What must a Minnesota landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

A written agreement is required only in the circumstances the rules state. The landlord must give the tenant a copy of the lease; the statute sets no day count.

A landlord of a residential building with twelve or more residential units must have a written lease for each unit rented to a residential tenant, and that lease must identify the specific unit the tenant will occupy before the tenant signs; a landlord who fails to provide a lease is guilty of a petty misdemeanor (section 504B.111). Below twelve units no statute requires a writing, and an oral tenancy is lawful. A lease for longer than one year must be written and signed to be enforceable. Where a written lease exists, the landlord must give a copy to each tenant whose signature appears on it, and the statute fixes no deadline and no delivery peg: the duty exists, the timing does not. The landlord may take a signed, dated receipt, as a separate document or as an acknowledgment inside the lease, and that receipt is prima facie evidence that the tenant received a copy. A landlord who does not give a copy faces no fine: the tenant instead has a defense to any action to enforce the written lease, except an action for nonpayment of rent, disturbing the peace, malicious destruction of property or a violation of section 504B.171, and the landlord can overcome that defense by proving the tenant had actual knowledge of the lease term sued on (section 504B.115).

Statute of frauds: A contract for the leasing of land for a longer period than one year is void unless the contract, or some note or memorandum of it expressing the consideration, is in writing and signed by the party by whom the lease is to be made or by that party's lawful agent authorized in writing (section 513.05).

Format and plain-language rules: Minnesota prescribes placement rather than typography. Two sections put content on the first page of the lease: the sum of rent and all nonoptional fees, described as the Total Monthly Payment (section 504B.120, subdivision 1), and the lease start date, the lease end date and the prorated amount for an off-cycle move-in or move-out month (section 504B.146). Two further agreements are valid only in a conspicuous writing: an agreement that the tenant will perform specified repairs or maintenance (section 504B.161, subdivision 2) and a prelease-deposit agreement (section 504B.175, subdivision 2). There is no type-size or font rule and no plain-language act reaching residential leases.

Electronic leases and signatures: Minnesota's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, chapter 325L, applies to electronic records and electronic signatures relating to a transaction, so a residential lease and the writings on this page may be signed and delivered electronically. The carve-outs in section 325L.03 are the Uniform Commercial Code (apart from section 336.1-306 and articles 2 and 2A), health care directives, statutory short-form powers of attorney, civil-commitment declarations, wills, codicils and most trusts, and section 507.24, which governs the recording of a conveyance or other instrument affecting real estate. A residential lease is not carved out; only the recording of an instrument is. Chapter 504B itself says nothing about electronic signature, and it neither authorizes nor bars electronic mail for any of the notices on this page.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease, in a separate writing, or by posting on the premises.

Before the tenancy begins, the landlord must disclose to the residential tenant, either in the rental agreement or otherwise in writing, the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises and the name and address of the landlord or an agent authorized to accept service of process and to receive and give receipt for notices and demands (section 504B.181, subdivision 1). Only a name and an address are required; no telephone number and no emergency contact number. On top of that writing, a printed or typewritten notice carrying the same information must be placed in a conspicuous place on the premises, and that posting is satisfied if a notice posted under another statute or ordinance already carries the information (subdivision 2, paragraph (a)). The duty has no unit threshold and binds a successor landlord and anyone to whom rent is paid (subdivision 6). Two consequences follow a failure. First, where the identity has not been disclosed and someone who wants to serve process or give a notice or demand does not know the landlord's name and address, a caretaker, manager or the person to whom rent is paid is deemed the agent authorized to accept service and receive notices, and must forward what is served (subdivision 3). Second, no action to recover rent or possession may be maintained unless the information has been disclosed as the section requires, or unless the tenant knew it or was told it at least thirty days before the action began (subdivision 4). A tenant who moves out or sublets without giving the landlord at least thirty days' written notice loses the section's protection as to that tenant (subdivision 5). When the landlord's interest ends by sale, assignment, death, receivership or otherwise, the landlord must within sixty days transfer the deposit to the successor and then tell the tenant of the transfer and of the successor's name and address, or return the deposit (section 504B.178, subdivision 5). Minnesota has no statewide landlord or agent registration; rental licensing is municipal.

