Free Nebraska Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Nebraska residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Nebraska Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — the one-month deposit ceiling and its separate quarter-month pet deposit, the 14-day itemized return, and the attorney-fee clause Nebraska prohibits.

Nebraska Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1401 1-Month Deposit Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Nebraska residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Nebraska Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1401 to 76-1449. Nebraska adopted the uniform act in 1974 and has amended it steadily since, most recently in 2025, so a template written even two years ago is already behind. Nebraska caps security at one month’s rent and allows exactly one addition on top of it — a pet deposit of no more than one-fourth of a month’s rent. It gives the landlord only fourteen days after the tenancy ends to return the balance with a written itemization, one of the shortest deadlines in the country. Its entry notice is twenty-four hours in writing, and since 2021 it must also name the purpose and the window. And Nebraska prohibits the attorney-fee clause that nearly every circulating lease template includes by default — more broadly than any other state in this series, because the ban reaches the tenant’s own fees as well as the landlord’s. The generator below builds a lease that reflects each of those rules as the statute actually reads.

Complete the fields below to generate a Nebraska residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations, the electronic-notice election, and each disclosure you check (the federal lead-paint disclosure follows the year built: it prints for housing built before 1978 and never for housing built in 1978 or later), and the generated lease cites the controlling Nebraska section at each point. Before you hand keys to anyone, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with a Nebraska move-in / move-out checklist so the fourteen-day itemization rests on documented condition rather than memory.

Nebraska 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. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1414(4), where a rental agreement does not fix a definite term, the tenancy is week-to-week in the case of a roomer who pays weekly rent and month-to-month in all other cases. That default is why an informal arrangement to pay monthly rent creates a month-to-month tenancy by operation of law, with the whole act attached to it, even where nothing was signed.

Beyond those, a room or roommate agreement covers a tenant renting one room in an occupied dwelling; a sublease transfers the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable to the landlord, and is only available where the lease permits it; and a lease-to-own agreement bolts a purchase option onto a tenancy and should be drafted with counsel, since the purchase terms sit outside the act.

Several situations fall outside this form entirely. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1408 excludes eight arrangements from the act unless they were created to avoid it: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counseling or religious service; occupancy under a contract of sale by the purchaser or a successor in interest; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in a portion of a structure operated for the organization’s benefit; transient occupancy in a hotel or motel; occupancy by an employee whose right to occupy is conditional on employment about the premises; occupancy by the owner of a condominium unit or the holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; occupancy under an agreement covering premises used primarily for agricultural purposes; and a lease of improved or unimproved residential land for a term of five years or more. A commercial tenancy is not governed by the act either, and a mobile home space is governed by a separate statute, the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act at 76-1450 and following.

One drafting point specific to Nebraska: the act applies to rental agreements entered into or extended or renewed after July 1, 1975 (Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1448), which in practice means every live residential tenancy in the state. And under Neb. Rev. Stat. 36-103, a lease for a term of one year is expressly carved out of the writing requirement for interests in land, so a one-year tenancy can be created orally. Longer terms must be in writing. Landlords sometimes assume a handshake extension carries the original written lease forward; it usually does not, and the tenancy reverts to month-to-month under 76-1414(4), which changes the notice needed to end it.

No more than one month’s periodic rent, plus a pet deposit of no more than one-fourth of a month’s rent. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1416(1) says a landlord “may not demand or receive security, however denominated, in an amount or value in excess of one month’s periodic rent, except that a pet deposit not in excess of one-fourth of one month’s periodic rent may be demanded or received when appropriate.”

Three things in that sentence do real work and are routinely lost in summary. First, “however denominated”. Calling money a cleaning deposit, a key deposit, a redecorating deposit or a last-month holdback does not take it outside the section if it functions as security for the tenant’s obligations. Second, the pet allowance is a ceiling expressed as a fraction of rent, not a flat figure — on a lower rent it is a small number, and a fixed pet deposit lifted from a multi-state template will often exceed it. Third, the pet deposit is available “when appropriate”, which ties it to an actual pet rather than to a blanket charge.

The subsection then carves out one class of landlord: the ceiling “shall not be applicable to housing agencies organized or existing under the Nebraska Housing Agency Act.” That is why the builder above asks which kind of landlord you are before it writes the deposit clause. Everything else in section 76-1416 — the fourteen-day itemized return, the remedies, the successor-landlord rule — applies to an agency in full.

Nebraska does not require a deposit receipt, does not require the deposit to be held in a separate or interest-bearing account, and does not require interest to be paid on it. Those are all other states’ rules. What Nebraska does instead is impose a very short return deadline and back it with a fee award. The deeper treatment lives in our Nebraska security deposit laws guide, and Nebraska pet and assistance-animal rules cover why a genuine assistance animal is not a pet for deposit purposes at all.

