A lease in the system is a digital document that officially recognizes a legally binding relationship between two parties — a landlord and a tenant.
To create a lease, open the Leases page from the left-side menu and click on the Move in button.
If you are using the New Navigation layout, open the Renters page from the Property Operations left-side menu and switch to the Leases tab to see the list of leases.
Alternatively, you can go to the Contacts page from the side menu of your dashboard.
If you are using the New Navigation layout, open the Renters page from the Property Operations left-side menu and switch to the Renters tab to see tenants list.
The default page shows the tenants in A-Z order. You can apply the "No lease" option from the "+ Lease" filter to view those tenants that are not moved in. Find the necessary tenant and select the "Move In" button from the three-dots menu:
The move in process includes a few steps to set up recurring rent invoicing, deposit, and other details. Fill out all the necessary information for the lease including property, unit, lease type, dates, rent schedule, cost of rent per month, and other details.
On the very first step, select the property and lease terms. You can set up:
A fixed-term lease with start and end dates, with an option to convert it to month-to-month after the end date; or
A month-to-month lease with only a start date.
Click Continue to move to the next step.
On the second step, select the tenants from the dropdown list. Here you can enable the Tenant Portal option, which automatically shares the lease with tenants and sends connection requests if you are not connected yet.
Note! You cannot add more than 10 co-tenants to the lease.
You can also enable Renters Insurance, requiring tenants to purchase or provide proof of insurance. Check the box if you want to require proof of insurance before agreements can be signed or payments can be made. Renters insurance covers personal property and personal liability.
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Dependants can be added on this step as well.
The following link might be useful:
What is the difference between roommates and dependents?
If there are two and more tenants on the lease, you will want to select the invoicing type. There are two types of leases for tenants: to pay individually or jointly.
With "Tenants pay individually", the rent, deposit and other lease transaction amounts will be split between tenants with their exact portion for each tenant. The system will post separate invoices for each of your tenants.
Note!
1. Late fees will be applied to the exact portion of the tenant's rent separately.
2. Your tenants can pay their portion of rent or other transactions and make partial payments if you have that setting enabled.
3. Management fees will be applied to the total rent amount.
"Tenants pay jointly" means the tenants will each see one invoice with a full rental amount and will be collectively responsible for it. Here you can also check the option to forbid partial payments per invoices.
The following link might be useful:
In both cases, if you edit the lease, you will be able to add/ remove tenants, but you won't be able to change the invoicing type.
On the next step of the lease entitled "Recurring Rent" fill in the rent information.
If you choose to have your tenants pay individually, then the system automatically divides the rent, deposit and other lease transactions equally to each of your tenants. You may also assign the amounts yourself.
Please note!
Make sure that split amounts won't be higher or lower than the total amount. Otherwise, you will need to change the total amount.
You can add past, active, and future leases to keep the reports accurate and up to date. You need to adjust the lease start/end dates and the first invoice date for the recurring transactions. The system will generate the unpaid lease transactions after you create it. Additionally, you can set the option to mark past transactions as paid and the system will mark all invoices with a due date in the past as paid.
Note! You cannot change the first rent invoice date once the lease has become active. If you need to change the first rent invoice date, you will need to delete the lease and recreate the lease with the correct first rent invoice date. As an example, if your lease starts in the middle of the month, you would want to create a one-time rent invoice for the prorated rent and then set the first rent invoice date for the first full month of the lease.
On the next step of the lease entitled "Transactions," fill in: Deposit, Other Lease Transactions, Late Fees and Management Fees information. Press the "Continue" button once all the needed settings are provided:
On the fourth step, you can add a utility Responsibilities as well as enable utilities you would like your tenants to set up.
The following link might be useful:
What are Utility providers?
How do I require tenant to set up utilities?
On the last step, you can review all the previously entered information and make the needed corrections. Press "Complete move in" when ready.
Congratulations on successfully moving your tenants in. Now that the lease is active, recurring invoices will be posted according to the lease configurations. You can proceed by creating a lease agreement, that will be attached to the lease, simply by clicking the “Request e-signature” button on the following pop-up window.
You can either select a previously added/Basic Residential lease agreement or create a new template. You can also add Landlord forms. You may select the Landlord forms, which are state-specific or applicable to all states.
Note! Landlord Forms are available for U.S. customers only starting with the Growth plan.
You can add 10 templates by clicking on +add.
Once the template is selected, you are able to add and require the following fields and then assign them to a specific tenant while moving them in.
Signature - put this field on the document if you want to get your tenant’s signature or add your own signature.
Initials - work in a similar way as a signature, but in this case, you or your tenant will enter only initials on the document.
Date Signed - this field will show when the document has actually been submitted and signed.
Textbox - using this option, you may request a tenant to enter any needed information while signing the agreement(s) or you can enter any information to your textbox to appear while moving your tenant in. Choose the character limit and placeholder text.
Signature/Initials rules:
You can require signature or initials from your tenant(s) after each agreement clause by assigning the signature/initials element to them;
You are able to re-assign signature/initials to yourself or to other tenants;
You can decide which template and from which tenant to require signature or initials.
You may also enable the “Default Signatures” toggle button. It will automatically add signatures/date signed and assign them to all your tenants you are about to move in.
Note! Default signatures option can be adjusted to each agreement selected on the lease, but only for the text editor.
Finally, take a look at the final template by pressing the Preview button. If everything is correct, press the “Send to review“ button.
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Note! You can add up to 50,000 symbols to the document.
You can view the lease agreement and insurance statutes on the corresponding widgets to see if they are pending (requiring actions from your tenants) or if they have been signed and purchased, respectively.
