Property and tenancy e-signature examples, envelope by envelope

Who signs, and in what order

The twelve envelopes here differ mostly in how many people have to touch them. Three carry a single signer: the holiday rental guest who accepts the house rules, the guarantor who signs a lease guarantee on their own, and the renter who acknowledges a rent increase. Most carry two, a landlord or agent and a renter. Four carry three, which is where order starts to matter: a commercial lease signed by the tenant, then a director as guarantor, then the lessor; a renewal signed by two renters and the agent; a sublease where the head landlord consents last; and a management appointment signed by two owners. Each page says whether signing order was switched on and what the event log shows as a result.

Fields beyond the signature

A property envelope is rarely a signature and a date. The commercial lease carries an initial on every one of its fourteen pages. The entry condition report carries a disagree mark in eight places across four rooms. The parking licence has the bay number typed by the licensee. The pet addendum, the holiday rental and the storage agreement each carry checkboxes the signer has to tick before they can finish. Three recipients are verified by an emailed one time code and one by an access code shared out of band, and the certificate records the method configured for each. Every page lists the fields it placed and where they sit.

Choosing the closest example

Start from what is being signed rather than from the property type: an agreement that creates a tenancy, a document that records a condition, an addendum that changes an existing lease, or an appointment that hands over management. Seven of the twelve are Australian and use state terms, and each of those says which state. A signed acknowledgement is not the same thing as a prescribed notice, which is why the rent increase page says the acknowledgement travels with the notice rather than replacing it.

Every page in this collection

• Rent increase notice acknowledgement e-signature

  A rent increase notice only does its job if the agent can show later that the renter received it, and when. This one page notice for 7/22 Lyndhurst Crescent takes three fields from a single signer: a typed box that prints an X beside the words I have received this notice, a drawn signature, and a date nobody types.

• Sign a commercial lease online

  A fourteen page retail lease is the document people most often sign without reading, which is exactly why an initial on every page is worth placing. This five year lease of Shop 6 at Argyle Court takes fourteen initials from the tenant, a personal guarantee from her fellow director on page 13, and the lessor's block last on page 14.

• Sign a holiday rental agreement online

  To sign a holiday rental agreement online, send the agreement to the lead guest as the only signer, with an emailed one-time code in front of it and typed boxes for the facts only the guest knows. This three page agreement for Saltmarsh Cottage in Bamburgh, Northumberland, over Christmas takes the party size as a typed box, four marks against the house rules, and a signature behind a six digit code.

• Sign a lease guarantee online

  A guarantee is a promise to pay somebody else's rent out of your own money, so the link that opens it should not be enough on its own. This two page deed for the tenancy at Unit 3/88 Barkly Avenue sits behind an access code the agent read out by phone, and asks the guarantor to type their relationship to the renter before initialling the cap.

• Sign a lease renewal online

  A renewal is not a new lease, and sending it as one wastes everybody's afternoon. This two page document for 7/22 Lyndhurst Crescent changes only the term and the rent, leaves the January 2025 agreement and the lodged bond alone, and takes a signature and a date from each renter before the agent countersigns.

• Sign a parking space licence online

  To sign a parking space licence online, send it as one envelope with the licensee first and the building manager second, and let the licensee type the registration the barrier reads. This two page UK licence for bay 37 at Marchmont House takes the vehicle registration as a typed box, then a signature from each side, and the access card is released on the second one.

• Sign a pet agreement online

  To sign a pet agreement online, send the addendum with the tenant first and the landlord second, and let the tenant type the animal's name and breed so the permission names one pet. This two page addendum to a tenancy at 5 Kilner Lane, Bristol, takes those two typed boxes and a signature from each side, so the permission names Hazel the border terrier cross rather than a pet in general.

• Sign a property management agreement online

  An owner signs a management agreement for the fee table and the authority limits, and those are the two pages worth marking. This six page appointment of Larkfield Property Group takes initials from both owners on the fee page, a code in front of each of their links, and a signature block from the agency principal at the end.

• Sign a room rental agreement online

  A room in somebody's home is not a tenancy, so the house rules page is doing the work a tenancy law would otherwise do. This five page agreement for room 2 at 14 Ellis Street takes the move in date as a typed box from the new housemate, their initials on the rules, and a signature from each side on page 5.

• Sign a storage unit agreement online

  To sign a storage unit agreement online, upload it as a PDF, add the customer first and the site manager second with Sign in order on, and place the customer's typed boxes before the signatures. This three page Victorian agreement for unit 214 at Ravenhall takes the vehicle registration for the gate and a mark against the prohibited goods list, because the operator never opens the unit and that list is the building's only protection.

• Sign a sublease agreement online

  To sign a sublease agreement online, send one envelope to the subtenant, the head tenant and the landlord in that order, and give the landlord's consent its own page and its own mark. This four page Scottish sublease of room 3 at 118 Calder Street, Glasgow, runs the subtenant and the head tenant through pages 1 to 3, then puts a typed consent box and a signature in front of the landlord on page 4.

• Sign an entry condition report online

  An entry condition report is only worth signing if the tenant can disagree with it in the same file. This six page report for 12B Rosslyn Terrace gives the tenant a typed box in the Renter disagrees column of every room table, and eight of them came back marked before she signed.