Generating, Editing, and E-Signing Leases

Draft a state-specific lease with AI, fine-tune every clause, and get it signed electronically by both sides — no printer, no attorney, no snail mail.

Go to Leases →

Starting a lease draft

Click New Lease and pick the vacant (or pending) unit the lease is for. Rent and deposit prefill from the unit's listed amounts, but you can override either one. You do not need a tenant yet — you can generate a lease as a reusable draft and assign the signer later. If you have one in mind, look them up by the email address on their VerticalRent account; a match shows their name so you can confirm before attaching them to the lease.

From the same form you set:

• Lease term — a start date plus either an end date or a Month-to-Month toggle for no fixed end date.
• Financial terms — monthly rent, security deposit, late fee amount (defaults to $50), and a grace period in days before the late fee applies (defaults to 5 days, max 30).
• Pet policy — Not Allowed, Allowed with Pet Deposit, or Negotiable.
• Parking — included or not.
• Utilities included — any combination of Water, Electric, Gas, Internet, and Trash.
• Custom clauses — free-text, one per line (e.g. no-smoking, no alterations without consent) that get folded into the AI-generated document.

Saving creates a draft lease record — nothing is sent to anyone yet, and the underlying document hasn't been written.

Generating the lease with AI

From the lease's detail page, click Generate Lease with AI. VerticalRent drafts a full, state- (and county-, where relevant) specific agreement using every term you set above, incorporating the disclosures, fair-housing language, and legally required clauses for that jurisdiction. This costs 25 AI credits per generation — the same cost whether it's the first draft or a full regeneration later. Your current AI credit balance is shown right next to the button; if you're short, a Buy AI Credits link takes you straight to the credits page.

Editing before you send

Once generated, the lease is fully editable as long as it hasn't been signed by either party (status draft or pending signature). From Edit Lease you can:

• Change any term — dates, rent, deposit, late fee, pet policy, utilities, parking.
• Add, change, or remove the assigned tenant.
• Edit the custom clauses text directly, or click Regenerate with AI (8 credits) to have AI rewrite just that clause based on your instructions — much cheaper than a full regeneration.
• Edit the entire generated lease document line by line in a raw text editor. Whatever you save here is exactly what the tenant sees when they open the signing link.

If you'd rather start over from your current terms, use Regenerate on the lease detail page. This is a full, fresh AI draft at the same 25-credit cost.

Downloading the lease as a PDF

Once a lease has been AI-generated, a Download button is available on the lease detail page at any stage — draft, pending signature, or fully executed. After signing, the PDF includes the signature audit trail (names, timestamps, and IP addresses) for both parties.

Sending for e-signature

With the lease generated and a tenant assigned, click Send Signing Link to Tenant. They receive a secure link by email and sign directly from their inbox — no VerticalRent account required. Signing links expire after 7 days; you can resend a fresh one anytime the lease is still pending the tenant's signature.

Signing as the landlord

You sign your own copy from the lease detail page's Signatures panel: type your full legal name, confirm the agreement checkbox, and click Sign Lease. Your typed name renders as a signature, and the record stores your IP address and timestamp. This is legally binding under the ESIGN Act and UETA — the same standard used for the tenant's signature.

Lease statuses

• Draft — created, not yet generated or not yet sent for signature.
• Pending Signature — the AI document exists and at least one party still needs to sign.
• Active — both landlord and tenant have signed; the lease is fully executed.
• Expired — the lease term ended without renewal or termination.
• Terminated — ended early (see below).

The Leases list shows counts for active leases, leases expiring within 30 days, leases pending signature, and drafts, plus filter tabs so you can jump straight to any of those groups.

After both signatures are in

A fully executed lease automatically marks the unit occupied and unlocks rent collection for that tenancy. The lease page then shows a move-in checklist:

• Download the signed PDF for your records.
• If you haven't already, connect payouts under Settings → Payouts so rent can transfer to your bank account.
• Log the security deposit — a one-click link pre-fills an income entry in your ledger with the deposit amount, tenant, and unit.
• Reminder to prepare for the move-in date (keys, utilities, walkthrough).

From there, all rent collection, payout, and ledger activity for this tenancy happens on the Payments page — see Collecting Rent, Managing Payouts, and Using the Ledger.

Renewing or terminating a lease

Once a lease is active (or has expired), two lifecycle actions appear:

• Renew lease — creates a brand-new draft lease for the same tenant and unit with a new start date, optional new end date, and updated monthly rent. You generate and send the renewal for signature just like a new lease.
• Terminate lease — ends an active lease early. You set the termination date, an optional reason, and record the security deposit refund and any deductions. Terminating frees up the unit and cancels any rent autopay tied to the lease.