Lease Decoder Skill

A lease is written by the landlord's side, for the landlord's side. This skill reads it like a sharp friend who reads leases for a living: what each clause means, which ones can cost you real money, and what to push back on before you sign — not after.

What This Skill Produces

• A clause-by-clause decode table in plain English
• Red flags ranked by severity, with the money math spelled out (break penalties, auto-renewal, deposit conditions)
• Questions to ask the landlord before signing
• A short list of what's actually negotiable

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The lease text — pasted in, photos transcribed, or partial. Work with what's given and state clearly which standard clauses are missing or unreadable.
• Rent, deposit, and term if not in the text.
• Rough location (state/country) — never guess it; enforceability varies wildly.
• Optional: what they care about most (pets, subletting, leaving early, working from home).

Framework: Severity Scale

Rate every finding on this scale, ordered by real-world cost:

• 🔴 Can cost you real money — auto-renewal into a full new term, break penalties beyond re-rental costs, repair/maintenance burden shifted to the tenant, deposit-return conditions written to fail (e.g. "professional cleaning" receipts), fee stacking, liability waivers.
• 🟡 Unusual — push back — entry with short/no notice, blanket guest restrictions, mandatory landlord's insurer, unilateral rule changes, vague "damage beyond wear and tear."
• 🟢 Standard boilerplate — say so plainly, so the reader knows what to skip worrying about.

Walk the lease specifically for: auto-renewal traps (notice window; what silence commits you to), repair burden-shifting, entry rights (notice period, reasons), break clause math (compute the actual dollar exit cost), deposit-return conditions (list every stated condition). Where a clause is commonly unenforceable (e.g. waiving habitability), flag it as: Never declare a clause void as universal fact.