Delaware Standard Residential Lease Agreement

What governs a lease in Delaware

Residential tenancies in Delaware sit under Delaware Code, Title 25, Chapter 51. That is where the rules on deposits, notice periods, the landlord's obligations and the tenant's remedies live. You can read Delaware Code, Title 25, Chapter 51 at the source.

Disclosures written into the Delaware lease

These are the Delaware specific disclosures ProperLease writes into the agreement, each tied to the section of law that requires it:

• Landlord and Agent Identification (25 Del. C. §5105)
• Summary of the Delaware Landlord-Tenant Code (25 Del. C. §5118)

The federal lead-based paint disclosure applies on top of these for any housing built before 1978, in every US state.

Security deposits in Delaware

What you may hold as a deposit in Delaware, how it has to be held, and the deadline for returning it are set by the same statute.

We are not going to paraphrase those limits here. A deposit cap or a return deadline stated slightly wrong on a page like this is worse than not stating it at all, and our wording for Delaware has not been through legal review yet. Read it at the source, or ask a lawyer, before you decide what to collect.

Whatever you are entitled to hold, ProperLease tracks it separately from rent, as money you owe back rather than as rental income, so the balance at move-out is a figure on the record rather than a reconstruction. See security deposits: hold and return for how to run one properly, and the help centre for how deposits work in the app.

What a lease in Delaware must cover

Every residential tenancy agreement, wherever it is, has to settle the same short list of questions. Leave one out and it becomes the thing you argue about later.

• The full legal names of every landlord and every tenant, and an address at which the landlord can be served with notices.
• The address of the rental unit, including the unit number, and what comes with it: parking, storage, appliances, yard.
• The rent: how much, what period it covers, the day it is due, and how it is to be paid.
• The term: whether the tenancy is fixed or periodic, when it starts, when it ends, and what happens when it does.
• Which utilities and services the landlord pays for and which the tenant pays for, written down rather than assumed.
• The deposit: how much is held, what it may lawfully be used for, and the deadline for returning it.
• The rules that cause arguments later: pets, smoking, guests, subletting, alterations, and who handles which repairs.
• Signatures and dates from every tenant on the tenancy, and a copy given to the tenant.

On top of that, Delaware specifically expects:

• The Delaware disclosures listed above, which a generic template downloaded from elsewhere will not carry.
• An address for the landlord or an agent at which notices can be served.
• The lead-based paint disclosure and the EPA pamphlet, for any unit in housing built before 1978.
• Anything your city or county requires on top of state law, which a state-level document cannot know about.

How to generate a Delaware lease in ProperLease

1. Add the property with its Delaware address. The address is what selects the document, so a portfolio spread across jurisdictions gets the right form for each door.
2. Add the tenant or tenants going on the tenancy, with the email address you will use to send documents.
3. Open Leases and start a new lease. ProperLease picks the Delaware residential lease automatically from the property location.
4. Set the terms: monthly rent, term start and end, the deposit you are collecting, and which services are included.
5. Generate and download the PDF, sign it, and send a copy to the tenant. The signed copy goes back onto the lease record so the paperwork and the data stay together.

When the term is ending, renew the existing lease rather than starting over. The tenant, unit and history carry forward, and you set new dates and any rent change on top. See generate a province or state lease for the full walkthrough.