Residential lease review · Built for rentersFree Risk Score in minutes

Is your lease legal? Scan it free before you sign.

Your landlord had help writing it. Now you have help reading it.

Upload your apartment, house, or room lease and get a free, plain-English Risk Score in about two minutes — how many clauses are concerning, how severe they are, and the dollars they could cost you. No account. Checked against your state's real tenant law.

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Residential rentals only — apartments, houses & rooms. Not commercial or car leases.

Real clauses we catch — tap to flip through
DEALBREAKEREntry rights

Landlord may enter premises at any time without notice.

Likely unenforceable
TRAPCost shifting

Tenant responsible for all repairs under $300.

$1,200 avg. annual exposure
SAFEUnenforceable

$500 fine per noise complaint, compounding.

Void by law. Sign safely.

Built for renters. We read your lease from your side, flagging fees and terms that may not be legal so you know your rights before you sign.

Live in 5 states so far: California, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Texas. More states are added as their law corpus is verified.

Every citation traces back to the actual statute text, pulled from official state government sources.

Software reads your lease and applies the law. A person reviews the law itself before it ever reaches you.

$200

A real “incidental fee” buried on page 7 of a real lease, triggered the moment rent arrived six days late because a paycheck had not cleared. The apartment tour never mentioned it.

Page 7

The clauses that cost you the most are rarely the ones you are shown. They live deep in the fine print.

24 hrs

The window most renters get to decide on a 12-month commitment. That pressure is not an accident.

What you don't read is already deciding what you'll pay.

A lease arrives. You have 24 hours. The apartment you want will be gone by morning if you don't sign. That window is not bad luck, it is leverage. It is how non-refundable application fees, inflated processing charges, and penalty clauses that compound slip past a tired, rushed renter.

Most of these terms do not hold up. But that only helps you if you catch them before you sign. LeasePatrol is built for the 24 hours before you commit to 12 months.

“See your lease the way the people who wrote it already do, before you sign it.”— Why we built LeasePatrol

Not every concerning clause is equally dangerous. We tell you how worried to actually be.

We sort every flag into three tiers by the real damage it can do over a 12-month lease, so you know what to fight, what to watch, and what to safely ignore.

Immediate dealbreaker

Don't sign as-is.

This clause puts your money or your rights at real risk. Worth pushing back before you sign.

IMMEDIATE DEALBREAKER · ENTRY RIGHTSFix this high risk

What the lease says:

Landlord reserves the right to enter the unit at any time for inspection.

What this means:

State law requires 24-hour notice before a landlord can enter your apartment, except in emergencies.

The law that fights this for you:

M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B

Financial trap

Sign with caution.

Legally gray. The kind of clause a landlord can use to bluff you into paying for something you may not owe.

FINANCIAL TRAP · MAINTENANCE FEESThis can cost you money

What the lease says:

Tenant agrees to pay the first $800 of any plumbing or appliance repair.

What this means:

State law strictly prohibits transferring routine maintenance costs to the tenant. If they bill you, you do not have to pay it.

The law that fights this for you:

State Sanitary Code 105 CMR 410.000

Sign safely

You're protected.

Zero enforceability. A generic AI chatbot will tell you to panic over clauses like this. We tell you when you are already protected, so you can sign with confidence.

SIGN SAFELY · SNOW REMOVALMeans you're protected

What the lease says:

Tenant is responsible for all snow removal and salting of the shared driveway and common walkways.

What this means:

In a multi-family building, the landlord is legally responsible for keeping all common areas and means of egress free from snow and ice. They cannot transfer this duty to you.

The law that fights this for you:

State Sanitary Code 105 CMR 410.452

Your free scan shows how many of each you have, sorted by severity, plus a dollar range. The full Action Kit shows exactly which clauses, what each one means in plain English, the statute behind it, and the email to send.

Why not just paste it into ChatGPT?

You can — to translate the legalese. It's genuinely good at that. Just don't let it tell you what's legal. A general chatbot answers from memory, so it guesses, blends all fifty states together, and can't show you a statute you can check. Here's the same clause run through both.

A clause from your lease

“Tenant agrees to pay the first $800 of any plumbing or appliance repair during the term of the tenancy.”

A general AI chatbot

Answers from memory

That kind of clause is generally unenforceable in most states, since landlords are usually responsible for repairs. Rules can vary depending on your location, and I'm not a lawyer — you may want to check your local laws to be sure.

