Free Alaska Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Alaska residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Alaska Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — the two-month deposit cap, the trust-account duty, the split 14 / 30-day return, and the attorney-fee clause Alaska prohibits.

Alaska AS 34.03 2-Month Deposit Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

An Alaska residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Alaska Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at Alaska Stat. 34.03.010 and following. Alaska’s version of the uniform act is stricter than most on the money and looser than most on the paperwork. The deposit is capped at two months’ rent unless the rent exceeds two thousand dollars a month, and — unusually — the landlord must place it in a trust account rather than an operating account. The return deadline is split: fourteen days if the tenant gave proper notice, thirty if the landlord deducts or the tenant did not. Entry takes twenty-four hours. Alaska is one of the few states that requires carbon monoxide detectors by name. And like every state that adopted the uniform act, Alaska prohibits the attorney-fee clause that most lease templates include by default. The generator below reflects each of those rules as the statute reads today.

Complete the fields below to generate an Alaska residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling Alaska section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with an Alaska move-in / move-out checklist, because Alaska Stat. 34.03.120 sets an express move-out standard and a documented baseline is what proves it was met.

Alaska recognizes the standard range of residential arrangements, and the type decides how the tenancy ends. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side gives notice — thirty days for month-to-month, fourteen for week-to-week. Beyond those, a room or roommate agreement covers a tenant renting one room in an occupied dwelling; a sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable to the landlord; and a lease-to-own agreement adds a purchase option that sits outside Chapter 34.03 and should be drafted with counsel.

Alaska Stat. 34.03.020(c) also carves several arrangements out of the Act entirely. Occupancy in a hotel, motel or transient lodging, residence at an institution incident to detention or to medical or educational service, occupancy by a purchaser under a contract of sale, and occupancy by an employee whose right to occupy is conditioned on employment are outside the residential act. A commercial lease is not governed by Chapter 34.03 at all. Using this residential form for any of those would attach the wrong body of law to the arrangement.

One drafting point worth stating: a lease for a term longer than one year must be in writing to satisfy Alaska’s statute of frauds at Alaska Stat. 09.25.010(a)(6). A lease of one year or less may be oral, but an oral tenancy leaves the deposit rules, the notice periods, and the move-out standard to memory and argument. Put it in writing regardless.

No more than two months’ periodic rent. Alaska Stat. 34.03.070(a) prohibits a landlord from demanding or receiving prepaid rent or a security deposit, however denominated, in an amount or value in excess of two months’ periodic rent. The phrase “however denominated” matters: relabelling money as a fee, a cleaning charge or a pet deposit does not take it outside the cap if it functions as security for the tenant’s obligations.

There is exactly one exception. The cap does not apply where the rental unit’s periodic rent exceeds two thousand dollars a month. In that band the parties may agree to more, which in practice affects a meaningful share of Anchorage and Juneau single-family rentals but very little of the smaller-unit market. The form above makes you record which basis applies, so the lease states on its face why the amount held is lawful.

Alaska’s cap sits in the middle of the national range — Alabama caps at one month, Florida caps at nothing at all. What distinguishes Alaska is not the number but what comes next: the custody duty. The deeper treatment lives in our Alaska security deposit laws guide.

In a trust account, not the landlord’s operating account. Alaska Stat. 34.03.070(c) requires all money paid as prepaid rent or a security deposit to be promptly deposited by the landlord, wherever practicable, in a trust account in a bank, savings and loan association, or with a licensed escrow agent. The landlord may not commingle that money with the landlord’s own funds.

Deposits from several tenants may be held in a single trust account, but only if each tenant’s money is separately accounted for. In practice that means a ledger per tenancy, not a pooled balance. This is the single most-omitted rule in Alaska lease templates, and it is the one most likely to matter in a dispute, because a landlord who cannot show where the money was held has a weak answer to a claim that it was spent.

The lease this page generates names the institution or escrow agent in the deposit section, which does two useful things: it forces the landlord to have actually opened the account before the tenancy starts, and it gives the tenant a written record of where their money sits.

It depends on two facts, and most template sites state only half the rule. Alaska Stat. 34.03.070(g) sets a split deadline for the itemized written notice of any accrued rent and damages, together with any amount due to the tenant.

