Lease agreement template
Use this free lease agreement template to streamline your real estate contract management processes in 2024.
Use this free lease agreement template to streamline your real estate contract management processes in 2024.
Also known as a rental agreement, a lease agreement is a legal document outlining the terms under which one party agrees to rent property from another. It guarantees the lessee, also known as the tenant, use of a property or asset in exchange for a regular payment.
While lease agreements can seem daunting, they are a critical tool for landlords and tenants alike, providing a legally enforceable framework for the rental relationship. They are also among the most common business contracts, with applications everywhere from residential and commercial real estate to equipment hire and vehicle leasing.
Lease agreements can involve various teams and individuals, each with different roles and responsibilities. The responsibility for creating a lease agreement often falls on several key players, depending on the specific use case. These typically include:
But lease agreements don’t need to be difficult. Just ask apartment hotel operator, Placemakr, whose team successfully halved the time spent on contract creation and management by implementing Juro’s AI-enabled contract management software.
In a previous process, Placemakr’s sales reps would have to go into Word to find a template, manually input all of the client’s information, send it for negotiation, move it into DocuSign for signing, and then store it in Sharepoint.
It was a painful process with lots of manual touchpoints, and it created friction for apartment lease agreements that now take seconds to generate in Juro.
Now, they’re better equipped for real estate contract management. With Juro, Placemakr have:
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With a platform like Juro, your team can automate lease agreements and reduce the burden on legal teams in terms of repetitive contract admin. For more on how this works, and what benefits it would offer your business, book a demo or keep reading.
Lease agreements can be used in various different contexts. Let's run through a few of the most common use cases for a lease agreement.
When you rent a residential property such as an apartment or a house, a tenancy agreement is typically used to outline the terms of the rental. This includes the rental amount, the duration of the lease, and the responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant.
Businesses that rent commercial spaces like offices, retail stores, or warehouses will also use a lease agreement. These office lease agreements, or commercial lease agreements, may include additional terms related to business operations, such as permitted uses of the space and hours of operation.
Lease agreements aren't just for real estate. They're also used when leasing equipment, vehicles, or other high-value items. These agreements outline the terms of the lease, including maintenance responsibilities and what happens at the end of the lease term.
If a tenant wants to rent out their leased property to another person, they'll use a sublease agreement. This agreement is subject to the terms of the original lease and usually requires the landlord's approval.
Farmers and landowners use lease agreements to outline the terms for renting agricultural land or equipment. These agreements can cover everything from crop share arrangements to responsibilities for land maintenance and improvement. These are often known as land lease agreements.
When you rent a car, you will typically sign a car lease agreement. This agreement outlines the terms of your rental, including the duration, the cost, and the responsibilities of both the rental company and the renter.
A robust lease agreement template should cover all the essential aspects of the leasing arrangement. It should provide a clear and comprehensive outline of the rights and responsibilities of both parties.
Here are the key elements that a lease agreement template should cover:
Remember, a lease agreement is a legally binding document. Therefore, it's crucial to ensure that it is comprehensive, clear, and complies with all relevant laws and regulations. It should also include the core elements of a contract.
As we we’ve already mentioned, managing lease agreements is a complex process that often involves multiple stakeholders, including landlords, tenants, legal teams, and sometimes intermediaries like real estate agents or property managers.
The process often involves several stages, each with its own set of tools and challenges.
The initial step involves creating the lease agreement template. This is often done using word processing software and by compiling parts of other standard templates, which are then customized to fit the specific terms of each lease.
This process of drafting a contract can be time-consuming and requires meticulous attention to detail to ensure all necessary clauses are included and tailored correctly.
Once the lease agreement is drafted, it typically needs to be reviewed and approved by a legal professional. This ensures that the agreement is legally sound and protects the interests of all parties.
However, this can be a bottleneck, especially if multiple rounds of revisions are required, leading to delays in finalizing the agreement. These delays are intensified by fragmented negotiation processes that span several different tools and contract versions.
After the lease agreement is approved, it needs to be signed by both parties. Traditionally, this has involved coordinating in-person meetings or sending documents by mail for signatures.
This can be logistically challenging and time-consuming, especially when dealing with multiple parties or those in different locations.
