Pets and residential lease agreements?

I am a WA State attorney, and I counsel both landlords and tenants in WA who end up having landlord/tenant conflicts. It would be smart of you to have your first lease draft reviewed by a knowledgeable WA State landlord tenant law attorney. The biggest problems that arise include return of a security deposit and/or billing for additional costs after move out; tenants failure to comply with terms of the lease and/or HOA rules; and issues/questions regarding renewal of the lease. The Residential Landlord Tenant Law can be found here: https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=59.18 Two changes were made in 2023 alone. In addition, some cities, like Seattle, and unincorporated King County, have additional requirements to be aware of. You may want to consider joining an association of WA landlords - I think there's a statewide one, and there may be county or city organizations. Some of these can provide you with first draft leases and/or provide guidance, classes, and counseling. There are many places to buy leases online, but some of these don't address the fine points regarding notice to vacate or raise rent, issues arising from paying last month's rent ahead, whether or not security deposits can be applied toward the last month's rent, and so forth. An attorney who specializes in landlord-tenant law can provide you with your first lease and also be available on an ongoing basis for consultations from time to time.

I think you need to post this as a CA question, not as a WA question. However, your first step is checking government and HOA rules, if any and make sure that this is allowed. You will need to change your insurance and possibly add another policy specifically for short term rentals. Let me know if I can ever be of help with WA State legal questions!

If you would like to request me through a project, I’d be happy to review all documents and WA State law and provide you with advice. It will be important to know whether or not you were informed that you will have to comply with the HOA rules at the time you signed the lease—many leases state the necessity to comply with HOA CC&R’s and/or Bylaws and/or rules as well as WA State law.

It is entirely the landlords decision as to whether to allow you to terminate early. If only because you want to move to another location and there’s nothing wrong with the unit. There are some possibilities of a substitution of a tenant that perhaps the landlord would agree to. Or if fourth of a part of your deposit, assuming you made one… There are a variety of ways to approach this, but ultimately is the choice of the landlord.

Being a landlord myself, and haven’t been involved in numerous residential landlord/tenant proceedings, my experience is that most residential leases are for one year. However, that being said we do live in Florida, and there are a lot of people who come down here just for the winter, which therefore involves shorter term leases. And if it is a condominium, the minimum length of time is determined by the condominium documents. If it is a home in a community, it would be covered by the HOA documents. Freestanding homes are limitless.