Fluent, but vague, hedged, and averaged across fifty states — it never names the law it's relying on.

No statute you can verify. And its training may predate your state's current law.

LeasePatrol

Checked against the statute

Financial trap

Massachusetts law makes keeping the unit in repair the landlord's job — this clause tries to shift up to $800 onto you. You can sign, but you don't have to cover repairs the law puts on them.

Verifiable · from an official source

State Sanitary Code · 105 CMR 410.000

What to send: “Happy to sign — but I won't be covering repair costs the state assigns to the landlord.”

The chatbot reply above is representative of how general assistants answer — fluent, confident, and ungrounded. LeasePatrol's finding is the real output format: a named statute behind every flag.

The difference isn't the AI. It's who gets to decide what the law says.

It invents state law

Ask for the statute number and a general model may hand you one that doesn't exist — in the same confident tone whether it's right or wrong.

Its knowledge has a cutoff

Laws change. A model trained before a recent rule — like Massachusetts flipping who pays broker fees — will cheerfully tell you the old answer.

It only answers what you ask

The most expensive clause is the one you didn't know to worry about. We audit every clause; a chatbot answers your question and goes quiet on the rest.

Read the full, honest comparison — chatbot vs. lawyer vs. scanner
Scan my lease freeNo login · first flag free · file deleted after

Upload. Get your Risk Score. Decide with your eyes open.

1

Upload your lease

PDF, photo, or scan. Even a blurry photo from your phone works. We handle messy layouts, tables, and handwritten notes.

2

We cross-check it against the law

Every sentence is compared against current state and local rental statutes. We flag what's risky, what's concerning, and what's void.

3

Get your free Risk Score

In a minute or two you see how many concerning clauses your lease has, sorted by severity, with a dollar exposure range. The exact clauses, citations, and a ready-to-send email are one unlock away.

The law is already on your side.Walk in knowing it.

Upload your lease and get your free Risk Score in a minute or two, so you can see where you stand before you sign anything. Want the exact clauses and the email to send? The full Action Kit is one click away.

For the cost of one late fee, you'll know how to fight every single one.

Flag costly hidden fees before you sign
Compare against local tenant laws
Get citation-backed legal explanations
Generate dispute letters if needed
INSTANT ANALYSISCHECKED AGAINST YOUR STATE’S CURRENT RENTAL LAWDEALBREAKER DETECTIONNEGOTIATION ACTION KITSECURE & PRIVATEPLAIN-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONSFINANCIAL EXPOSURE ESTIMATEINSTANT ANALYSISCHECKED AGAINST YOUR STATE’S CURRENT RENTAL LAWDEALBREAKER DETECTIONNEGOTIATION ACTION KITSECURE & PRIVATEPLAIN-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONSFINANCIAL EXPOSURE ESTIMATEINSTANT ANALYSISCHECKED AGAINST YOUR STATE’S CURRENT RENTAL LAWDEALBREAKER DETECTIONNEGOTIATION ACTION KITSECURE & PRIVATEPLAIN-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONSFINANCIAL EXPOSURE ESTIMATEINSTANT ANALYSISCHECKED AGAINST YOUR STATE’S CURRENT RENTAL LAWDEALBREAKER DETECTIONNEGOTIATION ACTION KITSECURE & PRIVATEPLAIN-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONSFINANCIAL EXPOSURE ESTIMATE

Drop your lease document here

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By starting your scan, you agree that LeasePatrol is a software tool, not a law firm, and that this report does not constitute legal advice.

Encrypted upload. Your original file is deleted after analysis.
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What's inside the Action Kit?

Everything you need to sign with confidence, negotiate without fear, and protect your deposit from day one.

Full Triage Dashboard & Translations

Every clause flagged, explained, and mapped with a severity breakdown. Plain-English translation of legalese, backed by the exact statute.

Dollars at Risk Calculator

Know precisely how much a Financial Trap clause could cost you over a 12-month lease — before you agree to it.

Pre-Written Negotiation Emails

Landlord-ready email templates that push back on concerning clauses professionally, without blowing up the deal.

Move-In Condition Statement

Document every pre-existing scratch, dent, and stain from day one, so your security deposit comes back in full.