The tenant recovers the money due plus court costs plus attorney’s fees — and, where the failure was willful and not in good faith, liquidated damages on top. This is the deadline that decides most Nebraska deposit disputes, and it is worth reading in full because the mechanics are unusual.

Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1416(2) provides that on termination of the tenancy, property or money held as prepaid rent and security may be applied to the payment of rent and to the amount of damages the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant’s noncompliance with the rental agreement or with section 76-1421. The balance, if any, and a written itemization shall be delivered or mailed to the tenant within fourteen days after the date of termination of the tenancy. Note what triggers the clock: termination of the tenancy. Not surrender of keys, not the end of the landlord’s inspection, not the day the contractor’s invoice arrives.

The same subsection then solves the problem of a tenant who leaves no address. Where no mailing address or instructions are provided, the landlord shall mail, by first-class mail, the balance to be returned and the written itemization to the tenant’s last-known mailing address. If that mailing comes back undeliverable, or if the returned balance stays outstanding for one year, it is treated as abandoned property to be reported and paid to the State Treasurer under the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act. Nebraska does not let an unclaimed deposit quietly become the landlord’s money, which is a real difference from states that forfeit it to the landlord after a waiting period.

Subsection (3) supplies the remedy, and it has two tiers. For any failure to comply with subsection (2), the tenant may recover the property and money due, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees. In addition, where the landlord’s failure is willful and not in good faith, the tenant may recover, as liquidated damages, an amount equal to one month’s periodic rent or two times the amount of the security deposit, whichever is less. The “whichever is less” is the part rankers invert: it is a ceiling on the tenant’s liquidated damages, not a choice for the tenant to make.

Two further protections sit in subsections (4) and (5). A tenant is not liable for damages directly related to the tenant’s removal from the premises by order of any governmental entity where the removal followed the premises not being fit for habitation due to the landlord’s negligence or neglect — so a condemnation caused by deferred maintenance cannot be charged against the deposit. And whoever holds the landlord’s interest at the time the tenancy terminates is bound by section 76-1416, which means a buyer inherits the deposit obligation whether or not the money was transferred at closing. Use the Nebraska security deposit itemization form to build the written itemization and the Nebraska deposit return letter to send it, and send both early.

Rent is payable without demand or notice at the time and place the parties agreed. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1414(3) supplies the defaults where the lease is silent: rent is payable at the dwelling unit, periodic rent is payable at the beginning of any term of one month or less and otherwise in equal monthly installments at the beginning of each month, and rent is uniformly apportionable from day to day. That last clause is what makes a prorated first or final month lawful. Where there is no agreement at all, subsection (2) makes the tenant liable for the fair rental value of the use and occupancy.

Nebraska 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. And Nebraska sets no cap on late fees — there is no residential late-fee statute in the act at all. The practical limits are contractual and judicial: the fee must be in the lease to be chargeable, and Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1412 lets a court that finds a provision unconscionable when made refuse to enforce it, enforce the rest without it, or limit its application to avoid an unconscionable result. A fee wildly out of proportion to the landlord’s actual loss is exactly the kind of provision that argument is built for. Our Nebraska late fee laws guide covers the drafting in more detail.

Nebraska also has no rent control and no residential 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, seven for week-to-week — and offering new terms. That is a meaningful difference from states with a dedicated rent-increase notice period, and a common source of confusion for landlords operating across several states; our Nebraska rent increase notice and Nebraska rent increase laws guide handle the mechanics.

On returned checks, be careful what you copy. Nebraska’s general bad-check provision, Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-611(5), requires a person who makes voluntary restitution to pay the face value plus ten dollars to the injured party and any reasonable handling fee the financial institution imposed. There is a separate fifteen dollar returned-check charge in Neb. Rev. Stat. 45-918.01, but that section sits inside the Delayed Deposit Services Licensing Act at 45-901 to 45-931 and applies to a licensed delayed-deposit lender holding a check from a delayed deposit transaction. It is not a landlord rule, and a Nebraska lease that recites it as one is quoting payday-lending law.

At least twenty-four hours, in writing, naming the purpose and the window. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1423(1) lets the landlord enter to inspect the premises, make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workmen or contractors. The tenant “shall not unreasonably withhold consent” to those entries.

Subsection (3) is where Nebraska diverges from the summaries. Except in an emergency, or where it is impracticable to do so, the landlord shall (a) give the tenant at least twenty-four hours’ written notice of the intent to enter, and “such notice shall be provided to each individual unit and include the intended purpose for entry and a reasonable period during which the landlord anticipates making entry”; and (b) enter only at reasonable times. Those three requirements — writing, per-unit delivery, and a stated purpose plus window — were added by Laws 2021, LB320. Every ranking Nebraska template page reports the twenty-four hours and omits all three. A building-wide notice taped in the lobby saying “maintenance next week” satisfies none of them.

