Signing example
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.
The document itself is written out in full on its own page: read the wording there. This page is only about signing it.
Who signs what
- Dev Anand, the new housemate, first
- Typed move in date on page 1 · Initials on the house rules, page 3 · Signature and stamped date on page 5 · Email link, no code
- Marta Kowalski, the resident owner, second
- Signature and stamped date on page 5 · Hands over two door keys and a mail key on the typed date
The signing journey
Step 1
Six fields across three pages
The housemate takes four: the move in date on page 1, initials on page 3 and a signature and date on page 5. The owner takes a signature and a date beside them.
Step 2
Sign in order goes on
The housemate is invited alone. The owner has no link until the move in date and the initials are stamped into the file.
Step 3
The date comes from the person moving
The agreement starts on the date the housemate types, not on a date the owner assumed. No screen in the editor lets a sender put a value in that box.
Step 4
One drawing, two marks
A single drawing fills the page 3 initials and the page 5 signature, and the date under it stamps itself from the submission.
Step 5
Completion is the handover
When the owner signs, the file is certified and emailed to both, and the keys go across on the date typed on page 1.
Every field, and who fills it
Six fields, four of them the housemate's. The move in date sits in a box under clause 2 with the key handover beside it. The initials sit in the right margin at the foot of the house rules table on page 3. The signature and the stamped date sit on page 5 in the left column, with the owner's pair mirroring them on the right. Everything else is written: the weekly rent, the bond held by the owner rather than lodged, the one third bills split with a worked quarter, the storage the housemate may use and the notice each side has to give. The document is deliberately specific because nothing else fills the gaps.
How to adapt this envelope
A second room going at the same time is a second envelope rather than a second recipient, because each housemate's arrangement is with the owner alone. A house that wants every resident to acknowledge a rules change sends a one page acknowledgement with an initials spot each. And where the owner is a head tenant rather than the owner, the parties clause changes and the landlord's consent becomes a condition, which is what the sublease envelope handles instead.
What makes this valid in Australia
The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 allows a signature to be given electronically where the method identifies the person, shows their intention and is as reliable as the circumstances require. A boarder or lodger arrangement sits outside most of the residential tenancies rules, which is precisely why the written agreement matters: the bond is held by the owner rather than lodged with the state authority, so the clause fixing when it comes back is the only protection the housemate has. The certificate then records who signed, from which address and at what time.
What makes this signing flow work
The start date is the housemate's own entry
A share house arrangement usually starts on a date agreed in messages. Typing it into the agreement makes it part of the document that binds, and it is the housemate who types it, so the first rent fortnight and the bond both run from something they wrote.
Initials land on the rules, not the rent
Quiet hours, guests, the cleaning roster and the no pets line are what actually cause arguments in a share house, and they are the page a new housemate is least likely to read. The initials spot sits at the foot of that page and nowhere else.
Two signatures, because there is no agent
This is a private arrangement with no agent and no bond authority in the middle. That makes the signed file the whole record, which is why the bond return, the notice periods and the dispute path are all written into the document rather than assumed.
Questions people ask
Is a room rental agreement a tenancy?
Usually not where the owner lives in the home and the occupant has a room rather than the whole property. That means most of the residential tenancies rules do not apply in the same way, and the written agreement has to supply the notice periods, the bond return and the dispute path itself, which this one does.
Why does the housemate type the move in date?
Because no screen in the application lets a sender pre-fill a value, so every typed box belongs to the recipient it is assigned to. That turns the start date into the housemate's own statement, which matters when the first fortnight of rent and the bond both run from it.
Can both people sign on a phone?
Yes. Below 560 pixels the portal switches to compact mode: the document goes read only and the typed box moves into a Complete your details panel above it, with a Signature 1 of 2 button that scrolls to each spot. The signature is drawn with a finger.
Can the owner sign first to show the room is on offer?
Not on this envelope. Sign in order is on with the housemate first, so Marta's link only exists after Dev has typed the move in date, initialled the house rules and signed. That way the owner countersigns an agreement that already carries the housemate's start date in their own words, rather than an offer the housemate could still leave blank.
What happens if the housemate declines?
The envelope moves to declined, the owner is never invited, and the sender is emailed with the reason typed into the decline box. Nothing further is stamped. The room is simply not let, and a revised agreement can go out as a fresh envelope.
Does the bond have to be lodged with the state?
A bond taken from a boarder or lodger is generally not lodged the way a tenant's bond is, so it stays with the owner. That is why clause 9 fixes the return at seven days after the room is handed back and requires any deduction to be itemised in writing.
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Want the steps in the builder? Read Send a PDF for e-signature, then Add several signers to one envelope. For everything this generator can do, see the signing flow maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .