Minnesota Residential Lease Agreement

What a Minnesota lease must include

Standard lease elements

• Parties and the Minnesota county + street address of the rental.
• Lease term — fixed end date or a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy.
• Monthly rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods.
• Security deposit amount (no statutory cap; mandatory interest-bearing account).
• Utilities — which the landlord covers and which the tenant pays.
• Occupancy rules, pets, smoking, and entry procedures.
• Default, 14-day cure for noncompliance, and 30-day periodic-tenancy termination.
• 21-day deposit return (5 days for condemned buildings) + move-in / move-out inspection right.
• 8% statutory late-fee cap, must be in writing.
• 24-hour entry notice with 8am–8pm window.
• Rent-escrow remedy + cold-weather utility-shutoff protection.
• Signatures of all parties.

Minnesota-required disclosures

• Federal lead-paint disclosure and EPA pamphlet for any unit built before 1978. (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 24 C.F.R. Part 35)
• Owner / agent identification — name and address of landlord (or authorized agent) in the lease body. (Minn. Stat. § 504B.181)
• Move-in / move-out inspection right — landlord must offer the tenant the opportunity to participate in both inspections. (Minn. Stat. § 504B.182)

Minnesota-specific workflow

• No statutory deposit cap; deposit must be held in an interest-bearing account with interest paid to tenant. Minn. Stat. § 504B.178 subd. 2.
• 21-day deposit return with mailing address; 5-day return if the building is condemned (non-tenant-caused). Minn. Stat. § 504B.178 subd. 3.
• Move-in and move-out inspections offered to tenant. Minn. Stat. § 504B.182.
• 8% statutory cap on late fees; must be agreed in writing. Minn. Stat. § 504B.177.
• 24-hour entry notice with 8am–8pm window (emergencies excepted). Minn. Stat. § 504B.211.
• Habitability covenant non-waivable. Minn. Stat. § 504B.161.
• Rent-escrow remedy: tenant may deposit rent with district court if landlord fails. Minn. Stat. §§ 504B.381–504B.425.
• Cold-weather utility-shutoff protection (Oct 1 – Apr 30). Minn. Stat. § 216B.097.
• 14-day cure for noncompliance materially affecting health and safety. Minn. Stat. § 504B.281.
• 30-day periodic-tenancy termination (one full rental period). Minn. Stat. § 504B.135.
• Self-help eviction prohibited; tenant has cause of action for damages + fees. Minn. Stat. § 504B.225.
• Rent-control preemption with general-election carveout — preserves St. Paul rent-stabilization ordinance. Minn. Stat. § 471.9996.

Minnesota Attorney General — Landlord and Tenant Handbook

How a Minnesota lease is structured

1. The document opens with parties, the Minnesota county, and the rental-property address.
2. The property-location subphase surfaces the rent-control preemption + the St. Paul rent-stabilization carveout + the Minnesota Human Rights Act non-discrimination + a single combined major-city overlay informational callout for Minneapolis and St. Paul.
3. The term section identifies the arrangement as fixed-term with an end date or as a periodic tenancy with the 30-day termination floor.
4. The rent section sets the monthly amount, due date, accepted payment methods, and surfaces the 8% statutory late-fee cap (§ 504B.177).
5. The security-deposit section captures the deposit amount and renders the no-statutory-cap framing, the mandatory interest-bearing-account requirement, the 21-day return (5-day for condemned buildings), and the move-in / move-out inspection right.
6. A dedicated Minnesota-disclosures subphase informs the user that the lease will automatically include the move-in / move-out inspection right, the cold-weather utility-shutoff protection, and the owner-identification clause.
7. The document closes with the 14-day cure for noncompliance, the rent-escrow remedy, the SCRA service-member protections, the self-help-eviction prohibition, the statutory mutual attorney's-fees clause, and the Minnesota Human Rights Act non-discrimination clause — followed by signatures.

BuildMyLease assembles all of this for you in a guided interview.

Free Minnesota lease template vs BuildMyLease

Free Minnesota lease templates are everywhere, but most allow late fees that exceed the 8% statutory cap, omit the mandatory deposit-interest disclosure, and skip the cold-weather utility-shutoff protection. Here is the honest side-by-side.

Who this is for

This is for

• Minnesota landlords managing 1–25 private-market units (single-family, condo, small multi-family).
• Owners renting in the Minneapolis–St. Paul Twin Cities metro who need the Renter Bill of Rights and St. Paul rent-stabilization callouts surfaced.
• Owners who want the 8% statutory late-fee cap, the mandatory deposit interest, the 21-day return, and the cold-weather shutoff protection rendered automatically.
• Landlords issuing a new fixed-term lease OR a periodic tenancy that needs the 30-day termination floor.

This isn't for

• Renting in St. Paul where you need the per-unit rent-stabilization cap rendered structurally — BuildMyLease surfaces the obligation but does not encode the per-municipality numerics.
• Mobile-home park tenancies (separate Minnesota statutory regime).
• Section 8 / federally subsidized tenancies — those carry separate HAP-contract requirements that this document does not encode.
• Public housing or college-managed dormitory housing.
• Ongoing eviction proceedings — those require court forms, not a lease.
• Commercial leases.