Short-Term Rental Agreement

Lakehouse Kaia · Greenwood Lake, Hewitt (West Milford Township), New Jersey 07421

Version v1.4 · Effective 2026-09-05

The short version. Ten people overnight, maximum. No parties. No firearms in the house — that ends the stay on the spot with no refund. The lake, the dock, the hot tub, and the oven are at your own risk, and children are supervised at all times near them. Cancel 30 or more days out for a full refund, 14–29 days for half, inside 14 days for none. Weather, lake conditions, and outages aren’t refundable — buy travel insurance. The full agreement below is what governs.

Please read it before you tick the box. It’s short on purpose. It says what you’re renting, what it costs, what the rules are, and who carries the risk for the lake, the dock, the hot tub, and the oven. If anything is unclear, ask us before you book.

1. Who’s agreeing

This agreement is between 1902 Greenwood Lake NJ LLC, the owner of the house (“we”, “us”), and you, the person submitting the booking request (“you”). You are the primary guest. You must be at least 25 years old, and you must stay at the house for the whole booking. We may ask for a photo ID to confirm your age before or at check-in.

You are responsible for everyone in your party and anyone you invite onto the property. When this agreement says “your guests”, it means all of them.

2. What you’re renting

The house at the address above, its grounds, and its dock on Greenwood Lake, for the dates in your booking. This is a short vacation stay, not a residential lease. You confirm that you have a permanent home somewhere else and are not moving in.

The house sleeps a maximum of 10 overnight guests, including children. That number is a hard limit.

3. Dates and times

Your stay runs from the check-in date to the check-out date in our confirmation. Check-in is from 4:00 PM. Check-out is by noon. If you need a different time, ask in advance; we’ll say yes if we can.

4. Price and payment

The price for your stay is the amount in our confirmation. It’s made up of the nightly rate for your dates, a cleaning fee of $225, and any tax that applies (section 5). If the confirmation differs from your original request — because dates or party size changed, say — the confirmation is what counts, and paying it means you’ve accepted it.

Submitting a request doesn’t reserve the dates. After we confirm availability, we send a payment link. Your dates are reserved when that payment goes through. If the link isn’t paid within 48 hours, we may release the dates.

5. Taxes

If New Jersey Sales Tax and the State Occupancy Fee apply to your stay, they’re shown as a separate line on your confirmation, and we collect and pay them. If there’s no tax line, we aren’t charging tax on your stay.

6. Security hold

The day before check-in, we place a hold of $500 on your card. It’s an authorization hold, not a charge — the money stays in your account.

If the hold can’t be placed — a declined card, say — we’ll ask for another card. If no hold can be placed by check-in time, we can take the same amount as a refundable charge instead. If neither works, the booking is treated as canceled that day under section 7.

We release the hold within 5 days after check-out unless we need to apply some or all of it for damage, extra cleaning, missing items, or the cost of a broken rule. If we apply any of it, we tell you what and why, with an itemized list. Section 19 covers costs beyond the hold.

7. Cancellation and refunds

Days are counted in calendar days to your check-in date. Cancel by email to stay@lakehousekaia.com; a cancellation counts on the day we receive it, Eastern time.

• 30 or more days before check-in: full refund
• 14 to 29 days before check-in: 50% refund
• Fewer than 14 days before check-in: no refund

The percentages apply to the nightly total. The cleaning fee is refunded in full on any cancellation. Any tax collected is refunded with the amount it was charged on. Refunds go back to the card you paid with, within 10 days.

Not showing up, or leaving early, counts as canceling inside 14 days. Changing your dates is a cancellation and a new booking unless we agree otherwise in writing.

8. If we have to cancel

If the house becomes unavailable before your stay — storm damage, a failed system, an unsafe condition — we’ll tell you as soon as we know and refund everything you’ve paid. That refund is the full extent of what we owe you. We aren’t responsible for travel or other costs.

9. Things we don’t control

Once your stay has started, we don’t refund for weather, lake conditions, or outages. Specifically:

• Weather. Rain, heat, cold, smoke, or storms during your stay.
• The lake. Water level, water clarity, weeds, and swimming advisories. New Jersey occasionally issues algal-bloom advisories on Greenwood Lake in summer that close swimming. If that happens during your stay, the house is still yours, but the lake may not be.
• Utilities. Power, water, heat, and internet outages that we didn’t cause. This is a wooded lake area, and storms take the power out sometimes. We’ll do what we can to get things restored and tell you what we know.