If the landlord fails to comply: the non-complying manager or agent becomes the landlord's agent for notices and service of process and for performing the landlord's obligations, as the section states; and the landlord may not maintain the action the section names until it complies.

No general statement — the only duty is to tell the tenant where the act can be read.

No Minnesota landlord must hand a tenant a general statement of rights. What the landlord must do is post a notice on the property saying that the attorney general's statement of landlord and tenant rights and obligations can be had from the attorney general on request, and even that posting is excused where a municipal license or certificate of occupancy already carries the pointer. The statement itself is written, revised every year and distributed by the attorney general under section 504B.275, and section 471.9994 makes a city or town that issues or renews a rental license give the landlord a link to it. Minnesota does prescribe lease text, but every piece of it turns on something the landlord chooses to do: the word-for-word UTILITY BILLS attachment and the apportioned-bill rights list are owed only by a landlord who apportions gas or water and sewer, and the service and support animal statement only by a landlord who charges a pet fee. The lease's own required contents, including the first-page Total Monthly Payment and the first-page lease dates, are listed separately.

The required notice:

Posted notice that the attorney general's tenant-rights statement can be had on request — a duty to tell the tenant where the act can be read; the statement it points to comes from the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General. Unless the landlord is already required to post a notice under section 471.9995, the landlord must place a notice in a conspicuous place on the property stating that a copy of the statement required by section 504B.275 is available from the attorney general to any residential tenant on request. The landlord writes the notice; no wording is prescribed and no agency form exists. The landlord hands the tenant nothing, and the statement itself comes from the attorney general. The duty is a standing one rather than a signing-time delivery, and the section states no consequence for failing to post: section 504B.181, subdivision 4 expressly provides that failing to post this notice does not prevent an action to recover rent or possession. The statement the notice points to is the attorney general's landlord-tenant guide, titled Landlords and Tenants: Rights and Responsibilities, which the attorney general must revise every year after a public meeting and publish in words with common, everyday meanings; the current edition is marked Revised: July 2025 and is published in English. Residents of manufactured home parks are outside the statement's definition of a residential tenant. Revision: Revised: July 2025, as printed on the face of the attorney general's statement and on its landing page; section 504B.275 requires an annual revision, so a later edition replaces it without a change in the landlord's duty. Posted on the premises. Languages: English. Typography: A conspicuous place on the property; the identity notice in the same section must be printed or typewritten. Threshold: Not required where the landlord must already post a municipal license, registration or certificate of occupancy carrying the same pointer under section 471.9995. Agency page. (§ 504B.181, subd. 2(b); § 504B.275)

Listed, but not a general duty counted above:

UTILITY BILLS attachment for apportioned natural gas or water and sewer — words or content the lease itself must carry. Where natural gas or water and sewer is apportioned among the units of a shared-metered residential building, a lease entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 must include an attachment carrying the notice the statute prints word for word. The notice is headed UTILITY BILLS and has two headed lists of three items each. The first, How Will My Bill be Calculated?, tells the tenant that the bill is the tenant's portion of the building's natural gas or water and sewer usage plus a portion of the nonusage fees the utility charges, that the natural gas share is the unit's square footage as a percentage of all units' square footage and the water and sewer share is the number of people in the unit as listed on the lease as a percentage of all occupants, that the tenant is not charged for utilities used in common areas or the landlord's spaces and that a water bill does not include shared amenities such as laundry rooms or pools, and that a bill may include a late payment charge capped at five dollars and an administrative billing charge capped at eight dollars. The second, What If I Fall Behind on Utility Payments or Have a Question About My Bill?, tells the tenant of the right to a reasonable, mutually agreed payment plan that takes account of the household's financial and extenuating circumstances, the right to ask for and timely receive the utility's own bill and the tenant's apportioned percentage of it, and that the landlord must first try to resolve any dispute about natural gas or electricity charges, failing which the tenant may seek assistance from the Public Utilities Commission's Consumer Affairs Office at 651-296-0406 or [email protected]. The telephone number and the address for electronic mail are part of the statutory wording and change only when the statute does. Because the attachment is owed only where the landlord chooses to apportion, it is listed here and is not counted as a general duty; the wider utility rules are in the utility, fee and payment row. Given at signing and on renewal, attached to the lease. Threshold: Only where natural gas or water and sewer is apportioned in a shared-metered residential building, meaning a building with multiple separate residential dwelling units whose utility service is measured by fewer meters than there are units; manufactured home parks are excluded. Applies to leases entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. (§ 504B.216, subd. 10)