Simple, transparent pricing

Free Scan

$0

  • Your Lease Risk Score
  • Severity breakdown: dealbreakers, financial traps, and safe-to-sign
  • The issue categories we found (like Entry Rights and Security Deposit)
  • An estimated dollar exposure range

Full Action Kit

Lawyers charge $300+ for the same review

$8.99

one-time payment

One-time scan — no subscription

  • Everything in Free, plus:
  • Every clause explained in plain English
  • Exact statute citation for every flag
  • Your exact dollar exposure calculated
  • Pre-written, landlord-ready Negotiation Email
  • Move-In Condition Statement generator

Less than the cost of one late fee — to catch every fee they were counting on you not to read.

Wherever you are in renting, there's a version of this problem

Before you sign

You have a day, maybe less, to decide on a 12-month contract someone else wrote. Upload it first and see what's actually enforceable.

Scan a lease

A fee shows up that wasn’t in the tour

A $150 "administrative charge" lands on your move-in statement. We check whether your state allows it and name the statute either way.

See the calculator

The landlord isn’t returning calls about repairs

Heat's been out for a week. We pull the exact sanitary or habitability code section that applies to your unit, so your next message isn't just a complaint.

Read the FAQ

You need to break your lease early

A job relocation, a safety issue, a roommate who left. Early-termination rules differ by state, and most leases only mention the landlord’s side of it.

Read the FAQ

Getting your deposit back in full

Move-out is when most deposit disputes start. Document the unit’s condition on day one, so there’s no argument later about what changed.

See the Move-In Statement

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about lease scanning, illegal clauses, and protecting your tenant rights before you sign.

LeasePatrol is built for renters. Plenty of landlords are fair and want a clean lease as much as you do, but our job is to read your agreement from your side: checking it against the law and flagging fees or terms that could cost you. So the analysis you get is always in your interest.

You upload a PDF or a photo of your lease. We pull out every clause, compare it against your state and city's landlord-tenant law, and flag anything that's unenforceable, financially risky, or worth negotiating. The free version gives you a risk score and a category breakdown. The paid Action Kit gives you the exact clauses, the statute behind each flag, and a negotiation email you can send as-is.

No — LeasePatrol reviews residential rental leases only: apartments, houses, condos, and rooms you rent to live in. We don't handle commercial, office, retail, car, or equipment leases.

No, and we say that at every step, including before you upload anything. LeasePatrol is a software tool that gives you information and a starting point for negotiating. If you're facing an eviction, a lawsuit, or anything with real legal stakes, talk to a tenant lawyer or your local legal aid office.

Both, at different stages. Software reads your lease and matches clauses to the relevant law, and yes, that includes an AI model. But the law text itself — the actual statutes we compare your lease against — comes from official state government sources and is reviewed before it goes live, not scraped and trusted blindly. The AI applies the law; it doesn't get to decide what the law says.

Unless you're a real estate attorney, it's genuinely hard to spot on your own. Landlords sometimes include terms that don't hold up — waiving your right to a habitable unit, non-refundable deposits where local law requires them refundable, fees that exceed what's legally allowed. LeasePatrol checks your lease against your specific state and city's rules and tells you exactly which lines are the problem.

A few that show up often: making tenants pay for all repairs including structural ones, waiving the landlord's liability for their own negligence, unrestricted entry without notice, and late fees that exceed what state law caps them at. Where these appear, they're typically unenforceable even though they're printed in the contract.

No — but plenty of landlords count on tenants not knowing that and paying or complying anyway. Signing a lease with an illegal clause in it doesn't make that clause enforceable. It just means you now know something your landlord was hoping you wouldn't.

We're live in California, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas right now, including New York City's local housing code layered on top of state law. We add a new state once its law database has been built and checked, not before — so coverage grows, but we won't claim a state is covered until it actually is.

It depends entirely on your state and what's actually going on — a job relocation, a safety issue, an uninhabitable unit, or just wanting out are all treated differently under the law. Upload your lease and select your state, and we'll tell you what your state's early-termination rules say and what your lease claims separately, since those two things don't always match.

A lawyer might take days and charge a few hundred dollars for the same review. LeasePatrol gives you a full risk breakdown in a minute or two — long enough to matter during the 24 hours most renters get to decide before the apartment is gone.

One hidden fee or one penalty clause can cost you hundreds of dollars over a 12-month lease. A free scan costs you nothing and takes less time than reading the lease itself.

Usually not, if they conflict with your state's implied warranty of habitability — the baseline legal requirement that a rental be safe and livable regardless of what the lease says. We flag 'as-is' language specifically so you're not stuck covering a landlord's deferred maintenance.

Still reading? Your lease only takes two minutes.

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