LeaseBuddy

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Analysis of unfair lease
Analysis of fair lease

Inspiration

Students and Young Professionals often get locked into unfair leases simply because the fine print is hard to understand and there's pressure to sign quickly. Brokers and landlords usually know the rules; renters usually don't. We wanted a fast, simple way to spot red flags in a lease before signing without needing a lawyer.

What it does

LeaseBuddy lets renters upload a lease and quickly see hidden fees, risky clauses, and unfair terms explained in plain English. In a minute, it flags red flag clauses, estimates the true monthly cost, and generates smart questions to ask the landlord before signing. On the left-hand side is the uploaded lease. The right-hand side is an AI-generated summary of the lease, including rent prices and potential red flags of the lease.

How we built it

LeaseBuddy reads your lease through Python's pdf-parse, pdf.js-extract, and pdfjs-dist libraries and turns it into text that Featherless reads and summarises. The website is built using React and CSS.

Challenges we ran into

As beginners, this was the first time some of us had implemented AI into our code. As a result, we initially struggled with the syntax as we learned. Additionally, we had some trouble combining the front-end and backend code for the document reader. But through some communication, we were able to successfully implement LeaseBuddy.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Overall, we learned more about AI models and how they process files. We're proud that Lease Buddy can read leases so quickly and properly summarize long legal jargon and calculate the risk the renter would take on by signing the lease. We're also proud that we were able to make something like this in such a short time span.

What we learned

We learned how to use Featherless to read files and how to develop websites overall.

What's next for LeaseBuddy

We hope to connect the website to legal services so that if you're about to sign a high-risk lease, or have already signed one, you can recieve advice on what to do next. In addition, we wish to add a feature where you could compare two leases to see which one is the better deal, based on risk, rent, and benefits.