The period is fourteen days after the tenancy ends and the tenant delivers possession, where the tenant gave proper notice of termination. The period is thirty days where the landlord deducts for damages, or where the tenant did not give proper notice of termination. Where the landlord becomes aware that the tenant has abandoned the premises, the thirty days run from that awareness. The notice is mailed to the tenant’s last known address, which is why a tenant should give a forwarding address in writing on vacating and a landlord should ask for one.

Read together, the practical rule is this: a clean, properly noticed move-out with no deductions is a fourteen-day job; anything involving damages is a thirty-day job. A landlord who assumes a flat fourteen days and then finds damage has given themselves half the time the statute actually allows, and a tenant told to expect fourteen days after walking out without notice has been told the wrong deadline. Build the itemization with our Alaska security deposit itemization form.

Rent is payable as the rental agreement provides. Alaska sets no statutory grace period: if rent is due on the first, it is late on the second unless the lease creates a grace period. Alaska also sets no cap on late fees — there is no residential late-fee statute in Chapter 34.03 at all. The lease must state the fee for it to be chargeable, and the practical limit is judicial: a fee wildly out of proportion to the landlord’s actual loss invites a challenge as an unenforceable penalty rather than a reasonable estimate of damages.

This is where a specific and repeated error deserves naming. Several ranking Alaska template pages describe a fee “capped at the lesser of” some figure and cite Alaska Stat. 09.68.115. That statute sits in the Code of Civil Procedure and governs bad checks. It caps a pre-suit demand fee at thirty dollars, and where an action has been filed it lets a defendant satisfy the claim by paying the amount of the check plus costs up to one hundred fifty dollars. It is not a rent provision, it does not cap late fees, and a lease that cites it for a late-fee clause is citing the wrong body of law. Our Alaska late fee laws guide covers the drafting.

Alaska has no rent-control statute and no rent-increase notice statute. On a fixed-term lease, rent cannot change mid-term unless the lease says so. On a periodic tenancy, a rent change is accomplished by giving the notice that would end the tenancy — thirty days for month-to-month — and offering new terms. See Alaska rent increase laws.

At least twenty-four hours. Alaska Stat. 34.03.140(c) provides that, except in case of emergency or if it is impracticable to do so, the landlord shall give the tenant at least twenty-four hours notice of intention to enter, and may enter only at reasonable times and with the tenant’s consent.

The tenant, for their part, may not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for the purposes the statute lists: inspecting the premises, making necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supplying necessary or agreed services, removing the landlord’s own personal property not covered by a written rental agreement, or exhibiting the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers or contractors. The landlord may enter without consent in case of emergency.

The limit that matters most is the one landlords tend to forget: the landlord may not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant. Repeated “inspections” after a complaint are the classic fact pattern, and they run straight into the retaliation prohibition at Alaska Stat. 34.03.310 as well. Our Alaska notice to enter form produces a dated notice that documents compliance, and Alaska landlord entry laws covers the edge cases.

Alaska Stat. 34.03.100 puts the habitability burden on the landlord: make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition; keep all common areas clean and safe; maintain in good and safe working order all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, kitchen and other facilities and appliances; supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water and heat at all times, insofar as energy conditions permit; and provide smoke detection devices and carbon monoxide detection devices as required by Alaska Stat. 18.70.095.

In a single-family or two-family residence, the parties may agree in writing that the tenant performs specified repairs, maintenance tasks, alterations or remodeling — but the agreement must be entered into in good faith and not for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations. That good-faith qualifier is what stops the exception swallowing the rule, and it is why the form asks for the property type before it asks about maintenance.

Alaska Stat. 34.03.120 sets the tenant’s side: keep the occupied part of the premises as clean and safe as its condition permits; dispose of all ashes, rubbish, garbage and other waste in a clean and safe manner; keep plumbing fixtures as clean as their condition permits; use all facilities and appliances reasonably; not deliberately or negligently destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the premises; and maintain the smoke and carbon monoxide detection devices. It also imposes an express move-out standard: the tenant must leave the premises in substantially the same condition as at the beginning of the tenancy, normal wear and tear excepted. That sentence is the yardstick every deposit deduction is measured against, and it is largely absent from competitor coverage. See Alaska habitability laws.

Alaska gives the tenant two distinct routes, and the statute forbids using both for the same breach.

