The rules library — what Seayora publishes, and what it deliberately does not
How Seayora’s statute-cited landlord, tenant and contractor rules work: where each figure comes from, how to filter them by any set of states and topics, how to compare states side by side, and why a state you expect to see is sometimes missing on purpose.
Seayora holds the statutory rules that govern a tenancy — how long a landlord has to return a deposit, how much notice a rent increase needs, how much notice before entering, how long a tenant has to pay late rent, what a late fee or an application fee may be, and the steps of an eviction — as data, not as prose. The same rows drive the deadline the product computes on a live tenancy, the reminder it sends before that deadline falls due, and the public pages at /answers.
That is the important part. The deposit and notice answers you read on the website are generated from the same rules the engine enforces on your lease, so the two cannot disagree, and correcting a rule corrects both in the same edit.
The ways in
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| /answers | Every answer Seayora publishes, filterable by any set of states and any set of topics, with a side-by-side comparison of the states you choose. |
| /answers/<question>-in-<state> | One question, one state — "How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in New Jersey?" It carries the answer, the checkable figures, the statute and the date it was last checked. |
| /answers/state/<state> | Every rule Seayora holds for that state, on one page, with an at-a-glance table at the top, every statute listed at the bottom, and a picker to compare it with other states. |
| /answers/topic/<rule> | One rule across every state Seayora holds a statute for — the comparison table, with the citation beside each figure, which you can narrow to the states you care about. |
What the library covers
| Family | Rules |
|---|---|
| Security deposits | How long a landlord has to return a deposit, the most a deposit can be, and whether interest is owed. |
| Notice periods | Notice for a rent increase (including a longer period for a large one where the state sets it), notice to end a month-to-month tenancy, notice before entering, and the notice required before a case for unpaid rent. |
| Late fees | The most a late fee may be, and how long rent must be late before one can be charged. |
| Applications | Whether a landlord may charge somebody applying to rent, and how much. |
| Evictions | The steps of an eviction for unpaid rent, how long a tenant has to respond, whether a lockout is lawful, and where a landlord needs a legal reason to end a tenancy. |
| Contractor sales tax | Whether a contractor charges sales tax on a job, on labor, on a capital improvement and on an appliance repair. |
Filtering and comparing states
- States: choose one or several. The four Census regions — Northeast, Midwest, South and West — are one tap each; press a region again to take it off.
- Topics: choose any of the rules, grouped by family. Each family is also one tap.
- By question lists every matching answer. Once states are chosen, each one shows its figure beside it, so the list reads as an answer rather than a list of names.
- Compare states lines the chosen states up as columns and every rule as a row, up to eight states at once. Choose more and the page says how many it left out rather than dropping them silently.
- A cell that says "Not published" means Seayora holds no verified statute for that rule in that state. It is not a statement that the state has no rule.
- The choice lives in the page address, so a comparison can be bookmarked or sent to a colleague and opens the same way.
Where the figures come from
Every figure is read from a published statute and stored with its citation, the date it was checked and whether it came from the seed or from an operator’s override. Nothing in the library is written by a model, and nothing is written by hand as prose: each sentence is composed from the columns of the row it cites. An operator who corrects a rule in the admin console changes what the page says on the next cache turn.
Why a state you expect is missing
This is the part most rule tables on the internet get wrong, and it is deliberate here. Seayora publishes a rule only where it holds a real statute for it. Where it does not, there is no page at all — the URL returns a 404 rather than a plausible-looking default.
- The gap is per FIELD, not per state. Tennessee publishes its termination and late-rent periods and says nothing about entry notice, because Tennessee has no general entry-notice statute — its 24-hour rule applies only to showings in the final 30 days of a tenancy.
- A comparison table is shorter than fifty rows on purpose, and says so. An empty cell in a table of legal deadlines reads as "no requirement", which is a different rule.
- A question that has the same answer in forty states is not published as forty pages. Deposit interest appears only in the states where interest is actually owed.
As of September 11, 2026 the library covers all 51 jurisdictions for security deposits, notice periods and contractor sales tax — each rule within them wherever the state has one — plus late fees in 20, application fees in 12 and the eviction procedure in 22.
- A customary figure is not a statute. Several states have no general rule on how much notice a landlord must give before entering; where that is so, the page is silent rather than printing the 24 hours most people assume.
- A city is not its state. Chicago’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance sets its own notice periods, but those apply in Chicago — the Illinois pages state the Illinois statute and mention the city rule in the notes.
Reading a figure correctly
- Business days are marked as business days. Florida’s three-day rent demand excludes Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and Alabama’s seven-day notice is seven business days — both are shown that way rather than as a plain day count.
- Where notice rises with the length of the tenancy, every band is shown. New York is 30, 60 or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has lived there.
- Where a state’s act is a local option, the page says so. Kentucky’s Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act applies only in the counties and cities that adopted it; Tennessee’s applies only in counties over 75,000 people.
- A demand to pay and a notice to quit are different notices. A demand lets the tenant end the matter by paying within the period; a notice to quit (Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and others) is a notice to leave, after which a case can be filed. The page says which one the state requires.
- A large increase can need longer notice. California requires 90 days for an increase of more than 10% in a year, and Maine 75 days for one of 10% or more; Seayora’s renewal engine applies the same longer period when it works out a notice date.
- Notes carry the complication. Where the simple rule is true but incomplete, the exception is printed underneath it rather than left out.
What it is not
It is a summary of a published statute, not legal advice. Rules change, local ordinances add to them, and a specific lease may set a longer period than the statute requires — a longer one usually governs. The citation is on every page so you can check it, and you should before serving a notice or withholding a deposit.
How the product uses the same rules
When you end a tenancy, Seayora computes the deposit return date from the state’s own statutory period, records whether the deadline came from the statute, the lease or a manual entry, and reminds you before it falls due. Lease renewals and served notices work the same way, and a notice served with less than the statutory period is refused unless you override it and record a reason.
Related guides
Related features and guides
- Security Deposits on Seayora — Documentation. How to collect, hold, document, and return a security deposit — the ledger behind the figure, the statutory deadline, the itemized statement, and what freezes when.
- Rent Increases & Notices — Documentation. How to communicate a rent increase or other lease notice to a tenant, with a documented delivery record.
- Lease Renewals & Amendments — Documentation. Renewing an expiring lease, the last day you can lawfully serve notice, what the local market is asking, and what a served notice freezes.
- Private In-App Voice Calls — Feature. Voice and video calls that run inside Seayora between two accounts — no telephone number is used on either side, so landlords, tenants and service pros talk without exchanging personal contact details.
- Voice Notes in Messaging — Feature. Record and send voice notes in any Seayora conversation. Transcoded server-side so they play on iPhone, Android, and desktop alike, stored with the thread, and searchable as part of the property record.
- Credit Card Surcharges on Rent: State Laws and Card Network Rules — Guide. Where a landlord may add a credit card fee to rent, the states that ban or cap surcharges, and Visa’s 3% cap and debit card rule.