Landlord-Tenant Law
The general common-law leasehold types, and the shared framework behind security deposits, repairs, and eviction — before any state-specific rule is layered on.
Landlord-tenant law has a shared common-law backbone across most states, even though the specific dollar figures, deadlines, and procedures end up different state to state. Get the general framework right first — the state-specific version usually just fills in the numbers.
The four leasehold estates
- Tenancy (estate) for years
- A fixed start and end date — terminates automatically, no notice needed.
- Periodic tenancy
- Renews automatically each period (month-to-month, year-to-year) until either party gives proper notice.
- Tenancy at will
- No fixed term at all — either party can end it at any time.
- Tenancy at sufferance
- A holdover tenant who stays after their lease ends without the landlord's consent — possession started lawfully, unlike a trespasser's.
Assignment vs. sublease
A tenant transferring their leasehold interest can do it two different ways:
An assignment transfers the entire remaining interest, and the original tenant generally steps out of the landlord relationship entirely. A sublease keeps the original tenant in the picture, holding a reversionary interest and remaining responsible to the landlord.
The general security deposit framework
Across most states, a security deposit is generally the tenant's money held by the landlord as security against damage or unpaid rent — not the landlord's to keep by default. The general expectation is a timely return, or an itemized accounting of what was withheld and why, once the tenancy ends. The exact deadline and required format are where state law takes over.
The general habitability duty
Most states recognize an implied warranty of habitability — a baseline duty for the landlord to keep the unit livable. This generally pairs with a notice requirement on the tenant's side: give the landlord proper notice of the problem and a reasonable chance to fix it before pursuing a remedy. Skipping that notice step is a common way a tenant with a genuine complaint still loses a dispute.
Eviction is generally a court process
The baseline common-law rule is that a landlord generally can't force a tenant out through self-help — physically removing a tenant or their belongings without a court order. The general path is proper notice to vacate, followed by a formal court proceeding if the tenant doesn't leave voluntarily. States vary widely in the narrow exceptions they carve into this general rule, which is exactly the kind of nuance to check against your own state's specific law.
"Eviction requires a court process" is the reliable general-portion answer. Don't assume it's absolute in every state, though — some states carve out narrow, tightly-conditioned exceptions to the general rule, and that's exactly the kind of state-specific wrinkle worth checking separately.