Once signed, the lease agreement needs to be stored securely. This often involves physical storage, such as filing cabinets, which can be costly and difficult to manage, especially for those dealing with a large number of properties, or leasing equipment at scale.
Lease agreements need to be monitored for renewals, terminations, and any changes in terms. This is often a manual process, involving keeping track of key dates and sending out reminders. This stage of the contract lifecycle requires careful management to ensure nothing is missed.
Throughout all these stages, effective communication between all parties is essential. This often involves a mix of email, phone calls, and meetings. Managing communication effectively can be a challenge, especially when dealing with multiple lease agreements simultaneously.
To summarize: the traditional approach to managing lease agreements involves a mix of different processes, each with their own limitations and challenges.
As the scale of operations increases, these challenges can become more pronounced, making efficient management of lease agreements a crucial aspect of operations for landlords, real estate professionals, and legal teams alike.
The good news is that you can reduce the administrative burden of managing lease agreements by adopting a contract tool like Juro.
Juro's all-in-one contract lifecycle management platform enables businesses and individuals to streamline and automate the management of lease agreements - just like Placemakr.
By digitizing and automating various stages of the lease agreement process, Juro can help save time, reduce errors, and improve efficiency.
Here's how Juro can transform the way you manage lease agreements in a few simple steps:
Juro's platform allows you to create custom templates for lease agreements. Once the template is set up, creating a new lease agreement is as simple as filling in the specific details for each lease.
Or, you can integrate Juro with your CRM or real estate platforms like Placemakr did, enabling you to automate full lease agreements in just a few clicks.
This not only saves time but also ensures consistency across all your lease agreements.
With Juro, you can collaborate in real-time with your team and legal counsel to review and approve lease agreements. You can make changes directly in the platform, eliminating the need for lengthy email threads and numerous document versions.
The same applies to lease agreement negotiations, too. This is because Juro's collaborative contract management platform empowers counterparties to add their own comments, suggestions and redlines without leaving the platform.
Juro enables teams to sign contracts electronically with legally binding electronic signatures that are valid across most geographies.
This makes it easy for all parties to sign the lease agreement no matter where they are. Not only does this speed up the signing process, but it also creates a fully digital audit trail.
Juro can send automated reminders when a lease is due for renewal or when a termination notice period is approaching. This ensures that you never miss important dates.
This makes it easy for real estate agents and their teams to track, extend, renew, terminate and manage lease agreements at scale.
All lease agreements signed through Juro are stored securely in the cloud. You can easily search for and access any agreement, making it easy to manage your portfolio of properties.
This is perfect for estate agents and landlords managing lots of lease agreements at any one time.Ready to automate Lease Agreements in Juro?
By automating and streamlining the lease agreement process, Juro can help landlords, real estate professionals, and legal teams manage their lease agreements more efficiently.
This not only saves time and reduces the risk of errors but also allows these teams to focus on more strategic tasks.
Juro’s AI contract collaboration platform enables your team to create, execute and manage contracts 10x faster than traditional tools. With Juro, you can:
To find out more about how Juro can benefit businesses in the real-estate industry, check out this guide to real estate contract management, or book your personalized demo by hitting the button below.
It's worth noting that different states will have different laws around leasing, and your lease agreement templates should comply with, or be varied to comply with, these. Below are some state-specific, simple lease agreements to help you get started:
The biggest difference is that a tenancy relates to a renting a property, while lease agreements can also include the renting of other things, like equipment, or vehicles.
Yes, lease templates can be used for commercial properties, but they must be tailored to address the specific requirements of commercial leases, which are often more complex than residential leases. Commercial leases may include additional terms related to property use, maintenance obligations, and business-related clauses. We also offer a separate commercial lease agreement template.
Notarization of lease agreements is not typically required, but it can provide an additional layer of authenticity and protection. However, some jurisdictions or specific agreements may require notarization, so it's important to check local regulations.
Yes, tenants can legally sign a lease agreement remotely. This practice is increasingly common, especially with the rise of electronic signatures.
Juro is the #1-rated contract platform globally for speed of implementation.
Modern businesses use Juro to automate contracts from drafting to signature and beyond, in one intuitive platform that every team can use. Want to see how?
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