The general route is Alaska Stat. 34.03.160. The tenant delivers written notice specifying the breach. The landlord then has ten days to remedy it, and if the breach is not remedied the rental agreement terminates twenty days after the landlord receives the notice. If a substantially similar breach recurs within six months, the tenant may terminate on ten days written notice without waiting again. On termination the landlord returns all prepaid rent and security deposits. The tenant may also recover damages and obtain injunctive relief, and may not terminate for a condition the tenant, a family member or a guest caused.

The essential-services route is Alaska Stat. 34.03.180, and it is faster because the subject matter is urgent. Where the landlord is in breach of the duty to supply running water, hot water, heat, sanitary facilities or other essential services, the tenant may, after written notice, procure reasonable amounts of those services during the period of noncompliance and deduct the actual and reasonable cost from rent; or recover damages based on the diminished rental value; or procure reasonable substitute housing. Note there is no dollar cap in the statute — the limit is that the amounts and the cost be reasonable. In an Alaskan winter this is not a theoretical remedy, which is presumably why the legislature declined to make the tenant wait ten days for heat.

For a tenancy without a fixed term, Alaska Stat. 34.03.290(b) sets the notice periods. Either party may terminate a week-to-week tenancy by written notice given at least fourteen days before the termination date stated in the notice, and a month-to-month tenancy by written notice given at least thirty days before the rental due date stated in the notice. The reference point is the rental due date, not an arbitrary date, which is a detail that decides whether a notice served late in a month is effective for the following month or the one after.

If the tenant remains in possession without the landlord’s consent after the agreement expires or is terminated, the landlord may serve a notice to quit and bring an action for possession. Where the holdover is wilful and not in good faith, the landlord may recover in addition an amount not to exceed one and one-half times the actual damages. Alaska uses that same one-and-a-half multiplier against landlords for unlawful ouster, which makes it the number to remember in both directions. Our Alaska breaking-lease laws guide covers when a tenant may leave without liability, and Alaska lease termination laws covers the notice mechanics.

Alaska Stat. 34.03.220 sets out the landlord’s notice-to-quit tracks. For unpaid rent, the landlord delivers a written notice to quit and the tenant may cure by paying the rent within seven days after the written notice; if the tenant does not, the landlord may bring an action for possession. The landlord may also proceed where the tenant has deliberately inflicted substantial damage to the premises exceeding four hundred dollars, where the premises is being used for an illegal purpose, and on a material breach of the agreement that materially affects health and safety. Our Alaska seven-day notice to pay rent or quit and notice to cure or quit handle the two main tracks, and Alaska eviction notice laws covers the sequence.

What a landlord may never do is take possession outside the court process. Alaska Stat. 34.03.210 provides that if the landlord unlawfully removes or excludes the tenant from the premises, or wilfully diminishes services by interrupting or causing the interruption of electric, gas, water, sanitary or other essential service, the tenant may recover possession or terminate the rental agreement and, in either case, recover an amount not to exceed one and one-half times the actual damages — plus return of all prepaid rent and deposits. In a state where an interrupted heating supply is a genuine safety event, this is not a nominal remedy.

Alaska also prohibits retaliation. Under Alaska Stat. 34.03.310, a landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent, decreasing services, or threatening to bring an action for possession because the tenant complained to the landlord of a violation of Alaska Stat. 34.03.100, pursued rights under the Act, organized or became a member of a tenant union or similar organization, or complained to a governmental agency responsible for enforcement of housing, wage, price or rent controls.

Alaska is notably more protective of the tenant’s belongings than several neighbouring states, and the sequence is specific. Under Alaska Stat. 34.03.260, where a tenant leaves personal property on the premises after vacating, the landlord gives the tenant notice demanding that the property be removed by a date set out in the notice that is not less than fifteen days after delivery or mailing.

Critically, the landlord shall store the property in a place of safekeeping and shall exercise reasonable care for it in the meantime. That is a positive duty, not an option. Only after the notice period does disposal arise: property of value goes to public sale under the statute’s procedures, property of no appreciable value may be destroyed, and perishable property may be disposed of by any means. A landlord who bins a tenant’s belongings the week after move-out has skipped both the notice and the storage duty.

Alaska Stat. 34.03.040 lists four provisions a rental agreement may not contain, and this is where imported templates fail. A rental agreement may not provide that the landlord or tenant:

• Agrees to waive or to forego rights or remedies under the Act.
• Authorizes a person to confess judgment on a claim arising out of the rental agreement.
• Agrees to the exculpation or limitation of any liability of the landlord or tenant arising under the law.
• Agrees to pay the landlord’s attorney fees. This is the one almost every multi-state template gets wrong.