The landlord may enter without the tenant’s consent in case of emergency (76-1423(2)). Beyond that, subsection (4) closes the list: the landlord “has no other right of access except by court order, as permitted by subsection (2) of section 76-1432, or if the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the premises.” The 76-1432(2) route is the extended-absence rule — during any absence of the tenant in excess of seven days the landlord may enter at times reasonably necessary.

Abuse of access is separately actionable. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1438(2), if the landlord makes an unlawful entry, a lawful entry in an unreasonable manner, or repeated otherwise-lawful demands for entry that have the effect of unreasonably harassing the tenant, the tenant may obtain injunctive relief or terminate the rental agreement and, in either case, recover actual damages not less than an amount equal to one month’s rent plus reasonable attorney’s fees. The section runs both ways: under 76-1438(1), a tenant who refuses lawful access exposes themselves to injunctive relief or termination plus actual damages and fees. Our Nebraska notice to enter form produces a dated written notice that carries the purpose and the window, and Nebraska landlord entry laws covers the edge cases.

Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1419(1) places six duties on the landlord: substantially comply, after written or actual notice, with applicable minimum housing codes materially affecting health and safety; make all repairs and do whatever is necessary, after written or actual notice, 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 and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord; provide and maintain appropriate receptacles for ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste and arrange for removal; and supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat, subject to two narrow exceptions. The notice condition on the first two duties is a genuine Nebraska feature and is why a tenant’s written maintenance request matters so much here. Where a minimum housing code applies, the landlord’s maximum duty is set by the code-compliance subdivision.

Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1421 sets the tenant’s eight duties: comply with code obligations materially affecting health or safety; keep the occupied part of the premises as clean and safe as its condition permits, and on termination leave the dwelling unit as clean as when the tenancy commenced excepting ordinary wear and tear; dispose of 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, nor knowingly permit anyone else to; conduct themselves and require their guests to conduct themselves so as not to disturb neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment; and abide by the bylaws, covenants, rules or regulations of any applicable condominium regime, cooperative housing agreement or neighborhood association.

Maintenance work can be shifted to the tenant, but only on strict conditions. For a single-family residence, the parties may agree that the tenant perform the waste-removal and water-and-heat duties and specified repairs, maintenance, alterations and remodeling, but only if the transaction is in writing, for good consideration, entered into in good faith and not to evade the landlord’s obligations. For any other dwelling unit, the parties may agree that the tenant perform specified repairs only if the agreement is in good faith, not for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations, set out in a separate writing signed by the parties and supported by adequate consideration, and does not diminish the landlord’s obligation to other tenants (76-1419(2) and (3)). A landlord may also simply employ a tenant to perform the landlord’s obligations (76-1419(4)).

When the landlord does not repair, the tenant follows Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1425(1): deliver a written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and stating that the rental agreement terminates on a date not less than thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days. If the landlord adequately remedies it in time, the agreement does not terminate; if substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months, the tenant may terminate on at least fourteen days’ written notice. Under subsection (2) the tenant may recover damages and obtain injunctive relief, and where the landlord’s noncompliance is willful, reasonable attorney’s fees. The Nebraska Supreme Court held in Vasquez v. CHI Properties (2019) that a tenant may pursue the subsection (2) damages remedy without first sending a subsection (1) termination notice, so long as the notice section 76-1419 requires was given.

Where the failure is to supply running water, hot water, heat or essential services, Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1427 gives a faster route. After written notice, the tenant may procure reasonable amounts of the service and deduct the actual and reasonable cost from rent; recover damages based on the diminution in fair rental value; or procure reasonable substitute housing and be excused from rent for the period of noncompliance. Where the failure was deliberate, the tenant may also recover the cost or fair value of the substitute housing up to an amount equal to the periodic rent, plus reasonable attorney’s fees. This is not a general right to withhold rent, and a tenant proceeding under 76-1427 may not also proceed under 76-1425 for the same breach. Fire or casualty is handled separately again: under 76-1429 a tenant whose enjoyment is substantially impaired may vacate immediately and give written notice of termination within fourteen days. A dated Nebraska habitability record is what makes any of these notices credible.

Three different notices, and choosing the wrong one is the most common Nebraska filing error. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1431 carries all three.

Unpaid rent — seven calendar days. Under 76-1431(2), if rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay within seven calendar days after written notice of the nonpayment and of the landlord’s intention to terminate if it is not paid, the landlord may terminate. The statute says “calendar days” in terms, which removes the business-day argument that exists in some other states. Our Nebraska seven-day notice to pay rent or quit handles this track, and a Nebraska late rent notice is the softer step before it.

