Tenant Resources

What Nevada Law Gives You as a Tenant

Most renting problems come from a rule one side did not know about. These are the ones that come up most, with the section of the Nevada Revised Statutes each comes from, so you can check any of it yourself. Nevada’s Legislature meets in odd-numbered years and the 2025 session changed several of these, so anything you read on a national rental site may be out of date. Verified against the enacted text on 4 September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

Application Fees

A landlord who charges you an application, credit-check or background-check fee must refund it if they rent the home to a different applicant and never actually did the work the fee paid for — both conditions, not either. And no application fee may be charged for a minor in your household. That is NRS 118A.306, new in the 2025 session, so a lot of published advice has not caught up with it yet.

How You Are Allowed to Pay Rent

You must be offered at least one way to pay rent that costs you nothing and does not require you to hand over bank-account information — NRS 118A.303, also new in 2025. If an online portal is offered as well, the fee for using it may not exceed what the portal operator charges the landlord, and that fee has to be written into your rental agreement as its own line rather than appearing later as a surprise.

Rent Has to Be One All-In Number

Since 2025, everywhere your agreement states the rent it must be a single figure that already includes every mandatory fee, and the landlord may not charge more than that figure — NRS 118A.200(6) and (7). The narrow exception is electricity, natural gas or water where the utility cannot contract with you directly; that has to be flagged with a reference symbol at least half the size of the rent figure, pointing to a statement on the same page. If your rent is quoted one way in the advert and another way in the lease, that is worth asking about before you sign. Our Nevada lease agreement requirements page sets out everything a lease here has to contain.

Late Fees

A late fee has to be in the rental agreement, and then: no late fee at all until at least 3 calendar days after rent was due (for any tenancy longer than week-to-week), a ceiling of 5% of the periodic rent, and the maximum may not be increased on the basis of a late fee already imposed — fees cannot compound. That is NRS 118A.210(4). There is more detail on late fees and rent payment rules.

Your Security Deposit

The deposit, any surety bond and any last month’s rent added together may not exceed three months’ rent (NRS 118A.242(1)). A pet deposit counts toward that total — the statutory definition of “security deposit” excludes only an option-to-purchase payment and a surety-bond premium (NRS 118A.240).

When the tenancy ends the landlord has 30 days to give you an itemized written accounting and return the balance. Miss that and the landlord is liable for the entire deposit, plus a further sum of up to the whole deposit again fixed by the court — NRS 118A.242(4) and (6). The only charge that may be called nonrefundable is “a nonrefundable charge for cleaning, in a reasonable amount”; any other clause calling your deposit nonrefundable is void (NRS 118A.242(8)). Full detail on Nevada security deposit rules, and a documented move-in inspection is the single best protection you have when it is time to get it back.

Rent Increases

60 days’ written notice before the first payment at the higher rate — 30 days only where the periodic tenancy is shorter than a month (NRS 118A.300). If you have read 45 days somewhere, that has been wrong since the 2021 session, and it is still repeated widely. Nevada has no statewide rent control, so there is no cap on the amount. See rent increase notice in Nevada.

Entry and Notice

Except in an emergency, you get at least 24 hours’ notice of intent to enter, and entry only at reasonable times during normal business hours unless you agree otherwise for that particular visit. The landlord may not abuse the right of access or use it to harass you — NRS 118A.330. That applies to routine inspections as much as to repairs.

Repairs and Habitability

The landlord must keep the home habitable, and the statute expressly names rodents, insects and vermin among the conditions covered, in the areas under the landlord’s control at the start of the tenancy (NRS 118A.290). Report problems through the resident portal so the request is dated and tracked — a written, timestamped record is what makes a repair history provable later. See pest control in a rental property.

Clauses That Do Not Bind You Even If You Signed

NRS 118A.220 makes five kinds of lease clause void as contrary to public policy: giving up rights or remedies under the chapter; letting someone confess judgment against you; agreeing to pay the landlord’s attorney’s fees (an agreement may still award fees to whoever prevails in court); excusing the landlord from liability or making you indemnify them for their own acts; and agreeing to give a different termination notice than the landlord must give you. Signing one does not make it enforceable.

If There Is No Written Agreement

The absence of a written agreement raises disputable presumptions in your favor (NRS 118A.200(5)): no restrictions on children or pets, maintenance and waste removal provided at no charge, no late-payment or dishonored-check charges, and the premises returned as they were apart from normal wear. Get it in writing regardless — but know that a missing lease is not the blank cheque it is sometimes presented as.

Fair Housing

Housing discrimination in Nevada sits in chapter 118, not 118A. NRS 118.100 prohibits refusing to rent, discriminating in terms or conditions, or advertising a preference on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, familial status or sex — three of which Nevada adds beyond the federal classes. Source of income is not a protected class statewide, though a local ordinance may still address it. We apply the same written screening criteria to every applicant for this reason; they are published on rental qualifications. More on fair housing compliance.

Where to Check Any of This Yourself

Every section above is on the Legislature’s own site under the chapter number given. Our Nevada landlord-tenant law guide covers the same statutes from the owner’s side, which is worth reading if you want to know what your landlord is working to. If something here does not match what you have been told about your tenancy, raise it with us — it is usually a misunderstanding, and it is always cheaper to sort out early.