Sign a lease agreement online

For tenants: what to check before you sign

A lease is a binding contract, often for twelve months or more. Before you add your signature, read through these key points:

• >Rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods — confirm these match what was agreed verbally.
• >Security deposit amount and the specific conditions under which deductions can be made.
• >Lease duration and renewal terms — does it auto-renew, and how much notice is required to terminate?
• >Early termination clause — understand the penalty or fee if you need to leave before the term ends.
• >Landlord entry rights — most states require advance notice (typically 24 hours) before entry; confirm the lease reflects that.
• >Pet policy, guest policy, and any restrictions on use of the property.
• >Maintenance responsibilities — what the landlord is obligated to repair and what falls to you.
• >Joint and several liability if there are multiple tenants — each roommate may be fully liable for the total rent.

For landlords: countersigning a lease

Countersigning is just as quick as the initial signing. Upload the tenant-signed lease, add your signature and the date, and download the fully executed copy to keep on file. Because nothing is uploaded to a third-party server, you are not creating a record of tenant data — including names, addresses, and income details — on an external platform.

Keep the fully executed lease and any move-in inspection report together in a folder for each tenancy. If a dispute arises, the signed agreement is your primary reference document.

Is an electronically signed lease legally valid?

In most jurisdictions, yes. Residential and commercial leases are among the most commonly e-signed documents in the US. Both the federal ESIGN Act and the UETA — adopted by 49 US states — establish that a signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form. New York has its own equivalent statute (ESRA) that reaches the same result for most lease agreements.

A few narrow exceptions exist: some state-funded or subsidized housing programs have specific signature requirements worth confirming, and any lease that must be recorded with a county clerk may carry additional formality requirements. For the overwhelming majority of standard residential and commercial leases, an e-signature is fully enforceable. If you have any doubt, confirm with the counterparty or a local attorney before signing.

Privacy: why in-browser signing matters for leases

A signed lease contains your full legal name, home address, and in many cases income details used during the application process. Uploading that document to a cloud signing service places a copy of that data on a third-party platform — one that may retain it, share it with partners, or be subject to data breaches.

With DocSignHub, the lease never leaves your device. It is opened, signed, and downloaded entirely within your browser. The signed copy goes directly from you to the landlord or tenant — no intermediary holds a copy.

How both tenant and landlord can sign the same PDF

The standard workflow is sequential: the tenant signs first, then sends the PDF to the landlord to countersign. Each party opens the same PDF file in DocSignHub, adds their signature and date in the appropriate fields, and passes the updated file to the other.

Because DocSignHub adds signatures directly into the PDF, the resulting file is a single document with all signatures embedded — there is no separate signature file or certificate to manage. Both parties end up with an identical signed copy.

When a witness or notarized signature is required

Most standard residential leases do not require witnesses or notarization. However, long-term commercial leases (often those exceeding three years), certain state-specific lease forms, and leases that must be recorded in the public land records may carry additional requirements. Some states also have specific rules for leases of certain lengths or property types.

If your lease template includes a witness signature line or a notarization block, those requirements are real — review them carefully and arrange for a witness or notary if needed before the agreement can be considered fully executed.

Record-keeping after signing

Both the landlord and tenant should retain a copy of the fully executed lease for the entire tenancy plus the applicable statute of limitations period for contract disputes (which varies by state, but is typically three to six years). Store the file where you can find it quickly — disputes about lease terms are more common than most people expect.

Alongside the lease, keep the move-in inspection report, any written correspondence about repairs or modifications, and any amendments to the original agreement. Together, these form the documentary record of the tenancy.