Other material breach — one notice carrying two periods. Under 76-1431(1), for a noncompliance with 76-1421 materially affecting health and safety, or a material noncompliance with the rental agreement or any separate agreement, the landlord delivers a written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and stating that the agreement terminates on a date not less than thirty days after receipt if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days. It is not a choice between a fourteen-day notice and a thirty-day notice, which is how every ranking page describes it. It is a single notice that gives fourteen days to cure and terminates no sooner than thirty. If the tenant adequately remedies before the stated date, the agreement does not terminate. Our Nebraska notice to cure or quit is built to that shape.

Repeat breach — fourteen days, no cure. The same subsection provides that if substantially the same act or omission that constituted a prior noncompliance of which notice was given recurs within six months, the landlord may terminate on at least fourteen days’ written notice specifying the breach and the termination date. No right to cure attaches to that notice.

Violent criminal activity — five days, no cure. Under 76-1431(4), notwithstanding the ordinary notice rules, a landlord may after five days’ written notice of termination and without any right of the tenant to cure file suit for possession where the tenant, an occupant, a household member, a guest, or another person under the tenant’s control or present with the tenant’s consent engages in violent criminal activity on the premises, the illegal sale of a controlled substance on the premises, or other activity threatening the health or safety of other tenants, the landlord, or the landlord’s employees or agents. The statute lists physical assault or its threat; illegal use or threatened illegal use of a firearm or other weapon; possession of a controlled substance the tenant knew or should have known of, unless lawfully prescribed; and any other activity threatening health or safety or involving threatened, imminent or actual property damage. Our Nebraska unconditional quit notice covers this track, and Nebraska eviction notice laws covers the court process from filing to writ.

Crucially, 76-1431(5) bars the five-day route where the activity was conducted by someone other than the tenant or a household member and the tenant or household member takes one of three measures: seeking a protective order, restraining order or similar relief against that person; reporting the activity to law enforcement in an effort to initiate a criminal action; or, where the activity is an act of domestic violence, obtaining certification from a qualified third party under the housing protection provisions of the federal Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. Where both a victim who takes those measures and a perpetrator are parties to the lease, the landlord shall proceed only against the perpetrator.

What a landlord may never do is take possession outside the court process. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1436 forbids recovering or taking possession by action or otherwise, including by willful diminution of services, except on abandonment or surrender or as the act permits. Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1430 then prices the breach: unlawful removal or exclusion, or willful and wrongful interruption of electric, gas, water or other essential service, entitles the tenant to recover possession or terminate and, in either case, to recover liquidated damages equal to three months’ periodic rent plus a reasonable attorney’s fee. And Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1434 makes a landlord’s lien or security interest in the tenant’s household goods unenforceable and abolishes distraint for rent outright — so a lease clause purporting to give the landlord a lien over the tenant’s belongings is worth nothing in Nebraska.

For a tenancy without a fixed term, Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1437 sets the notice periods. Either party may terminate a week-to-week tenancy by written notice given at least seven days before the termination date specified in the notice, and a month-to-month tenancy by written notice given at least thirty days before the periodic rental date specified in the notice. The phrasing matters: the thirty days runs to the periodic rental date, not to an arbitrary date the landlord picks. Our Nebraska tenant notice to vacate and Nebraska notice of non-renewal cover both directions.

If the tenant remains in possession without the landlord’s consent after expiration or termination, the landlord may bring an action for possession. Where the holdover is willful and not in good faith, the landlord may in addition recover an amount not more than three months’ periodic rent or threefold the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees. That fee award comes from the statute rather than from a lease clause, which is how Nebraska can prohibit fee-shifting clauses while still awarding fees in defined situations. If the landlord consents to continued occupancy, the arrangement is governed instead by 76-1414(4).

A tenant may also end a Nebraska tenancy early in defined circumstances: material noncompliance by the landlord under 76-1425, failure to supply essential services under 76-1427, fire or casualty under 76-1429, abuse of access under 76-1438(2), unlawful ouster under 76-1430, and — since 2021 — as a survivor of domestic violence under 76-1431.01. Nebraska has no general early-termination-fee statute and no servicemember termination provision inside the act; military tenants rely on the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act instead. Multi-state templates frequently carry a state-specific early-termination addendum with no Nebraska authority behind it. Our Nebraska breaking-lease laws guide covers when a tenant may leave without liability, and Nebraska lease termination laws covers the notice mechanics.

One trap that catches landlords more than tenants: Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1433 provides that acceptance of rent with knowledge of a default, or acceptance of performance that varies from the agreement or from later-adopted rules, waives the right to terminate for that breach unless otherwise agreed after the breach has occurred. Taking a partial payment after serving a seven-day notice can undo the notice. And under Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1405, the aggrieved party in any Nebraska landlord-tenant dispute has a duty to mitigate damages, which for a landlor