What to check, by document
A lease hides different things from a loan agreement, and a privacy policy hides different things again. Pick the document on your desk and see what usually goes wrong in it.
Before you sign anything
The traps that do not care what the document is called. They turn up in leases, in software terms, in a builder's quote and in a two-page freelance agreement alike.
Terms of service and SaaS agreements
Nobody reads them, everybody accepts them, and they are the one contract that can be rewritten after you agreed to it. These are the clauses that matter.
Subscriptions and memberships
The category built entirely out of dates you were never reminded of. Auto-renewal, the trial that converts, the cancellation route that only works by post.
Leases and rental agreements
Deposits that never come back, rent that moves on the landlord's say-so, repairs that quietly become yours, and entry rules that are not rules at all.
Loans, credit and financing
Where the cost of the money is not the number on the front page. Rate changes, deferred interest, insurance you did not ask for, and the clause that makes the whole balance due at once.
Insurance policies
The document you only read after something went wrong. Exclusions written to cover the ordinary case, deadlines that run before you knew you had a claim, and limits inside the limit.
Vendor, agency and freelance contracts
Business-to-business, which means the consumer rules mostly do not save you. Indemnities without a cap, payment terms that depend on someone else paying, and work held hostage.
Employment contracts
Non-competes that follow you out of the door, training costs that become a debt if you leave, and a bonus that was never really promised.
Privacy policies
The document that tells you, in the fifteenth paragraph, that the answer is yes. Sale to partners, session recording, sensitive categories, and training a model on what you wrote.