you sue, you must give your landlord 3 days written notice. The notice must list each problem and demand that the landlord fix it. You can go to court only if the landlord has not fixed a listed problem within 3 days after the notice is served.

You can sue your landlord for keeping the home in a way that is hazardous (dangerous) to your health or safety. Before you sue, you must give your landlord 3 days written notice. The notice must list each problem and demand that the landlord fix it. You can go to court only if the landlord has not fixed a listed problem within 3 days after the notice is served.

Every Illinois lease carries a warranty of habitability (a promise your home is fit to live in, even without it being in the lease).

In 1985, the Illinois Supreme Court made this warranty apply to every kind of residential lease. This includes single-family homes and towns with no local building code. The case is Glasoe v. Trinkle.

Illinois has no single statewide law that sets minimum repair or safety standards for rental homes. Instead, courts use the warranty of habitability (the promise that a rental home is fit to live in), and cities and counties can pass their own building codes. Some cities, like Chicago, have detailed codes. Others do not. Check your city or county officials housing development offices for more info on the guidelines.

Indiana's landlord duties chapter (Indiana Code 32-31-8) covers what a landlord must provide. One example is a home that is safe, clean, and fit to live in. It applies only to homes rented under a rental agreement made after June 30, 2002. It does not apply to homes rented with an option to buy under an agreement made before July 1, 2008.

Your Indiana landlord must hand over the home in a safe and clean condition that is fit to live in, as the rental agreement says.

Your Indiana landlord must keep electrical systems (the home's electric power) in good and safe working condition. This is required if the home had them when the rental agreement was made.

If the home had plumbing systems (water pipes) when the rental agreement was made, your landlord must keep them in good and safe working condition. They must give a reasonable supply of hot and cold running water at all times.

Your Indiana landlord must follow all health and housing codes that apply to the rental property.

Iowa law requires your landlord to follow building and housing codes that seriously affect your health and safety. Your landlord must also make repairs and do whatever it takes to keep your home fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep electrical, plumbing, and heating equipment in good repair. Your landlord must also give you running water, reasonable hot water, and reasonable heat. This does not apply to a building that the law does not require to have them. It also does not apply if you pay the gas or electric company yourself for your own heat or hot water.

Your landlord must follow your city's building and housing rules that seriously affect health and safety. Your landlord must also keep shared areas safe. None of this applies if a natural disaster caused the problem. It also does not apply if a break in your water, electric, or gas service, or something else beyond your landlord's control, caused it.

Your landlord must keep your wiring, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems in good working order. This includes elevators if your building has one. None of this applies if a natural disaster caused the problem. It also does not apply if a break in your water, electric, or gas service, or something else beyond your landlord's control, caused it.

Kentucky's landlord repair law, the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, is not automatic statewide. Kentucky lets cities, counties, and urban-county governments choose to adopt it. As of April 2025, these places have adopted it: Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Dayton, Elsmere, Florence, Lexington-Fayette County, Georgetown, and Louisville-Jefferson County. It also applies in Ludlow, Melbourne, Morgantown, Newport, Oldham County, Pulaski County, Shelbyville, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, and Woodlawn.

Kentucky cities and counties may adopt the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Where adopted, your landlord must keep your plumbing, wiring, heating, cooling, and any appliances provided in good, safe working order. Your landlord must make repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in. Your landlord must keep common areas clean and safe.

Kentucky cities and counties may adopt the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Where it is not adopted, your landlord only has to make repairs your lease promises. Look at your lease to see what your landlord agreed to fix.

Nevada law requires your landlord to keep your home fit to live in. Your landlord must keep the plumbing, heating, and electrical systems working. Your landlord must keep the roof and walls sealed against weather. Your landlord must supply hot and cold running water. Your landlord must keep floors, walls, ceilings, and stairs in good repair.

Your home must have working basics. That means a roof that keeps out rain, windows and doors with no breaks, working plumbing and gas, hot and cold water, and working heat.

The home must also have safe wiring and lights. The building and grounds must be clean and free of trash, rats, and bugs. Floors, stairs, and railings must be in good repair.

Your landlord must make any repair needed to keep your home fit for its purpose. Louisiana law requires this throughout your lease. This does not include a repair you must make yourself.