Service and support animal fee prohibition — words or content the lease itself must carry. A landlord who requires an additional fee, charge or deposit under a pet policy must disclose in the lease that section 504B.113 forbids an additional fee, charge or deposit for a service or support animal. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. If the disclosure is missing, the tenant may recover the fees, charges or deposits paid on showing that the tenant would have asked for a reasonable accommodation and would likely have received one had the disclosure been given. The text is owed only where the landlord charges a pet fee, so it is listed here and is not counted as a general duty. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. Threshold: Only a landlord who requires an additional fee, charge or deposit under a pet policy. (§ 504B.113, subd. 3(b)–(c))

List of the tenant's apportioned-bill rights — words or content the lease itself must carry. A landlord who apportions utility service must include in the lease, or in a separate written notice, a list of the tenant's rights under section 504B.216, subdivision 5, paragraph (c): to receive on request the current apportioned utility bill and the past natural gas or water and sewer bills for the preceding two years, or from the time the current landlord acquired the building, whichever is more recent. The statute fixes the substance, not the words, and the list may sit outside the lease, so it is listed here and is not counted as a general duty. Given at signing. Threshold: Only a landlord who apportions natural gas or water and sewer in a shared-metered residential building. (§ 504B.216, subd. 5(d))

Lease contents the statutes or rules address, each in the circumstance it names:

• The specific unit the tenant will occupy, identified before the tenant signs, in a residential building with twelve or more residential units (section 504B.111).

• The lease start date and the lease end date, and the prorated amount where the tenant moves in or out on a day other than the first or last of the month, all on the first page of the lease (section 504B.146).

• All nonoptional fees, and the sum of rent and all nonoptional fees described as the Total Monthly Payment and listed on the first page of the lease, together with a statement of whether utilities are included in the rent (section 504B.120, subdivision 1).

• The name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises and of the landlord or the agent authorized to accept service of process, which may instead be given in a separate writing before the tenancy begins (section 504B.181, subdivision 1).

• Where the landlord charges a fee, charge or deposit under a pet policy, a statement of the prohibition on additional fees, charges or deposits for service or support animals (section 504B.113, subdivision 3).

• Where natural gas or water and sewer is apportioned, the UTILITY BILLS notice as an attachment to the lease, for leases entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 (section 504B.216, subdivision 10).

• Where the landlord apportions utility service, the list of the tenant's rights to the current bill and two years of past bills, in the lease or in a separate written notice (section 504B.216, subdivision 5).

• Any late fee, which is enforceable only under a written agreement that says when the fee will be imposed (section 504B.177; the cap and the rest are on the late-fee page).

No report is required, but the landlord must tell the tenant of the right the statute gives, stated here.