A provision prohibited by the section and included in a rental agreement is unenforceable. And the enforcement mechanism has teeth: where a landlord or tenant deliberately uses a rental agreement containing provisions known by that party to be prohibited, the other party may recover actual damages. So the fee-shifting clause a landlord copied in to protect themselves becomes, at best, dead text and, at worst, the basis of a claim against them.

It is worth being precise, because the rule is often overstated: Alaska has not abolished attorney fees in landlord-tenant disputes. Fees may still be awarded under the ordinary civil rules and under specific statutory provisions. What is void is a lease clause obliging the tenant to pay the landlord’s fees. The lease this page generates therefore contains no attorney-fee clause at all, and says so expressly — the same posture as our Alabama lease agreement, which faces an identical prohibition under its own uniform act.

Two under state law, plus one federal. The list is short, and the second one is the one templates miss.

Manager and owner identification — Alaska Stat. 34.03.080(a). At or before the commencement of the tenancy, the landlord must disclose in writing the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises, and of an owner of the premises or a person authorized to act for and on behalf of the owner for the purpose of service of process and for receiving and receipting for notices and demands. The information must be kept current. Alaska asks for two identifications where many states ask for one.

Smoke and carbon monoxide detection devices — Alaska Stat. 34.03.100 with Alaska Stat. 18.70.095. The landlord must provide both, and Alaska Stat. 34.03.120 puts maintenance of both on the tenant. Alaska names carbon monoxide devices expressly, which many state acts do not, and a lease carrying only a smoke-detector clause does not reflect the statute. Given how much Alaskan housing burns fuel for heat, this is a substantive requirement rather than a formality.

Lead-based paint — federal, 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Any dwelling built before 1978 requires the federal disclosure, the EPA pamphlet, and any known records or reports. Not an Alaska rule, but it applies in Alaska. Our Alaska lead-based paint disclosure form handles it.

Alaska does not require a radon disclosure, a flood-risk disclosure, a bed bug disclosure, a mold disclosure, an asbestos disclosure, a methamphetamine contamination disclosure, a military ordnance proximity disclosure, a shared-utility disclosure, a demolition notice, or a sex-offender registry notice in a residential lease. Each of those comes from another state’s statute book. A voluntary disclosure does no harm; citing an Alaska section for one does.

• Including an attorney-fee clause. AS 34.03.040(a)(4) prohibits it. The clause is void, and deliberately using a lease containing a known prohibited provision lets the other party recover actual damages.
• Skipping the trust account. AS 34.03.070(c) requires the deposit to be held in a trust account and not commingled. Most templates state the cap and omit the custody duty entirely.
• Assuming a flat fourteen-day deposit deadline. It is thirty days if you deduct for damages or the tenant did not give proper notice.
• Citing AS 09.68.115 for a late-fee cap. That is the bad-check statute. Alaska caps residential late fees nowhere.
• Carrying a smoke-detector clause only. AS 34.03.100 requires carbon monoxide detection devices too, and AS 34.03.120 puts maintenance of both on the tenant.
• Omitting the move-out standard. AS 34.03.120 requires the tenant to leave the premises in substantially the same condition, normal wear and tear excepted — the measure every deduction is judged against.
• Naming only the owner. AS 34.03.080(a) requires both the manager and an owner or the owner’s process agent.
• Disposing of belongings after two weeks. AS 34.03.260 requires a removal notice of not less than fifteen days and a positive duty to store the property with reasonable care.
• Treating repair-and-deduct as capped. AS 34.03.180 has no dollar limit; the constraint is that the amounts and the cost be reasonable.
• Importing radon, flood or bed bug disclosures. None are required in Alaska, and citing an Alaska section for them is a tell the lease was never checked against Chapter 34.03.
• Using a residential lease outside the Act. AS 34.03.020(c) excludes hotel and transient occupancy, institutional residence, purchasers in possession, and employment-conditioned occupancy.
• Relying on an oral long lease. A term longer than one year must be written under AS 09.25.010(a)(6).

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. Alaska’s remedies cut both ways at one and a half times actual damages, and its deposit rules put the landlord’s own compliance under scrutiny before the tenant’s conduct is ever reached — so the cheapest protection is not placing the wrong tenant. Verifiable income, a clean payment history, and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification. Screen first, then paper the tenancy with this lease.

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