Under Louisiana law, your landlord promises your home is fit for the purpose you rented it for. Your landlord also promises your home is free of problems that would stop you from using it for that purpose.

Your landlord's promise about your home's condition covers problems that show up after you move in, not only problems that were already there. This only applies if you did not cause the problem yourself.

Your landlord's promise about your home's condition covers problems your landlord did not know about, not only problems your landlord was aware of.

You might know about a problem in your home and not tell your landlord. If so, the money you could get for that problem later may be reduced.

Louisiana law lets a lease take away some legal promises about your rental home. This is only allowed if the lease uses clear language that points this out to you.

Your lease can take away some legal promises about your rental home. This only works if the lease uses clear words that your landlord pointed out to you. Your landlord cannot do this for a problem that seriously affects your health or safety.

In a lease for a home, the legal promises about your home's condition protect everyone who lives there as part of the lease. This includes people other than the renter who signed the lease.

In Maine, your landlord is deemed to promise that your home is fit for human habitation (safe and healthy to live in). This is true for a written or oral rental agreement. Homes include, for example, apartments, mobile homes and common areas.

Your court complaint must say the problem endangers or materially impairs (puts at risk or seriously harms) the health or safety of tenants. It must say you or someone under your control did not cause it. It must say your landlord unreasonably (without good reason) failed to take prompt, effective steps to fix it. It must say you were current in rent when you gave written notice.

Maryland's repair law applies to every rented home used for living anywhere in the state. This is true whether the home is owned by the government or a private landlord. It is true whether the home is a single house or one of many units in a building. It does not apply to a farm home you rent as part of farm work.

Maryland law requires your landlord to fix a lack of heat, light, electricity, or hot or cold running water in your home. This does not apply if you pay for that utility (water, electric, gas) yourself, and it was cut off because you did not pay.

Maryland law also requires your landlord to fix a home with not enough working toilets or drains. It also requires fixing rats or mice living in 2 or more homes in the building.

Maryland law also requires your landlord to fix a serious safety problem with the building itself. It also requires fixing anything that is a fire risk or a health risk.

Your landlord must give you a home that is safe, well kept, and follows the Massachusetts Sanitary Code. This code, 105 CMR 410, sets the minimum rules for what counts as a home that is safe and clean enough to live in. This applies everywhere in Massachusetts, not just certain cities.

Michigan law gives you a legal promise called the warranty of habitability (a promise that your home is fit to live in). Under this law, your rental home and any shared areas of the building must meet this promise.

Your landlord must keep your rental home in reasonable repair and follow state and local health and safety rules. This duty does not apply if you caused the damage by being careless or acting on purpose.

Your lease can change your landlord's duty to keep your home fit to live in and in reasonable repair. But it can only do this if your lease lasts 1 year or longer. A lease for less than a year cannot change these duties.

Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in. Your landlord must also keep your home in reasonable repair. This does not apply if you, or someone you let in, damaged it on purpose, out of spite, or through carelessness.

Your landlord must keep your home following health and safety rules from the city, county, state, and federal government, including rental license rules. This does not apply if you, or someone you let in, caused the problem on purpose, out of spite, or through carelessness.

Your landlord cannot get out of the duty to keep your home fit to live in and follow health and safety rules. You cannot give up this right either, even if your lease says something different.

A Mississippi landlord must at all times follow building and housing codes that materially (in an important way) affect health and safety. The landlord must keep the home, its plumbing, and its heating or cooling system in substantially the same condition as when the lease began. Reasonable wear and tear (normal use over time) is excluded. The landlord does not have to keep up what the tenant damaged by deliberate or negligent (careless) actions.

No landlord repair duty arises under Mississippi Section 89-8-23 for a defect caused by the deliberate or negligent (careless) act of the tenant. The same is true of a defect caused by people on the property with the tenant's permission. No repair duty arises for a defect caused by the tenant's failure to meet the tenant duties in Section 89-8-25.

Missouri law uses the word nuisance for a serious problem with a rental home that breaks your city's building or housing code. It counts as a nuisance if a code official reasonably believes the problem threatens public health, safety, or well-being.