Minnesota requires a notice of an option, not a condition report. At the start of the tenancy, or within fourteen days of the tenant moving in, the landlord must tell the tenant of the option to request an initial inspection of the unit for the purpose of identifying existing deficiencies and so avoiding deductions from the deposit later. If the tenant asks, the parties schedule the inspection at a mutually acceptable date and time. There is no state checklist, no agency form, no prescribed contents and no signature requirement, and subdivision 1 does not even say the notice must be in writing, in contrast to the move-out notice in subdivision 2, which does. Where the tenant agrees, the landlord may instead give written acknowledgment of photographs or video of the unit and agree to its condition at the start or end of the tenancy. A parallel move-out notice must be given in writing within a reasonable time after either side gives notice of an intention to end the tenancy or before the term ends, telling the tenant of the option to request a move-out inspection and of the right to be present; that inspection happens on request no earlier than five days before the end, and if the tenant does not ask, the landlord's duties under that subdivision are discharged. Any lease provision waiving the section is contrary to public policy and void. The section states no consequence for failing to give either notice, and Minnesota gives no tenant a right to see the prior tenant's damage list.

When and who signs: At the commencement of the residential tenancy, or within fourteen days of the tenant occupying the unit (section 504B.182, subdivision 1, paragraph (a)). The statute offers the two pegs in the alternative and requires no signature.

Deposit notice at signing: Minnesota prescribes no deposit notice at signing: the deposit writings come later, in the statement of withholding owed within three weeks of the end of the tenancy and in the notice of a transfer of the deposit and of the successor's name and address (section 504B.178). See the security-deposits page.

One in-force state hazard disclosure: outstanding inspection citations and condemnation orders (before signing, within a stated period, on a transfer of the property, and by posting). Also on the books: methamphetamine — the state bars renting the affected property instead of requiring disclosure; no state duty exists for lead, mold, bed bugs, radon, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Lead (state add-on to the federal rule) — no state duty. Minnesota adds nothing to the federal lead-paint disclosure rule for landlords: no state form, no registration, no certificate and no renewal re-disclosure. The state lead program in chapter 144 runs from the assessing agency outward, not from the landlord: the agency tells property owners, landlords and tenants of an elevated blood-lead result, a swab-team worker explains the health aspects to the owner, landlord and tenant, and a tenant who must leave while lead hazards are reduced is relieved of rent. The Residential Lead Abatement rules are licensing and work-practice rules for the people who do the work.

Mold — no state duty. No Minnesota statute or rule requires a landlord to disclose mold. The word appears once in the public-health chapter, inside the definition of a housing-based health threat in a state assessment program, and once in the residential energy code as a construction requirement. Dampness and mold reach a Minnesota tenant through the statutory covenant that the premises be fit for the use intended and kept in reasonable repair, which is a repair duty and not a disclosure; see the habitability page.

Bed bugs — no state duty. Minnesota has no bed-bug disclosure and no bed-bug statute reaching a lease. Neither the landlord-tenant chapter, the sales-disclosure chapter, the public-health chapter nor any Minnesota rule mentions bed bugs. Infestation is a repair question: the statutory covenant expressly includes extermination of insects, rodents, vermin and other pests, and the covenant cannot be waived; see the habitability page.

Radon — no state duty. Minnesota's Radon Awareness Act is a seller's duty, not a landlord's. It fires before an agreement to sell or transfer residential real property is signed, and the transfers it covers are a sale, exchange, deed, contract for deed, lease with an option to purchase, or any other option; a transfer to a tenant already in possession is excepted. The written disclosure, the Radon Warning Statement and the health department publication Radon in Real Estate Transactions all belong to that transaction. An ordinary residential lease is outside the Act, and no Minnesota statute or rule requires a landlord to test for radon or to tell a tenant about it.

Methamphetamine — the state bars renting the affected property instead of requiring disclosure (a statute). Minnesota does not make a landlord tell a prospective tenant that a unit was once a methamphetamine lab. It bars the use of the property instead. Where a county or local health department or a sheriff finds a clandestine lab site and contamination, it must order the property or the affected part of it closed to occupancy and use until it has been assessed and remediated, and the ordering authority records an affidavit with the county recorder or registrar of titles so the history shows up in the ordinary course of a title search. The only written disclosure in the methamphetamine statute runs from a seller or transferor to a buyer or transferee before an agreement to sell or transfer is signed, with liability settled before the closing of the sale, so it does not reach a tenancy. What a Minnesota tenant gets instead is the order itself: the landlord must give a prospective tenant a copy of every outstanding condemnation order and declaration that the premises are unfit for human habitation before a lease is signed or rent or a deposit is paid, and may not accept rent once premises have been ordered vacated. If the property is rented in breach of the bar: A county or local health department or sheriff must order a property found to be a clandestine lab site and contaminated to be prohibited from being occupied or used until it has been assessed and remediated under the health department's clandestine drug labs general cleanup guidelines, and the order is vacated only on a contractor's verification that the work was done properly. Accepting rent or a deposit after premises have been ordered vacated for housing, health or fire code violations is itself unlawful (section 504B.204), and the outstanding order must be handed to a prospective tenant before a lease is signed or any rent or deposit is paid (section 504B.195).

