New tenants won't find any small print or legalese when they sign their leases starting June 24. A new Pennsylvania law will protect tenants from landlords' traditional confusing legal jargon.

The Plain Language Consumer Contract Act, otherwise known as state Act 29, sets out language, visual and disclosure requirements for rental application leases. Landlords will be prohibited from using complex sentences or words, not commonly known legal terms, foreign phrases, Latin terms, references to obsolete words, double negatives and confusing sentence structures in their contracts.

This law means 98 percent of all leases in the state need to be changed, said Ron Friedman, who is responsible for drafting many of those lease applications in State College.

Friedman represents some of the biggest rental management companies in town, but he represents tenants as well. Friedman is a leading authority on real estate law in the state. He published his book, titled Pennsylvania Tenant Law and Practice, in 1988. The revised edition addressing the new law is due out in June.

But Friedman said a lease is still binding if it doesn't conform to the new law. Friedman said the problem for the landlord is that the landlord is required to disclose any rights the tenant is waiving by signing the lease.

This means that landlords will lose the right to evict tenants if they don't write a disclosure --they'll only be able to collect damages. The Plain Language Consumer Contract Act drastically alters the landlord's remedies.

Rep. Allen Kukovich, D-Westmoreland, is the prime sponsor of the act and first introduced this legislation in 1981. Cheryl Friedrich, one of Kukovich's legislative assistants, said Pennsylvania is one of the last states to enact a plain language law.

Andy Shubin, a lawyer with Keystone Legal Services, said his legal firm has received a large number of complaints from students and other State College residents about landlord problems. Those problems range from failure to return security deposits to problems with lease applications.

Friedrich said the new law should help in those kinds of situations between landlords and tenants.

"I think tenants and landlords will have a clearer understanding of their contractual obligation to each other," she said.

Michele DeBord, another lawyer with Keystone Legal Services, said, "The language of the law can be confusing. This plain language law should be really helpful."

She added that she thinks lawyers should do all they can to make the law understandable. In the past, landlords did not have clarity as their goal.

"We've seen something called option to lease by agreement," DeBord said. "The landlord interprets this as an actual lease. The law will force landlords and lawyers to draft more clearly.

"I think a lot of students are confused," she added. "This is the first lease they've ever signed. They're dealing with thousands of dollars."

DeBord said she has talked to many students who have had bad experiences with landlords.

"There are so few lawyers here," she said. "This can be a very distasteful, disheartening experience. I hope this law ends some of this."

DeBord suggests students read their leases very carefully and have someone else take a look at it, such as their parents.

"They shouldn't feel they need to rush into anything. They should take the time to think about it," DeBord said.

Tina Slaughter is a tenant who had problems with her landlord, The Apartment Store.

Slaughter said the new law may help clarify some of the questions tenants have about their leases, but she doesn't think the new law will resolve the present conflicts.

"Certain landlords don't care about tenants as people," she said. "Until they change that attitude, the problem won't be alleviated."