Lease Agreements and Rental Agreements

A lease agreement, also known as a rental agreement, is a legally binding contract between two parties – in this case, the lessor (landlord) and the lessee (tenant) – that outlines the terms and conditions under which a property will be rented. This agreement establishes the rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant during the lease period.

Landlords are generally responsible for generating lease agreements, collecting signatures, and storing these documents.

This content is for general educational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be considered, legal advice.

Who needs a lease agreement?

Lease agreements are important for any leasing situation where rent will be paid. This includes instances of one family member renting a home to another, or leasing a room in a house to a friend. If a housing agreement turns into a dispute, the lease agreement is the primary tool for both landlord and tenant to resolve the disagreement with the full protection of the law. 

How to use a lease agreement template

Sending a single form, like a lease agreement, to one recipient for electronic signature is fairly simple. But for busy professionals that need to send the same or similar documents to multiple recipients on a daily basis, this can be tedious and time-consuming. Worse yet, it opens the door to potentially costly manual data entry errors.

For landlords, a lease agreement template makes it easier for clients to fill in their specific information and add their e-signature. Once the tenant e-signs and submits the form, Docusign creates a legally admissible record and audit trail, helping you to manage your specific compliance and retention needs.

Learn more about how templates can streamline your business processes.

Templates designed for landlords and property managers

Docusign has developed a wealth of customized resources specifically geared toward real estate property managers and landlords. In addition to the lease agreement template, Docusign maintains a comprehensive library of templates, including the most common documents and agreements landlords use every day, such as:

• Lease application

• Credit check authorization

• Payment collection/auto-debit authorization

• Reference and background checks

• Tenant policy and rules acceptance forms

With the convenience of Docusign templates, you’ll never have to recreate frequently used forms again. This means a better experience for both you and your tenants, and more time for taking care of your properties and your tenants’ needs.

Rental and lease agreement templates

Docusign templates for rental and lease agreements can be especially valuable for landlords or property managers. These templates allow users to save and reuse the most common, repeatable information on every document, while including free-form custom fields for the recipient to complete. When you’re ready to share a document, simply add the recipients’ info and press send. By reusing the same language when possible, you’ll save time and money while having the ability to update information when needed.

For example, you may send out lease agreements or policy updates to new tenants once a month, or more frequently depending on the number of properties you manage. How much time do you now spend preparing each document by pre-filling custom fields, entering renter names and addresses, saving to a hard drive, drafting an email, attaching the document and pressing send?

With Docusign’s pre-designed lease agreement template, all standard language is prefilled, so you simply need to add recipients’ names and email addresses, populated from a file if needed, and press send. The agreement is on its way to one (or a dozen) of your tenants to sign.

Docusign solutions for property management

Docusign offers a full suite of services designed specifically for landlords, property management firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs). With Docusign solutions, property managers have access to industry-leading functionality like PowerForms, which supports digital lease applications that tenants can complete without visiting your office. Docusign Payments allows you to automatically collect monthly rent and one-time payments like security deposits. Docusign eSignature also offers over 350 pre-built integrations into leading platforms like Microsoft Office, Google Suite, Box, Salesforce and industry specific solutions like Intellirent.

Are you ready to try a Docusign lease agreement template or our other property management tools? Start by learning more about Docusign’s solutions for property management with our guide, Modernize Your Real Estate Business.

Docusign eSignature customers, Docusign CLM customers and anyone with a Docusign trial account can access Docusign’s extensive Template Library. If you’re not an existing Docusign customer, learn more about the Template Library in the Docusign Community.