How to Read a Lease Agreement with AI Assistance: Eight Prompts from Total Cost to Security Deposit (Tenant in the USA and Poland)

Before we start: provide today’s date. The apartment is in [CITY], state [STATE]. Write: does the state or city limit the amount of the security deposit and what is the deadline for the owner to return it after moving out; is there rent control here or a limit on increases; which office accepts tenant complaints. For each answer, link to the state or city office page with a date. If you can't confirm something, write "I didn't find it."

We begin analyzing the rental offer and lease agreement. Before you assess anything, remember my context and apply it throughout the conversation:

– Apartment in [CITY], [STATE]. Rent from the listing [RENT] per month, agreement for [TERM].
– Who lives there: [alone / partner / roommates, how many and whether each signs / children]. Pets: [yes, what / no].
– Gross monthly household income: [AMOUNT]. Credit history in the USA: [none / short / good]. Guarantor: [yes / no].
– How long I realistically will stay: [e.g., 12 to 18 months]. Risk of leaving early: [low / medium / high, why].
– Work: [remotely from home / in the office]. If remotely, I care about: [quiet, internet, workspace].
– Priorities in order: [e.g., cost, location, rent stability, exit flexibility, pets].
– Things I will not accept: [e.g., automatic renewal for a year, no pet agreement].
– Alternatives: [other offers / I can stay where I am / none]. How urgent: [scale 1 to 5].

Confirm in three sentences how you understand this context. Do not assess the offer yet.

You are an advisor working for the tenant. I am attaching the listing, fee schedule, and what the landlord wrote about costs. Calculate the total cost of this rental.

RULES
– Quote numbers from the documents. What is not provided, mark as "not specified" and add a question for the landlord. Do not fill in from assumptions.
– Market data only from sources with a date and specifying what area and type of apartments they concern.
– If the state or city limits the amount of the application fee, security deposit, or late fee, provide the regulation with a link and compare it with the offer.

RETURN
1. Monthly table: rent, pet fee, parking, amenities, utilities included and excluded (who pays for heating, water, garbage, internet; how common utilities are billed), tenant insurance required by the agreement, others. Total monthly.
2. Effective rent: rent after spreading the promotion over the entire term of the agreement. Next to it: rent from which the increase will be calculated upon renewal, and what the agreement or listing says about increases.
3. One-time costs: application fee, broker fee (and whether it is allowed to charge it to the tenant in this state or city), security deposit, pet deposit, moving-in fee, first and last month’s rent in advance. Total and payment deadline for each item.
4. Security deposit: amount against the state limit, where it is held, whether it is interest-bearing, deadline for return after moving out, what the agreement allows to deduct. Source of the regulation.
5. Cost for the entire term: sum of everything from points 1 to 3 for [TERM], and the same if I stay for a second year with an increase of [e.g., 5 percent] and without promotion.
6. Market: median rent for similar apartments in this area from two sources with a date. Where the offer stands. How long the listing has been on the market and whether the price has been lowered.
7. Ten questions for the landlord, whose answers are numbers or yes/no.
8. COST BRIEFING: five sentences of facts.

Same conversation. I am attaching the lease agreement and the documents it refers to. Build a map of all provisions. Work only with the content of the documents.

RULES
– Each row has a point number and a quote of the key sentence. Without a quote, the row does not exist.
– Do not assess yet. Describe what the document says and what it means in simple language when X happens.
– References to documents that I did not attach, list separately as missing.

RETURN
1. Table of provisions. Columns: subject, point number, quote, what it means in practice, what happens when I want to move out early, when a roommate moves out early, when the owner sells the building, when something breaks. Topics to find: lease term and start date; rent, payment due date, payment method, and fees for the method; late fees and how they are calculated; security deposit and conditions for deductions; renewal and what happens after the end of the agreement (month-to-month, automatic renewal, termination notice before the end); increases; early termination and its cost; joint liability of roommates; subletting and guests; pets; utilities and repairs: who is responsible for what, repair deadlines, reporting defects; landlord entry and notice; changes to the apartment (painting, drilling); tenant insurance; parking and storage; noise and building rules; contractual penalties; waivers (e.g., right to jury trial, right to deduct rent for lack of repairs); legal costs; governing law; entire agreement clause; possibility of changing regulations by the owner.
2. What is missing: topics from the list that are not in any document. For each: whether the absence works in my favor, and one sentence why.
3. Contradictions between the agreement, regulations, and listing. Quote both.
4. References to documents that I do not have. List to ask the landlord.
5. Three most convoluted sentences from the document, rewritten in simple language.