Asbestos — no state duty. No Minnesota statute or rule requires an asbestos disclosure to a tenant. Asbestos appears nowhere in the landlord-tenant chapter, the sales-disclosure chapter or the public-health chapter, and the Clean Indoor Air rules that carry the asbestos parts are licensing, work-practice, management-plan and abatement rules that never mention a landlord or a tenant.

Outstanding inspection citations and condemnation orders — in force — a state duty, before signing, within a stated period, on a transfer of the property, and by posting, in writing (a statute). Minnesota's one pre-signing hazard disclosure is regulatory rather than chemical. A landlord, an agent or anyone acting under the landlord's direction must give a copy of every outstanding inspection order for which a citation has been issued that the housing inspector has marked as threatening the health or safety of the tenant, and of every outstanding condemnation order and declaration that the premises are unfit for human habitation, to three people: a sitting tenant, by delivery or first-class mail, within seventy-two hours after the citation is issued; anyone about to begin a new tenancy, before that person signs a lease or pays rent or a deposit; and anyone about to take new ownership of the property. Where the order does not threaten health or safety, the landlord must instead post a summary of it in a conspicuous place in each affected building, with a notice that the order will be made available for review on the request of a tenant or prospective tenant. No form is prescribed beyond a copy of the order, and no signature is required. There is no violation where only an initial repair order has issued, where the repair time including extensions has not run out or fewer than sixty days have passed since it did with no citation issued, or where the repairs were finished in time. If the duty is not met: The tenant is entitled to the remedies of section 8.31, subdivision 3, paragraph a, which give a person injured by a violation a civil action for damages together with costs and disbursements, including the costs of investigation and reasonable attorney fees, plus any other equitable relief the court determines (section 504B.195, subdivision 2). A landlord who proves the disclosure was made has an affirmative defense, and the remedies are additional to any others; a waiver of the section is void.

No.

Minnesota has no flood disclosure to tenants and none to buyers either. The word flood does not appear anywhere in the landlord-tenant chapter, so there is no zone disclosure, no flooding history, no elevation statement and no insurance advisory. On the sale side, the seller's disclosure chapter is a general duty to disclose material facts that could adversely and significantly affect an ordinary buyer's use and enjoyment of the property, and it carries no flood item; in any event it reaches a lease only where the lease carries an option to purchase, and it excepts a transfer to a tenant already in possession. The only flood law in the Minnesota Rules is construction: the Floodproofing chapter and the flood-hazard-area references in the building and residential codes set design standards, not notices.

No enumerated list — Minnesota has no enumerated roster of prohibited lease clauses. The words unconscionable, exculpatory, confession of judgment and prohibited provision appear nowhere in the landlord-tenant chapter. What the state has instead is a non-waivable statutory covenant plus a section-by-section anti-waiver architecture and a handful of clause-specific voidness rules. The covenant of fitness, repair, energy efficiency, code compliance and winter heat is implied into every residential lease or license and the parties may not waive or modify it; the opportunity to inspect the premises before signing does not defeat it. Fifteen separate sections each carry the same sentence, that any lease provision by which a tenant waives that section is contrary to public policy and void, the fifteenth added with effect from August 1, 2026. Seven further rules void particular clauses outright, from declawing requirements to crime-free clauses reaching conduct off the premises. The architecture is one-sided: it voids clauses that cut down what the statutes give a tenant, and says nothing about clauses burdening a landlord.

Sanction as the statute states it: The clause is void and unenforceable and nothing more. No Minnesota section imposes damages on a landlord for putting a prohibited clause in a lease, and there is no cure window. The civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars per advertisement or per animal in the declawing section is for the advertising, refusal or requirement itself, is sued for by a city attorney, a county attorney or the attorney general, and is payable to the enforcing entity rather than to the tenant. Where a landlord acts on a void clause, the tenant's routes are the remedy in the section concerned, the attorney general's authority to investigate and prosecute violations of the whole chapter, and the private damages, costs and attorney-fee action that authority carries.

The general provisions:

• A waiver or modification of the covenants implied into every residential lease or license that the premises and common areas are fit for the use intended, that they will be kept in reasonable repair including extermination of pests, that they will be reasonably energy efficient, that they will comply with health and safety laws including ordinances regulating rental licensing, and that heat will be furnished at a minimum of sixty-eight degrees from October 1 through April 30 (section 504B.161, subdivision 1).

• An agreement that the tenant will perform specified repairs or maintenance that is not supported by adequate consideration or not set out in a conspicuous writing, or that waives the implied covenants or relieves the landlord of the duty to maintain common areas (section 504B.161, subdivision 2).

• Any lease provision, oral or written, by which the tenant waives a provision of any of the fifteen sections that carry the contrary-to-public-policy clause: sections 504B.144, 504B.147, 504B.153, 504B.165, 504B.182, 504B.195, 504B.204, 504B.2136, 504B.221, 504B.225, 504B.231, 504B.271, 504B.315, 504B.375 and 504B.465, the last of which also voids a waiver of section 504B.381 and sections 504B.395 to 504B.471.

• Any requirement or lease provision that an animal be declawed or devocalized as a condition of occupancy (section 504B.114, subdivision 2).

• Any attempted waiver of the tenant's right to prorated rent for a partial final month (section 504B.116).

• Any waiver of the rights given by the abandonment section, which caps what a landlord may recover after a tenant leaves (section 504B.154, subdivision 2).

• Any attempted waiver of the security-deposit rules (section 504B.178, subdivision 10).

• Any lease provision or agreement requiring a longer notice period than the statute allows for termination on the death of a tenant or on a tenant's infirmity, and any waiver of those termination rights (sections 504B.265 and 504B.266, subdivision 4).

• Any clause barring a tenant from legally possessing cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles or hemp-derived consumer products, or from using a cannabinoid or hemp-derived consumer product other than by combustion or vaporization, and any waiver by the tenant of that right (section 504B.171, subdivision 1).

• Any crime-free or nuisance clause penalizing a tenant or ending the lease for conduct of the tenant, a household member or a guest occurring off the premises and curtilage, outside the two crime-of-violence exceptions the statute states (section 504B.171, subdivision 2a).

By statute a one-way landlord attorney-fee clause is read as reciprocal, so the tenant has the same right on prevailing.

Where a residential lease specifies an action, circumstances, or an extent to which a landlord may recover attorney fees in an action between landlord and tenant, whether directly or through additional rent, the tenant is entitled to attorney fees on prevailing in the same type of action, under the same circumstances, and to the same extent as the lease specifies for the landlord (section 504B.172). The words directly, or through additional rent were added in 2023 and close off fee-shifting dressed up as rent. The conversion works only where the lease contains a fee clause: no Minnesota statute awards fees to a prevailing party on its own force, and a lease silent on fees leaves each side to bear its own. There is no cap. Fee awards attached to particular violations sit elsewhere and are not a prevailing-party regime: the fee-disclosure section lets a court award the tenant reasonable fees on top of treble damages, the section on accepting rent for premises ordered vacated gives treble the money collected plus costs and attorney fees, the rent-payment section gives fees where an eviction is dismissed, and the attorney general enforcement route carries costs and reasonable attorney fees for an injured person.