One exception. If an outage or a failure makes the house unfit to stay in for the rest of your trip, we refund the unused nights, and that refund is the full extent of what we owe.

If any of these would ruin the trip for you, buy travel insurance. It’s cheap, and it covers exactly what we don’t.

10. House rules

These are the rules. Breaking them can end your stay early with no refund (section 20).

• Occupancy. No more than 10 people overnight. Tell us how many are coming before your stay, and tell us if it changes.
• Visitors, not parties. Daytime visitors are fine if you tell us first and there are never more than 12 people on the property at once. More than that is a party, and parties and events aren’t allowed.
• Quiet hours are 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM. Sound carries across the water; keep outdoor noise down at night. A noise complaint from a neighbor or a visit from the police counts as breaking quiet hours.
• No smoking or vaping inside the house.
• No firearms in the house, ever. If a firearm is brought into the house, your stay ends immediately, everyone leaves, and nothing is refunded.
• Dogs are welcome, with no pet fee. Never leave a dog alone in the house — not for a trip to town, not for an hour. You’re responsible for anything your dog damages and for cleaning up after it. Other animals only if you ask us first.
• No open fires anywhere except the wood-fired oven and any fire pit we provide. No fireworks.
• This is bear country. Keep food and trash sealed, and put trash out only as the house guide describes.

11. No subletting or re-listing

This booking is for you and your guests only. You can’t sublet it, transfer it, or list it anywhere. Don’t share the door code or keys with anyone outside your party. If we find the stay has been re-listed or handed to someone else, we cancel it with no refund.

12. The lake and the dock

The house sits on Greenwood Lake with a private dock. No one is watching the water: there’s no lifeguard. Depth and the lake bottom vary and change with the water level.

• Swimming, wading, and using the dock are at your own risk and your guests’ own risk.
• Children must be supervised by an adult at all times near the water and on the dock. No exceptions.
• Life vests are kept on the dock. Children, and anyone who isn’t a confident swimmer, wear one on the dock and in the water.
• Don’t dive or jump from the dock.
• The dock is slippery when wet and icy in cold weather.
• Don’t tie up at, use, or walk onto neighbors’ docks or property.

13. Bringing your own boat or jet ski

You’re welcome to bring a boat or personal watercraft. The dock takes one vessel up to 20 feet. If you bring one, all of this applies:

• It’s your vessel, your responsibility. You launch it, moor it, secure it, and remove it. We don’t launch, move, or store it for you. We aren’t responsible for your vessel, your trailer, or anything on them — including if weather or the lake damages them at our dock.
• Insurance. Your vessel must be covered by your own liability insurance; ours doesn’t cover it. If it has a motor, send us proof of insurance before check-in. No proof, no motorized vessel at the dock.
• Legal to operate. Anyone driving a motorized boat or jet ski must hold a boating safety certificate that New Jersey recognizes, and a jet ski operator must be at least 16. Your vessel must be registered wherever registration is required.
• Life jackets. A Coast Guard–approved life jacket aboard for every person. Children 12 and under wear one whenever the vessel is moving. Everyone on a jet ski wears one, always.
• Lake rules. You’re responsible for knowing and following New Jersey boating law and Greenwood Lake’s rules; the house guide lists the main ones. Whatever else, no wake at our dock or anyone else’s.
• No fueling at the dock.
• You cover the consequences. If your vessel damages our dock, our property, or a neighbor’s, or injures anyone, that’s on you and your insurance.

If we provide kayaks, paddleboards, or anything similar, the same rules apply: at your own risk, life vest on.

14. Hot tub

Use the hot tub at your own risk. Children use it only with an adult right there, and no child under 5 uses it at all. Keep the cover on and latched whenever it’s not in use — that’s a safety rule, not housekeeping. No glass near it. Don’t use it after heavy drinking, and check with a doctor first if you’re pregnant or have a heart condition. Don’t adjust the chemicals or settings. Tell us right away if anything about it seems wrong.

15. Wood-fired oven

The oven reaches very high temperatures and stays hot for hours after the fire dies. Use it at your own risk. Never leave a fire in it unattended, and keep children and dogs away while it’s hot. Burn only dry firewood — nothing else. Don’t move or modify it. Hot ash starts fires; handle it only as the house guide says. The guide also explains how to light the oven, run it, and shut it down.