Same conversation. From the map in prompt 2, take the clauses with the most weight and analyze each separately.

RULES
– Law for [CITY], [STATE] cite from state and city office pages or from the text of the regulation, with a date. Blogs and portals only as hints, marked.
– Do not provide legal advice. For each clause, write whether it is a topic for a lawyer or tenant organization, and what question to ask.
– "Typical" means: found in most agreements in this city. If you have no basis for assessment, write "I don't know."

RETURN, for each of the clauses: security deposit and deductions; late fees and other penalties; landlord entry; automatic renewal and termination notice; early termination; joint liability; repairs and deadlines; subletting and guests; waivers of rights; legal costs; change of regulations:
1. Quote and point number.
2. What it means in practice in three scenarios: I move out after 7 months, heating doesn't work for a week in January, roommate stops paying. Amounts where they can be calculated.
3. Whether it is typical, harsher, or milder than usual.
4. What the state and city law says: whether the clause is permissible, within what limits, whether it is sometimes invalid. Source with a date.
5. Weight for me (high, medium, low) in light of the context from prompt 0 and one sentence why.
6. Proposal for wording change worth asking for, and a minimal version.
At the end: ranking from the most dangerous and a list of three questions for a lawyer or tenant organization in [CITY].

Same conversation. Address: [ADDRESS]. Prepare me for the inspection and for the move-in day.

RETURN
1. Building in registries: who is the owner according to the city or county registry, whether the owner from the registry matches the agreement, whether the building has open violations or complaints in the city registry (provide the registry and link), year of construction, whether it is subject to lead disclosure, whether it is in a flood zone. Sources.
2. Disclosures I should receive in this state and city (lead, mold, bedbugs, flood, rent control, owner data, others). List with regulation and information whether it is in the attached documents.
3. Apartment condition protocol on the move-in day, arranged under the clauses about the security deposit and repairs from my agreement: room by room, what to check, what to photograph, what to test (water pressure, hot water, heating, air conditioning, windows, locks, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, outlets, drains, signs of moisture and mold, signs of pests). Table format for printing, with space for both parties' signatures.
4. Questions for the landlord or manager for the inspection: ten, including response time for repairs, about previous tenants and reasons for moving out, planned renovations, noise, who has keys.
5. Three things I will check on-site and in the area at a different time of day before signing (evening noise, parking, neighborhood).
6. Message to the landlord requesting written confirmation of the apartment's condition and the list of defects to be repaired before moving in, with a deadline.

Same conversation. Now you play against me. Assume I signed this agreement and 12 months later I regret it: I lost money or peace. Write why.

RULES
– Do not soften. Not a single sentence starting with "on the other hand," "it is worth noting," "nevertheless."
– Each accusation based on a quote from the document or a number from prompts 1 to 4. An accusation without evidence is discarded.
– No catastrophes. What is in the text today.

RETURN
1. Five red flags. For each: weight, quote with point number, mechanism (how it turns into a cost or lack of exit), month in which it will hurt, amount if it can be calculated.
2. Scenario "I must leave in the 7th month": what I pay according to the agreement (cost of early termination, rent until the end, loss of security deposit), whether I can sublet, how long it takes. Compare with what state law says about the owner's obligation to look for a new tenant, if such an obligation exists; source.
3. Scenario "roommate stops paying in the 5th month": what the agreement requires me to pay, what I can do, whether I can replace them with another person.
4. Scenario "end of the agreement": what happens if I do not terminate on time according to the agreement (renewal for a year? month-to-month? penalty?), and how the increase upon renewal looks according to the agreement and according to regulations.
5. Scenario "security deposit": a list of everything the agreement allows to deduct, and for each, whether state law allows it. How much I can realistically recover.
6. Silent cost: how much annually things that seem innocent cost me: payment method fee, amenities fee, common utilities, insurance required by the agreement.
7. One condition after which this black thesis ceases to apply. Verifiable: change of a specific point in the agreement or written confirmation of a specific thing.
8. Three questions you do not know the answers to, which would change the picture. For each: whom to ask.

