If market conditions have forced you to remain a renter longer than planned and you'd like to make some improvements to customize your apartment for the extended stay, don't lift a hammer until you read your lease or rental contract.

Better yet, ask the landlord to both do the work and foot the bill. In the current market, he or she just might fix up to keep you on.

"I do think you're seeing more owners paying for improvements for existing residents to keep them from leaving," said Terry Feinberg, executive vice president of the Arizona Multihousing Association, in Phoenix.

Otherwise, as a tenant, you have few rights when it comes to home improving alterations, renovations and remodeling, largely because you don't own "your" home.

Chances are, your lease or rental agreement contains a detailed clause prohibiting alternations or improvements and the forbidden work may include just about anything beyond hammering in hooks for wall hangings.

"Painting and refinishing hardwood floors. You may think it's an improvement. The landlord could consider it an abomination, " said Berkeley, CA attorney Janet Portman, a Nolo.com publisher and co-author of "Every Tenant's Legal Guide" (Nolo.com, $26.95) and "Every Landlord's Legal Guide" (Nolo.com, $44.95).

Only with the landlord's expressed, written consent can you re-do your rental home more to your liking.

Even minor, unsanctioned work can result in major consequences, including:

• You probably won't be reimbursed.
• You could be forced -- at your expense -- to restore the property to its pre-improvement condition.
• You could lose the rights to any of your property that becomes part of the alteration or improvement.
• You could lose some or all of your security deposit to correct or rip out the work.
• You could be evicted.

Property owners are tough about this issue, and case law supports their actions, for good reason.

Landlords ultimately are responsible for making sure any work on their property adheres to real estate regulations, building codes, zoning ordinances or other rules governing construction and habitability.

If your building plans for a rental dream home goes awry and creates a liability, the landlord -- not you -- has the nightmare.

"It's just stupid not to run it by the landlord. From the landlord's point of view, the work has to be done correctly, especially when you begin to fiddle around with electrical systems and plumbing. It's the landlord's property," says Portman.

Two legal exceptions -- installing satellite dishes and building in greater accessibility for people with disabilities -- provide tenants with some discretion in performing alterations, but even then, the property owner or agent holds sway over where and how the work proceeds.

"Take a look at the rental agreement or lease, it will usually tell you what you cannot do by way of improvements. When in doubt, a quick phone call to the owner or manager will help you avoid potential problems down the road," said Feinberg.

Obtaining the property owner's approval for work could grant you some leeway in customizing your rental home more to your liking but, again, not without caveats.

Unless you have cash to burn, the key is -- with permission -- to improve your rental unit without improving the bottom line of the property's value.

That generally means removable improvements, including bookcases, carpeting and window covers, but also major appliances, including refrigerators, ranges, washers, dryers and others that plug in, screw in or otherwise require simple wiring or attachments to connect an appliance to an electrical or water source, according to Portman.

Once you permanently nail, screw, cement or otherwise attach something to the property, the item legally becomes a "fixture" that belongs to the property owner.

You can attempt to negotiate with the property owner for permanent home improvements that remain after your lease expires -- say custom track lighting, built-in bookcases or floor refinishing.

Your negotiating point may be that the work will improve the value of the property. The landlord may agree to pay for the work out of pocket or reduce your rent for a period to cover your cost to have the work done. In any event, the owner gets a tax deduction for the work and that could also be a negotiating point.

In some soft markets where vacancies have risen as fast as rents have fallen, landlords are spiffing up the place to keep existing tenants because, along with the tax benefit, it can cost the landlord less to improve than to move you out and another tenant in.

"Typically, improvements (flooring, paint, appliances or cabinets, counters) are only performed when a unit is vacant between residents. These days, some owners are offering existing residents with expiring leases the option to move to an already upgraded apartment in the community, or to have some upgrades made to their existing unit, in exchange for the resident signing a new lease," said Feinberg.

In negotiations to perform the work yourself, you could also offer to remove an alteration and restore the property to its original state when your lease is up. Keep in mind, the landlord will have the final word on your restoration job. If she or he isn't satisfied, you could lose your security deposit or be hauled into court for any costs your deposit doesn't cover.

Again, a detailed contract itemizing the work to be performed and signed by both the tenant and the landlord helps prevent misunderstandings when the tenant is the contractor.

Published: May 21, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.