Who pays for what: maintenance responsibilities

Maintenance disputes almost never start with the repair. They start with surprise, a resident who assumed the owner pays for everything, or an owner who assumed the resident broke it. A clear lease and a consistent process remove the surprise.

What owners typically carry

The owner keeps the property habitable and its systems working. In practice that means the structure and roof, heating and cooling, plumbing and electrical systems, appliances the home is rented with, and wear that comes from normal living, carpet aging, paint dulling, a water heater reaching the end of its life.

What residents typically carry

Residents generally handle the living side: keeping the home clean, replacing bulbs and smoke-alarm batteries, basic yard upkeep where the lease assigns it, and the cost of damage beyond normal wear, the doorknob-through-drywall category. Leases also commonly make clogs caused by use, lost keys, and lock-outs resident responsibilities.

The lease is the referee

None of the above is law of nature, it's what well-drafted leases typically say, and the lease controls. North Carolina law sets the floor (a landlord can't lease away habitability), but everything above that floor is written agreement. Before signing as either party, read the maintenance sections and ask about anything vague. "We'll figure it out" is how disputes get scheduled.

Good management adds the missing piece: documentation. Move-in condition reports, dated repair records, and photos turn who-pays questions from arguments into lookups.