Your landlord must make repairs and do whatever is necessary to keep your home fit to live in. This does not apply when the law makes you responsible for maintaining the home.

After written or actual notice, your landlord must make all repairs. The landlord must do whatever is necessary to put and keep your home fit to live in.

Nevada law requires your landlord to keep your home fit to live in the whole time you rent it. This includes working plumbing with hot and cold running water, safe wiring and lights, and heat that works. The roof and walls must keep out rain and cold, and floors, walls, and stairs must stay in good repair. Trash cans and shared areas your landlord controls must stay clean and free of pests. Your home breaks this law if it violates a housing or health code.

A New Hampshire city or town may have its own housing code under RSA 48-A. If it has none, a landlord may not keep a rented home in some conditions. Examples are exposed wires, and a roof or walls that leak consistently.

Every home lease in New Jersey includes a promise, even if the lease does not say it. It is called the warranty of habitability (a promise that the home is fit to live in). Your landlord must keep the home fit to live in for your whole lease. Your landlord must also repair damage to vital facilities, the things you need to live there safely.

New Jersey courts list examples of problems that can make a home unfit to live in. They include no hot water or heat, and a toilet that does not work. They also include mold, bed bugs, or rodents, and lead paint, broken windows, or unfinished floors. A broken stove or refrigerator counts too, as does an unsafe common area such as a lobby, stairs, or elevator.

New Mexico law makes your landlord follow local housing codes for health and safety. Your landlord must make repairs needed to keep your home safe, and keep common areas safe too. Your landlord must keep electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and other systems your landlord supplies in good working order.

Every lease in New York, written or spoken, includes the warranty of habitability (a promise that the home is fit to live in). Your landlord must keep your home and the shared areas free of conditions that are dangerous to your life, health or safety. A lease clause that makes you give up this right does not count. The court will not enforce it.

Every rental in New York comes with the right to a home that is fit to live in, safe, and clean. Lawyers call this the warranty of habitability (a promise that your home is fit to live in). It applies even if your lease does not mention it. It applies to written and spoken leases.

Your landlord must keep your apartment and the building's shared areas in good repair. The building must be clean and free of pests like mice and roaches. The landlord must keep plumbing, heat, electric, and landlord owned appliances working.

Your landlord must follow local building and housing codes and make all repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in and safe.

Your landlord must keep shared areas of the property safe. Your landlord must also keep electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and similar systems in good working order. You must tell your landlord about the problem in writing first, unless it is an emergency.

North Carolina law lists urgent dangers your landlord must fix. Examples:

• Unsafe wiring.
• No safe drinking water.
• No working toilet.
• Broken locks on doors to the outside.
• No heat that can warm living areas to 65 degrees when it is 20 degrees outside, from November 1 to March 31.

Your landlord must fix an urgent danger within a reasonable time after learning about it, based on how serious it is.

Even if you moved in knowing about a problem, or you agreed to accept it, your landlord still must fix it under state law. The only time this does not apply is when a city or county government blocks the repair, for up to 6 months.

Your landlord must follow building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety. Your landlord must also make all repairs and do whatever is necessary. The goal is to put and keep the home fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep facilities and appliances in good and safe working order. This covers the ones the landlord supplies or must supply. Elevators are included.

Ohio law requires your landlord to follow all building, housing, health and safety codes that affect your health and safety. Your landlord must make repairs to keep your home fit to live in. Your landlord must keep shared areas of the building safe and clean. Your landlord must also keep electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems and appliances in good working order. Your landlord must also supply running water, hot water and heat, unless the building is not required by law to have them.

Oklahoma law says your landlord must make all repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in. Your landlord must do this the whole time you live there, not only when you move in.

Oregon law requires your landlord to keep your home fit to live in for as long as you rent it. This includes working plumbing with hot and cold running water, working heat, and safe electrical wiring. It also includes a roof and walls that keep out rain and wind, and working locks on entrance doors. If any one of these is seriously lacking, your landlord is breaking the law.

Small problems do not count. The conditions must be bad enough to take away your ability to live in the home. Pennsylvania's Attorney General lists examples of a home that is not fit to live in. They include no heat in winter, no hot and cold running water, and no working sanitation. They also include rats or mice, a leaking roof, unsafe floors or stairs, and broken locks on doors and windows.

