Living Local—Reviewing My 54-Page Apartment Lease

My two-bedroom apartment in Monaco Park Apartments (just east of Durango on Desert Inn) comes up for renewal in October.

The management company (Alliance) sent me a renewal offer with a small 1.9% increase. No problem.

They then sent me a copy of the new lease — 54 pages long! For some reason, the e-transmission didn’t work, so the office had to print it out, which allowed me to carefully read through it before I signed (12 times) and initialed (over 60 times).

So what makes up the 54 pages?

• Initial Lease – 12 pages
• Hot Water Addendum – 3 pages
• Property Damage Liability – Lease Addendum – 1 page. Much cheaper to get my own renter’s insurance than to use their option.
• Animal Addendum – 2 pages. I don’t have a pet.
• Bedbug Addendum – 2 pages
• Community Policies – 9 pages. Filled with regulations I didn’t know about, and I’m sure that many of my neighbors are either not aware of or ignore them.
• Keys, Permits and Access Devices Addendum – 1 page
• EPA brochure on Lead Paint + Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Addendum – 11 pages. This only applies to housing built before 1978. My apartment was built much later than that, but it must be a law somewhere that it be included.
• Lease Buyout Addendum – 1 page. I owe them two months rent if I move out early.
• Mold Addendum – 1 page
• Package Locker Addendum – 2 pages. The complex installed an Amazon package locker system last year, which is an upgrade from the former package room with limited access. Plus, you get an email when something arrives.
• Parking/Storage/Garage Addendum – 2 pages
• Restricted Animal/Breed List – 1 page. What is a Presa Canario and why can’t I have one?
• Smoke-Free Addendum – 1 page
• Estimated Standard Cleaning and Repair Charges – 2 pages. What they’ll take out of my $200 security deposit (if I move) and why.
• Utilities Addendum – 2 pages. Monaco Park residents pay water, sewer, and common gas in addition to rent. Runs about $50 a month.
• Resident Communication Log – 1 page. Sounds creepy!

Asking around my Sunday morning Meetup group, it appears that my rent and rent increase (as well as lease length) are par for the course for a 1,100-square-foot two-bedroom apartment in northwest Las Vegas, so I’m not the least bit interested in looking elsewhere.

However, there is one change that I will be watching. In the past, rent had to be paid by the third of the month, but in the current lease, it must be paid by the first of the month to avoid a $70.05 late fee. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Nevada legislature just lengthened the minimum time for eviction time from 10 to 15 days. Plus, they placed a maximum on late fees. Several Las Vegas apartments reacted by shortening or eliminating the late-payment grace periods.

It will be interesting to see how this change plays out over the next year. Alliance accepts only certified cashier’s checks for rent or a tenant can pay by a no-charge online bank transfer. I have the system set up to automatically deduct my rent on the first of the month, but for some reason (I think it has something to do with the variable monthly utility charges), Alliance doesn’t put through the rent payment until the second day, which doesn’t hit my bank until the third (at the earliest).

If it continues that way throughout the next year, I’m fine with that. But don’t charge me a late fee because your system asked for the rent one day beyond your own deadline.