How to Renew a Lease

Renew a lease when your tenant is staying on. You can set a new end date, new rent and new terms, then attach the renewal document or send it for e-signature.

Before you start

• You need the Documentation → Leases → Update permission. Account owners have it. If you see Access Denied when you try to renew a lease, ask your account owner to give you access under Settings → User Roles.
• The renewal keeps the same property, unit and start date. You can change the term, end date, first rent date, rent, frequency, deposit and late fees.
• Have ready: the new end date, the new rent and how often it's billed, the next rent due date, and the renewal document if you have one.

1. Open the renewal form

• On the lease's page, click Renew Lease at the top right.
• Or, on a property's, unit's or tenant's Leases tab, click ⋮ → Renew Lease.

The form has 2 steps: Lease Info and Document Info.

2. Lease Info

Every field is filled in from the current lease. The Property, Unit and Lease Term Start Date are locked.

1. Choose the Lease Term: Fixed Term or Month-to-Month.
2. For a Fixed Term lease, pick the new Lease Term End Date.
3. Set the First Rent Date, the Frequency and the new Rent Amount.
4. Update the Security Deposit if needed.
5. If you charge late fees, check When to Charge Late Fees?, the late fee Frequency and the Late Fee Amount.
6. Check every field, then click Next.

Clicking Next submits the renewal. There's no review screen, so check everything first.

If the renewal can't go ahead, a window such as Unable to Renew Lease tells you why. Close it, fix the issue and try again.

3. Document Info

Your renewal is already saved at this point. This step attaches the renewal document.

1. Answer Is the document signed? with Yes or No.
2. Click Upload Documents and attach the file.
3. If it isn't signed, answer Would you like to request a signature?

Then:

• Click Submit if the document is signed, or if you don't want e-signature. You'll see Document uploaded successfully! and go back to the Leases list.
• Click Pay to Sign if you want e-signature:
  1. Pay the fee by card in the Pay Now window.
  2. You'll see Redirecting to Document E-Signature. After a few seconds, SignNow opens so you can place the signature fields.
  3. When you return to DigitalTenant, pick an email for each signer in Send Document Invites and click Send Invites. You can't change the people after sending.

Good to know

• Don't click Back and then Next again after the first step. That sends the renewal a second time.
• If you don't have a document yet, you can leave after the first step. The renewal is already saved.
• If your lease charged late fees 0 days after the due date, When to Charge Late Fees? may come back blank. Type 0 again.
• The date pickers don't block past dates, so check the dates carefully.
• If nothing happens after you click Next, refresh, then open the lease and check whether the renewal went through before you try again.
• If you get lost after SignNow, the document waits on the lease's Documents tab with an Add Invites button.
• The renewal form doesn't have the rent-free or prorate options, or the billing preview, that you see when you create a new lease.

What to do next

1. Open the lease and check the new dates and rent on the Overview tab.
2. Check the Rent & Invoices tab to make sure the recurring rent matches the new amount.
3. If you used e-signature, make sure the invites were sent and watch the Signatures status.

Need help?

Email us at support@digitaltenant.com, or use the Help button in the bottom-right corner of your dashboard.