Bad conditions in the home can be a defense (a legal reason for the judge to rule for you). Every Pennsylvania lease includes the warranty of habitability (a promise that the landlord must keep the home safe and fit to live in). You can also file your own claim against the landlord, for example over ignored repairs. You must file that claim before the hearing date.

In Pennsylvania, a rented home must be fit to live in, and heat in winter is part of that. A home without working heat in winter counts as unfit under state law. Your landlord must fix serious problems like this.

Pennsylvania law promises every renter a home that is fit to live in. Courts call this the warranty of habitability (your landlord's automatic promise that the home is safe and fit to live in). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court made this the law of the state in a 1979 case called Pugh v. Holmes. Your landlord must fix serious problems that affect your safety or your ability to live in the home. The promise applies even if your lease says nothing about repairs, and it lasts the whole time you rent.

Serious problems include: no heat in winter, no hot or cold running water, and no working sanitation. They also include rats or mice, a leaking roof, unsafe floors or stairs, and broken locks on doors or windows.

Pittsburgh also has its own property maintenance code, on top of the state warranty of habitability (the legal promise that your home is fit to live in). The city adopted the International Property Maintenance Code to set standards for safe, clean homes fit for use. The Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections, called PLI, enforces this code.

Rhode Island law lists what a landlord must do. For example, a landlord must follow building and housing codes that affect health and safety. A landlord must keep common areas clean and safe. A landlord must keep electrical, plumbing, heating and other facilities in good and safe working order. The duty covers facilities that the landlord supplies or must supply.

Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in for the whole time you rent it.

Your landlord must keep the heating system in reasonably good working order. The same rule applies to the electrical and plumbing systems (for example, the wiring and pipes).

Your landlord must keep your home fit to live in for the whole time you rent it.

Your landlord must follow local building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety (affect it in an important way). Your landlord must also make all repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep your home's electrical, gas, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems in good, safe working order. Appliances in your home are assumed to be provided by your landlord unless your lease clearly says otherwise. Your landlord cannot use the lease to say they do not have to provide equipment needed for water, heat, gas, or electricity.

In a South Dakota residential rental, written or spoken, your landlord must keep the home and common areas in reasonable repair. They must be fit for human habitation (fit for people to live in) and in good and safe working order during the lease. The landlord does not have to fix damage you or someone under your direction or control caused. The conduct must be negligent (careless), willful (on purpose) or malicious (meant to harm).

A South Dakota landlord must keep electrical, plumbing, and heating systems in good and safe working order. The landlord does not have to fix damage you or someone under your direction or control caused. The conduct must be negligent (careless), willful (on purpose) or malicious (meant to harm).

In South Dakota, a lease cannot give up or change the landlord's repair duties for a residential rental. The landlord may agree with you that you will do specified repairs or maintenance in place of rent.

In Texas, your landlord must make a diligent effort to repair a condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant. Examples: sewage backups, roaches, rats, no hot water, faulty wiring, roof leaks. Hot water must reach at least 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Not every broken item is covered.

Utah law says each owner of a rental home, and the owner's agent, must keep the home fit for human habitation (fit to live in). The home must also meet local ordinances (local laws) and the rules of the local board of health. Each rental home must have electrical systems, heating, plumbing, and hot and cold water.

Utah's repair law does not apply to breakage (broken things), malfunctions (things that do not work), or other conditions. That is so when they do not materially (in a real way) affect the physical health or safety of the ordinary renter.

A Utah owner may not rent a home unless it is safe, sanitary (clean), and fit for human occupancy (fit for people to live in). Among other duties, the owner must maintain common areas in a sanitary (clean) and safe condition. The owner must maintain electrical systems, plumbing, heating, and hot and cold water. The owner must keep any air conditioning system in an operable (working) condition.

In Vermont, a landlord is deemed to promise to deliver a rental that is safe, clean, and fit to live in. The landlord must keep it that way for as long as you rent. The rental must also meet the building, housing, and health rules that apply.

A Vermont rental agreement cannot make you give up your right to a home that is safe and fit to live in. The law treats a clause that tries to do this as against public policy and of no effect.

