Create, view, and send lease agreements with ease. You can enter your tenant's details and the terms of your lease, and then send a copy directly to your tenants to digitally sign, straight from the RentBetter platform.
See our guide below on everything you need to know about Lease Agreements.
In this Article:
What is a Lease Agreement?
A Lease Agreement (or Tenancy Agreement) is a legally binding, written agreement between a landlord and a tenant.
Each state and territory has their own regulations, and the platform includes the recommended form for each geography.
Lease agreements must include the following:
The name and address of the tenant, and the property owner
The period of the agreement and the dates when the agreement starts and ends (or state that the agreement is periodic)
Details about how the tenant should pay the rent and how much rent is to be paid
Details about what the tenant and the property owner or provider can and cannot do, are known as the 'standard terms'.
Any special terms - these should be agreed upon in advance, e.g. Pets allowed but must be kept outside or carpet cleaning, no smoking etc.
State if it’s a Fixed Term Agreement - where a tenant/resident agrees to rent a property for a fixed amount of time (for example 6 or 12 months) OR a Periodic Agreement - when a tenant/resident lives there for an indefinite period.
How do Lease Agreements work on RentBetter?
One of the benefits of the RentBetter Platform is the ability to connect relevant information about your property throughout the management process.
If your tenant has applied to your property and you have received the application via the RentBetter platform, then you can click one button to generate a pre-populated lease. If you already have a tenant and are creating a lease agreement without an application, you can set this up too.
✍️ Create Lease Agreement
Enter the details and terms of your lease between you and your tenant. Capture the amount, frequency, and duration of the payment schedule and enter any additional items or inclusions.
📄 View Lease Agreement
Once the PDF version of the lease agreement has been generated, you can view a draft of it and make any updates or changes before finalising the agreement.
📤 Send to Your Tenant
Send the completed copy to your tenant for them to sign. They will be able to digitally sign the agreement via our platform.
The lease agreement that applies to your state will be generated automatically for you based on where your property is located.
You can save the lease agreement and access it in the future in case you need to make changes.
Please note that the lease agreement made is solely between the Landlord and Tenant and RentBetter is not part of any agreement generated in the platform.
How to Create a Lease Agreement:
1. Creating a Lease Agreement from an Application
Visit the Properties page.
Click 'Applications' on the property card of the relevant property to view the application submitted by your tenant/s.
Click on the application you wish to select and click on the 'Create Lease Agreement' button on the top right.
Select the first option to 'Create and sign' a tenancy agreement.
On the following screen, you will be provided with a state-specific template for your lease agreement which you can preview and send to your tenant.
Your tenant will receive an email inviting them to RentBetter to set up an account
2. Create a Lease Agreement from Scratch
Visit the Properties page after signing into your RentBetter account.
Click 'Tenancy setup' on the property card relevant property to create a lease agreement with your tenant/s.
Select the first option to 'Create and sign' a tenancy agreement.
On the following screen, you will be provided with a state-specific template for your lease agreement which you can preview and send to your tenant.
Your tenant will receive an email inviting them to RentBetter to set up an account
What is a Digital or Electronic signature?
The digital signature feature allows you and your tenant to legally sign documents electronically from your devices like your desktop, laptop or phone.
One of great the benefits of digital signature is that you can easily see and record when the document was signed by your tenant with the convenience of being able to sign it from anywhere, no matter where you are.
Read more in this article here - https://rentbetter.com.au/article/property-transactions-made-easy-with-digital-signature
Lease Agreement FAQs
I have an existing Lease Agreement in place with my tenant, what do I do?
If you already have a lease agreement in place you can upload your agreement to the platform and send it to your tenant.
Just visit 'Tenancy setup' and select the second option in the list which says 'Upload a Lease agreement that has been signed outside of RentBetter'. This allows you to set up the tenancy and upload the agreement to send to your tenant so they have a copy inside their account.
Alternatively, you can upload it to your Documents section to save it for future reference but the tenant will not have a copy if you choose to do it this way.
How do you ensure that the lease agreement you provide is legally binding?
Each state and territory (with the exception of Tasmania and the Northern Territory) issues a recommended lease agreement which has been built into the RentBetter Platform for your convenience
How can I update or renew a lease agreement?
We always recommend that you contact your tenants to confirm your intended actions so typically you would first have a discussion with them about renewing the lease.
You can then prompt your tenant through the platform with the following steps:
Sign in at RentBetter.com.au and you will land on the Properties page.
Select Tenancy Setup, then select the Actions button.
From this menu, you can choose whether you want to create a new agreement with the current tenant or simply update the price or frequency of payments
Follow the prompts which will send a request to your tenant
How do I end the lease and rental payments for my tenant?
If you need to end the lease and subsequent payments, you can take the steps below:
Sign in at RentBetter.com.au and click into the portal to access the Properties page.
Select 'Tenancy Setup', then select the 'Actions' button on the top right.
On this page, you will see the options available for your tenancy.
Click 'End Tenancy' at the bottom of the page which will take you through the steps sign and send a termination notice to your tenant which they can accept via their tenant account.
How should I calculate my rent?
You can select your preferred frequency of rental payments via the RentBetter Platform. There are weekly, fortnightly and monthly payment options available.
We typically recommend a fortnightly payment schedule as the right fit for most situations. It tends to align with most people’s pay cycles, is frequent enough for you to know payments are flowing through and runs on a fixed day of the week.
Monthly rent tends to be complicated by the calculation of the monthly amount (weekly rent divided by 7 multiplied by 365 and then divided by 12) and the day of the month rent is paid can cause delays when it falls on a weekend.
We see many situations where calculating a percentage of the final payment if less than a month, or the initial calculation increases the risk of errors. It is also a larger amount of money at reach with each payment.
Weekly rent can work but tends to increase the frequency of payments and receipts etc. and can sometimes be too frequent for some landlords and tenants.
Need further assistance?
Have more questions on lease agreements? Reach out to our friendly team via the support chat or email info@rentbetter.com.au and we’ll be happy to help.