16. Know the setting

This is a wooded lakefront property. Bears, ticks, and other wildlife are around. Outdoor stairs, paths, and the dock can be wet, icy, or uneven. Look where you’re going, especially at night.

17. Parking, belongings, and the house

• Parking. The driveway holds three cars. Please do not park on the road — it is narrow and it gets plowed.
• Your belongings. We aren’t responsible for your party’s belongings, vehicles, or vessels — lost, stolen, or damaged — and we can’t promise to find or return things left behind.

• Septic and well. The house is on a septic system and a private well. Nothing goes down the drains or toilets except what came out of you and toilet paper — no wipes, no grease, no food. Septic damage is chargeable.

18. Risk, release, and what is not waived

You accept the risks. A lake, a dock, a hot tub, and a wood-fired oven carry real risks — drowning, falls, burns, and injuries from boats and watercraft among them. By booking, you accept those risks for yourself, and you take responsibility for your guests.

Release. This applies to swimming, boating, and the use of the dock, the lake, the hot tub, the oven, the grounds, and anything we provide. To the extent New Jersey law allows, you release us from claims for injury, illness, death, or loss arising from those things — including claims that we were negligent in an ordinary way.

What is not waived. Nothing in this agreement releases us from, or asks you to waive, liability for gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. Nothing here waives any claim belonging to a child. Nothing here waives any right that New Jersey law says you can’t give up. If a court finds any part of this section goes too far, that part is cut back to what the law allows and the rest stands.

Children. New Jersey doesn’t let a parent sign away a child’s claims, and we aren’t asking you to. What we are asking is this: you supervise the children in your party at all times around the water, the dock, the hot tub, and the oven, and you’re responsible for their safety and conduct while they’re here.

Tell us about hazards. If something seems unsafe — a loose board, a cover that won’t latch, a step that’s come loose — tell us right away and don’t use it until we’ve looked.

Claims caused by your party. If someone brings a claim against us because of something you, your guests, your dog, or your vessel did, you’ll cover our costs and any damages. That doesn’t apply to the extent the claim comes from our own negligence or misconduct.

Limit on what we owe. Except where the law doesn’t allow a limit, our total liability to you for anything connected with your stay is capped at the amount you paid us for it.

19. Damage and extra costs

Look around when you arrive. If anything is already damaged or missing, tell us within 12 hours of check-in, with photos. Otherwise we’ll assume it happened during your stay.

You’re responsible for damage beyond normal wear and tear, for extra cleaning, and for anything missing. You’re also responsible for the cost of a broken rule — extra cleaning after smoking, say, or a late check-out that delays the next guests. We document damage with photos and send you an itemized list. We apply the hold first; if the cost is more than the hold, you agree to pay the balance within 14 days of our notice. Tell us about accidents when they happen. It’s always cheaper to fix early.

20. Ending a stay early

We can end the stay immediately if a rule in section 10 or 11 is broken, or if your conduct puts people or the property at risk. The same applies if something you told us in the booking turns out to be untrue — your age or the size of your party, say. Everyone leaves, and nothing is refunded. That is the consequence of a firearm in the house, a party, or exceeding the occupancy limit.

21. Our access

We may enter in an emergency without notice, and for repairs with reasonable notice. We won’t drop in otherwise.

22. Cameras

There are no cameras or recording devices inside the house. There is one exterior camera, at the entrance garage. It does not cover the dock, the deck, the hot tub or any part of the inside of the house.

23. Compliance

The house has working smoke alarms, carbon-monoxide alarms, and a fire extinguisher. Don’t disable or cover any of them, and tell us if one chirps or stops working.

24. Law, venue, and the whole agreement

New Jersey law governs this agreement. Any dispute goes to the courts in Passaic County, New Jersey, and we both agree to that venue.

We communicate by email, and you agree to receive this agreement, your confirmation, and any notices electronically. If any part of this agreement can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. This agreement, together with our confirmation, is the whole agreement about your stay. The house guide explains how things work; it doesn’t add rules or penalties, and every rule with a consequence is in this agreement. Changes count only if they’re in writing from us — email is fine.

25. How you accept

When you type your name, tick the acceptance box on the booking form, and submit your request, you’re agreeing to this version of this agreement. Your typed name is your signature. We keep a record of the version, the date and time, your name and email, the dates you requested, and the IP address the request came from, as described in our Privacy Policy. We send you a copy of this version with our confirmation, so what you agreed to is always in your inbox.