# Create and sign a lease Source: https://app.rentiqa.com/help/landlords/create-and-sign-a-lease > Create the lease from an approved application, build the document, send it for e-signature, and sign it yourself. ## Create the lease Press **Create Lease** on an approved application (the tenant's details are filled in), or **Create Lease** under **Properties › Leases** ([Leases](https://app.rentiqa.com/leases/agreements)), or **Start a lease** on the property's Overview. Check the tenant's name, email and phone, the start and end dates, term, monthly rent, security deposit, rent due day, first or last month at signing, late fee and grace period. Terms come from the property's **Lease setup**. Press **Save Draft**. For a property in Maine the form shows the state's limits, and Rentiqa refuses a lease outside them: the security deposit at most two months' rent, a late fee at most four percent of the monthly rent, never before rent is 15 days late, and only when the written lease says so (14 M.R.S. §6032 and §6028). Leave the late fee blank for none. If the building is owner-occupied with five or fewer units, Maine's deposit rules do not apply (14 M.R.S. §6037): tick the box under the limits and the cap is not checked; your statement stays on the lease. Other states have no limits built in yet; check your own. Your own profile needs your first and last name before you can send a lease; if you add them, sign out and back in before sending. See [Your profile](https://app.rentiqa.com/help/getting-started/your-profile). ## Build the document **Document builder** lets you choose clauses from the clause library, add your own sections, and **Preview PDF**. Saving keeps it as the property's template for next time. ## Send it for signature 1. On the lease page, press **Generate & send for signature** and confirm. 2. The signing page opens for you. Type your full legal name, draw your signature, tick the consent box and press **Agree & Sign**. 3. The tenant signs from their Lease documents page. They get a message that it is ready to sign when their account is linked to the lease, which happens automatically when the lease was created from an application they submitted and the email on the lease matches it. Otherwise, send them the signing link yourself; they can sign with the account that uses the lease's email. When everyone has signed, the lease becomes **Active** and the signed PDF (with a certificate of completion) is ready to download. If the property requires identity verification, the tenant must verify before signing. The lease moves through **Draft**, **Sent for signature**, **Partially signed**, **Active**, then **Notice given**, **Expired** or **Terminated**. Check the document before you sign it yourself. **Re-send for signature** works only while nobody, you included, has signed; once anyone has signed, that lease's wording cannot be changed in Rentiqa. **New version** starts a fresh lease for the property; it does not replace or cancel the earlier one. ## Roommates and guarantors A lease can have more than one person on it. On the lease page, the **People on this lease** card lists the primary tenant and everyone you add: - **Co-tenant**: a roommate who lives there and is responsible for the rent. They can sign the lease, see it in their own Rentiqa account, pay rent on it and report repairs. - **Guarantor**: someone who stands behind the rent without living there (a parent, say). They sign the lease too but have no share of the rent and are not counted as a tenant. Fill in the person's name and email, choose the role, leave **Signs the lease** ticked unless they are an occupant who does not sign, and press **Add**. With **Email them a link** ticked, a person without a Rentiqa account gets an email to create one with that address; the card shows whether they are **On Rentiqa**, **Invited** or not yet on it. Someone who already uses Rentiqa with that email sees the lease the next time they open their Home page. **Rent shares** are optional. Leave them blank and the household owes the rent jointly: one ledger, one balance, and anyone on the lease can pay. Give every tenant a share (the primary tenant included) and the shares must add up to the monthly rent; each tenant then sees **Your share** on their Rent page. The ledger stays one for the household either way, so a short payment shows as one balance for everyone. Add people before you press **Generate & send for signature**: every signer gets their own line on the signing page and signs with their own account, and the lease becomes **Active** only when all of them and you have signed. Someone who has already signed cannot be taken off the lease; you would void that agreement first. Taking an unsigned person off before everyone has signed also removes their signing line. ## Signed on paper? **Save as active (signed offline)** or **Mark active (signed offline)** records a lease you signed outside Rentiqa. There is no electronic signature record for it. ## A tenant who already lives there Bringing in a tenancy that exists on paper takes one lease. On **Create Lease**, fill in the tenant and the terms as they are today, then under **Already living here?** set: - **Rent paid through**: the last day their rent is paid up to. Rentiqa charges nothing for due dates up to that day and starts with the next one. - **Balance carried over**: what they owe you today (or a negative amount for a credit), with a note saying what it is for. It is posted as one ledger entry, so their balance is right from day one. - **Email the tenant a link**: ticked, the tenant gets an email with a link to create their Rentiqa account with that address (or sign in if they have one); their lease is then on their Home page, with rent, repairs and messages. The link works for 14 days. You can send it later, or again, with **Invite to Rentiqa** under the tenant's name on the lease page, which also shows whether they have joined. Press **Save as active (signed offline)**; attach the paper lease under **Documents** if you like. ## The lease page Each lease has tabs **Overview**, **Ledger**, **Move-in**, **Deposit** and **Documents**. **End lease** ends an active lease. ## When the lease ends Sixty days before the end date you and the tenant are each emailed. On the lease's **Overview**, the **End of term** card gives you three ways forward: - **Offer a renewal**: set the monthly rent and the term (12, 6 or 24 months, or month to month) and send it. The tenant gets an email and accepts or declines on their Lease page; you are told either way. If they accept, a Draft renewal lease is created with those terms and everything else carried over, starting the day after the current end date. Open it with **Open the renewal lease** and send it for signature as usual; it takes over when the current lease ends. A new offer replaces one still open; **Withdraw offer** takes it back. - **Roll month to month at the end**: the lease carries on past its end date at the same rent, with rent, late fees, autopay and reminders running each month. Either side ends it by giving notice. **Keep the end date** undoes this before the end date. - **Let it end**: give or wait for a move-out notice, or use **End lease**. If nothing is decided by the end date, the lease rolls month to month on its own and both sides are emailed; nothing stops silently. The lease page then says **Month to month since** and the end date moves forward a month at a time. ## Files on a lease The **Documents** tab keeps the lease's files. The signed e-sign copy appears there on its own once both parties have signed; it stays on record and cannot be deleted. Under **Files on this lease**, **Add files** takes a lease signed on paper, an addendum, a notice, an inspection report or a photo (PDF, Word or image files). Pick a type, add a label if you like, and choose whether the file is **Visible to the tenant**; untick it to keep a note to yourself. What the tenant uploads, such as proof of renter's insurance, shows here too. Files are private to your account: only you and, when shared, the lease's tenant can open them. Next: [Move-in](https://app.rentiqa.com/help/landlords/move-in).