Frequently asked questions

No. RentCounsel provides legal information, not legal advice. We help you understand tenant protection laws by referencing actual statutes and ordinances, but we are not a law firm and cannot represent you. For your specific legal situation, we recommend consulting with a qualified attorney or contacting your local tenant rights organization. Every statute reference we provide includes a source link so you can verify the information independently.

No. RentCounsel is completely private and confidential. We never contact your landlord, your property management company, or anyone else on your behalf. The only way anyone would know you use RentCounsel is if you choose to tell them. Generated documents do not mention RentCounsel.

This is one of the most common fears renters have, and it's completely understandable. The good news is that every state we cover has anti-retaliation laws that protect tenants who exercise their legal rights. These laws typically prohibit landlords from raising rent, reducing services, or filing eviction in response to complaints. Ask about your state's specific retaliation protections in the chat, and we'll show you the exact statutes that protect you.

Yes — RentCounsel was built specifically for renters who don't have access to expensive legal help. Our free tier gives you 25 questions per month with statute-backed answers, which is often enough to understand your basic rights. We also connect you with free legal aid organizations in your state. For more complex situations, our assessments and documents can help you take structured action or prepare before meeting with a free legal aid attorney.

Our information is backed by actual statutes and local ordinances that have been verified against official legal codes. Every answer includes specific statute citations with source links so you can verify them yourself. Our AI uses a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system, meaning it retrieves real statutes from our database before generating a response — it does not fabricate legal references. That said, laws change over time, and our database may not reflect the very latest amendments. Always verify critical information with an attorney.

We currently cover tenant protection laws in 10 states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, and New Jersey. We also cover city-level ordinances for 6 major cities: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland. We are continually expanding our coverage to include more jurisdictions.

The free tier gives you 25 questions per month with full statute citations and source links. This resets at the beginning of each calendar month. You get access to state and city-level legal information and can ask about any topic — security deposits, eviction rights, repairs, rent increases, and more. If you need unlimited questions, document generation, or the situation tracker, you can upgrade to Pro for $7.99/month.

Yes, you can cancel your Pro subscription at any time from your billing settings page. When you cancel, you'll retain access to Pro features until the end of your current billing period. After that, your account will revert to the free tier. You will not be charged again after cancellation. Any documents you generated while on Pro remain accessible.

RentCounsel can generate six types of legal documents: Demand Letters (general purpose), Repair Request Notices, Security Deposit Demand Letters, Habitability Complaint Notices, Lease Violation Responses, and Rent Increase Objection Letters. Each document is customized to your jurisdiction and includes relevant statute citations. Pro subscribers get document generation included; free tier users can purchase individual documents.

The Situation Tracker is a Pro feature that helps you document and organize an ongoing dispute with your landlord. You create a situation, then log events as they happen — communications, incidents, documents sent, legal actions taken. Our AI analyzes your timeline to identify applicable laws, flag time-sensitive deadlines, suggest next steps, and spot patterns of illegal behavior. It is like having a case file that gets smarter over time.

Documents generated by RentCounsel are designed to be professional and legally informed, but they are generated by AI and have not been reviewed by an attorney. We strongly recommend having a qualified attorney review any document before using it in legal proceedings. The documents include a disclaimer to this effect. Many tenants find our documents useful as a starting point or for informal dispute resolution with landlords.