Virginia law requires your landlord to follow local building and housing codes that protect your health and safety. Your landlord must also make all repairs needed to keep your home fit to live in.

Your landlord must keep your home's electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, and other systems in good, safe working order. This includes elevators in apartment buildings that have them.

Washington law says your landlord must keep your home fit to live in. This is called the warranty of habitability (a legal promise that the home meets basic safety and repair standards). Your landlord must keep the roof, walls, and floors in good repair. Your landlord must keep the plumbing, heating, and electrical systems working. Your landlord must give you working locks and keys. Your landlord must give you written notice that your home has a smoke detector, and you must keep it working.

Your landlord does not have to fix normal wear and tear (the natural wear from everyday living). Your landlord also does not have to fix damage caused by you, your family, or your guests.

A DC court may appoint a receiver (a person named to protect tenants' health and safety and to maintain and repair the building). One ground: the Department of Buildings cited the building for a violation that is a serious threat to tenants' health, safety, or security. The owner, landlord, agent, or manager must have been told properly. The violation must still not be fixed in time.

A DC court may appoint a receiver (a person named to protect tenants' health and safety and to maintain and repair the building). This can happen if a rental building shows a pattern of neglect for 30 consecutive days. The neglect must be a serious threat to tenants' health, safety, or security.

A DC court may appoint a receiver (a person named to protect tenants' health and safety and to maintain and repair the building). A serious threat to tenants' health, safety, or security includes rats or other pests. It includes doors or window locks that do not work. It includes fire safety or warning equipment that does not work.

For residential property, a West Virginia landlord must hand over the home and the land around it fit to live in. This must be done at the start of the rental. The landlord must then keep it that way.

For residential property, a West Virginia landlord must keep the leased property up to the health, safety, fire and housing codes that apply. The landlord does not have to do this if the tenant is at fault. The same goes if a family member or another person there with the tenant's consent is at fault.

For residential property, a West Virginia landlord must make all repairs needed to keep the home fit to live in. The landlord does not have to make repairs that were needed mainly because the tenant did not use reasonable care. The same goes for a family member or another person there with the tenant's consent.

For residential property, a West Virginia landlord must keep what the landlord supplies in good and safe working order. The duty covers anything the landlord must supply by agreement or by law. Heating and plumbing are examples.

In a building with more than one home, a West Virginia landlord must keep common areas clean, safe and in repair. This covers common areas that the landlord controls and that tenants use. The law calls such a building a multiple housing unit.

In a building with more than one home, a West Virginia landlord must provide suitable ways to remove ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste. The landlord must maintain them. The law calls such a building a multiple housing unit.

Your landlord must keep in reasonable repair the parts of your home the landlord controls. Your landlord must also keep in reasonable repair any equipment under the landlord's control that provides services promised to you. Examples include heat, water, an elevator, or air conditioning. Your landlord must also make all necessary structural repairs. None of these duties apply to damage you caused yourself by carelessness or misusing your home.

Your landlord must repair or replace plumbing, electrical wiring, and other equipment that came with your home when it stops working properly. This does not apply if your home is covered by a local housing code. In that case, your landlord must follow that local code instead. It also does not apply if the repair is minor and its cost is small compared to your rent. In that case, you must keep it in working order yourself.

If you rent your home to live in, your landlord must follow any local housing code that applies to your home.

Your home counts as legally unfit to live in if it is damaged by fire, water, or another accident. It also counts as unfit to live in if it has a condition that is dangerous to your health. It also counts as unfit to live in if your landlord substantially breaks a repair duty, materially affecting (really affecting) your health or safety. None of this applies if you caused the damage or condition yourself through carelessness or misuse of your home.

A Wyoming landlord must keep a rental home safe and sanitary (clean) and fit for people to live in. The home must have working electric, heating and plumbing, with hot and cold running water, unless you and the landlord agree otherwise in writing. Seasonal rentals such as summer cabins, which are not meant to have these, can still be rented.

A Wyoming landlord must not rent out a home unless it is reasonably safe, sanitary (clean) and fit for people to live in. The landlord must keep common areas reasonably safe and sanitary (clean).

A Wyoming landlord must maintain (keep up) electric systems, plumbing, heating, and hot and cold water.