Same conversation. Prepare me for negotiations with the landlord. Consider whether it is a large management company or a private owner: [which].

RETURN
1. List of requests from easiest to obtain. For each: what I ask, justification with a number or quote from prompts 1 to 5 (days the listing has been on the market, price reductions, median in the area, defects from the inspection, state regulation), alternative if they refuse, and what I do if they refuse the alternative as well.
2. Rent: three levels (minimum, target, ambitious) with justification, or if the rent is not negotiable, a list of things of equal value: an extra month free, a longer lease for a fixed rent, parking included, waiving the pet fee.
3. Changes to the wording of clauses from prompt 3: for each, text to insert in full and minimal version (e.g., fixed cost of early termination instead of rent until the end; repair deadline; notice for entry; no automatic renewal for a year; increase upon renewal limited to X percent).
4. Repairs and agreements before moving in: list from the inspection, with a deadline, to be included as an attachment to the agreement.
5. What not to address in my situation (one sentence per point).
6. Message to the landlord: short, specific, polite, with the three most important points and a request for written confirmation. Version in English and Polish.
7. What must be in writing before signing: verbal agreements that need to be included in the agreement, and one sentence why verbal is not enough (entire agreement clause from the map).

Close these steps in one note that I will paste into my notes and calendar.

– Agreed terms in five lines: rent and effective rent, fixed fees, security deposit and where it is, term and end date, additional agreements written into the lease.
– Dates for the calendar: rent payment day and from when the late fee applies; last day to terminate before the end of the lease to avoid automatic renewal; deadline for reporting defects from the protocol; deadline by which the owner must return the security deposit after moving out; deadline for inspections required by the agreement (e.g., detectors); expiration date of tenant insurance.
– Documents to keep: signed agreement and attachments, condition protocol with signatures and dated photos, payment confirmations, correspondence about repairs, version of the regulations from the day of signing.
– Three exit conditions from this offer before signing: an event or missing document after which I do not sign.
– Response thresholds during the lease: after how many days without repairs I write a letter citing the regulation; what increase upon renewal prompts me to look elsewhere; what I do if the owner enters without notice.
– Move-out checklist: written termination with confirmation of receipt, cleaning according to the agreement, photos after emptying, final protocol, address for the return of the security deposit in writing.
– One sentence: what I still do not know.

Without introduction and conclusion. Just the points.

The apartment is in Poland, I am the tenant. Additional rules:
– Sources: Tenant Rights Protection Act and Civil Code (text of the regulation with article number), office pages. Blogs and portals only as hints, marked.
– Type of agreement: ordinary lease, occasional or institutional lease. For occasional and institutional, list what I must sign additionally (statement of submission to enforcement at a notary, indication of a substitute apartment and consent of its owner), who bears the notary's cost and what it changes in case of dispute. With the article.
– Security deposit: amount against the statutory limit for this type of agreement, rules for return and deadline, indexation. With the article.
– Rent and fees: separate rent, administrative fees to the manager, and utilities; check who pays the renovation fund and whether the agreement allows passing on owner fees to me. Increases: form, notice, frequency, and possibility of contesting according to the law. With the article.
– Termination: when and for what reasons the owner can terminate a fixed-term agreement, what periods apply to me, whether the agreement has an early termination clause and for how much. With the article.
– Handover protocol and meter readings on the day of delivery: whether it exists, what it contains; if not, prepare a template.
– Registration: tenant's registration obligation and whether the agreement limits it.
– Subletting, pets, minor repairs (who pays according to the Civil Code, and who according to the agreement).
– If I live abroad and rent an apartment in Poland during my stays: what about reporting the rental to the tax office (owner's obligation), what about the correspondence address.
– All amounts in zlotys, with conversion to [CURRENCY] with the rate and date.