Residential Rental Agreements Act - Notice Requirements - Waiver - Procedure

Sep 16, 2026

Residential Rental Agreements Act establishes landlord duties for maintaining residential rental premises so they are fit and habitable, and confirms tenants’ rights cannot be waived by contract. The Act sets out eight distinct obligations, including compliance with building and housing codes, maintaining safe conditions, repairing essential facilities, installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and addressing specified imminently dangerous conditions. It distinguishes written notice requirements for certain repairs from emergency situations, and outlines waiver limits and tenant enforcement through civil action and related defenses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time2 min

AccessFree to download

What Does the Law Provide?

Landlord Obligations

Notice Requirements

Waiver

Procedure

The Residential Rental Agreements Act is set out in G.S. Chapter 42, Sections 38 to 44. This law, which was passed in 1977, re-wrote the common law to provide that landlords must maintain residential rental premises to be fit to live in, and to make clear that a tenant’s right to such housing cannot be waived. Prior law had followed the rule of caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) . What Does the Law Provide? The law imposes 8 distinct obligations on a landlord: 1. He must comply with building and housing codes. 2. He must keep premises in a fit and habitable condition. 3. He must keep common areas in safe condition 4. He must maintain and promptly repair electrical, plumbing, heating, and other supplied facilities and appliances. 5. He must install a smoke detector and keep it in good repair. 6. He must install a carbon monoxide detector and keep it in good repair. 7. He must notify the tenant if water the landlord charges to provide exceeds a certain contaminant level. 8. He must repair within a reasonable time any “imminently dangerous condition” listed in the statute: a. Unsafe wiring. b. Unsafe flooring or steps. c. Unsafe ceilings or roofs. d. Unsafe chimneys or flues. e. Lack of potable water. f. Lack of operable locks on all doors leading to the outside. g. Broken windows or lack of operable locks on all windows on the ground level. h. Lack of operable heating facilities capable of heating living areas to 65 degrees Fahrenheit when it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside from November 1 through March 31. i. Lack of an operable toilet. j. Lack of an operable bathtub or shower. k. Rat infestation as a result of defects in the structure that make the premises not impervious to rodents. l. Excessive standing water, sewage, or flooding problems caused by plumbing leaks or inadequate drainage that contribute to mosquito infestation or mold. There is something a little confusing about this: some of these overlap. Rental premises might, for example, have a broken furnace that violates obligation \#4 above, but the fact that it’s below-freezing in the house also means the premises are not habitable. The reason it matters is that different rules apply as far as the notice that’s required. Let’s look at that more closely. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ | Notice Requirements | | --- | | Only one of the obligations has a notice requirement written specifically into the statute: a landlord’s obligations with regard to electrical, plumbing, and other “facilities and appliances” arise only if he has written notice that repair or maintenance is necessary. After receiving notice, the landlord is entitled toa “reasonable time” to make repairs. The exception to this requirement is when there is an emergency. If the shower handle breaks off and water is pouring out of the tub onto the floor, the law will not require the tenant to notify the landlord in writing and then wait a few days before imposing an obligation on the landlord to make a repair.
A common-sense rule applies to the other obligations: the tenant must give whatever notice is necessary to reasonably permit the landlord to fulfill his obligations. If there’s a leak in the roof, for example, the tenant must notify the landlord before it’s reasonable to expect the landlord to repair it. In that case, however, oral notice is acceptable. It may be that in some cases, no notice at all is required, when the evidence demonstrates that the landlord actually knew of the problem (for example, there were holes in the floor before the tenant moved in) . | | | | --- | | | | | | | Waiver The RRAA is a consumer-protection statute. Like other consumer protection legislation, the rights of the parties are not created by contract—or agreement—in these cases. Instead, the obligations of the land

FAQs

What are the key obligations the Act places on a landlord for residential rentals?

The Act imposes eight obligations covering code compliance, keeping premises habitable, maintaining safe common areas, promptly repairing and maintaining supplied facilities and appliances, installing and maintaining smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, addressing certain water contaminant issues, and repairing specified imminently dangerous conditions within a reasonable time.

When does the tenant have to give notice to the landlord for repairs under the Act?

Only one obligation includes a specific written-notice requirement: repairs and maintenance for electrical, plumbing, and other facilities and appliances apply after the landlord receives written notice, giving the landlord a reasonable time to repair. For other obligations, the tenant must give notice sufficient to allow reasonable performance, and oral notice may be acceptable; no notice may be required if the landlord already knew of the problem.

Can a tenant waive these rights by signing a lease or agreeing to defects?

No. As a consumer-protection statute, the Act states tenants do not waive their rights to fit and habitable housing by signing a waiver lease or agreeing to rent a place with obvious defects. Even if the lease allows otherwise, a landlord still has statutory repair duties when defects occur.

Sep 16, 2026

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