Create and activate a lease

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A lease is the record of one tenancy: which unit, which tenant, for how long, at what rent. It drives rent invoicing, the unit’s occupancy, and the move-in and move-out inspections, so it is worth getting the detail right before you activate it.

Draft the lease

1. In the sidebar, select Leases.

2. Select New lease.

3. Choose the Unit. Only units that are active and marked rentable can be leased — if the unit you want isn’t listed, fix it in Locations first.

4. Choose the Tenant.

5. Set the Lease type — Residential or Commercial. This picks the status workflow the lease follows; commercial leases add a Holdover status after expiry.

6. Set the Start date, then either an End date or tick Open-ended. Choose one or the other, not both.

7. Enter the Rent and Currency, pick a Cadence (Monthly, Quarterly or Annual), and set Rent due on the day of the period.

   Caution

   The currency is locked once the lease is active. Changing it later would silently re-denominate the rent history, so the form blocks it — pick the right currency now.

8. Set an Escalation if rent rises on a schedule — Fixed %, RPI-linked, or Manual review — with the review date.

9. Enter the Deposit and choose Held by. Manager-held deposits post to your ledger when the lease activates. Escrow deposits are held externally and need an Escrow provider and a Protection reference.

10. Add any Service charges. Each one bills either With rent or as a Separate invoice, and must use the same currency as the rent.

11. Add Additional occupants and Guarantors if the tenancy has them. Each guarantor signs their own document, separate from the lease itself.

12. Save the lease. It is created as a Draft and nothing bills yet.

Send it for signature

1. Open the lease and select Send for signature.
2. Bind a contract: pick an existing one, or create a new one from here. A lease can’t go out for signature without one — the parties and their email addresses live on the contract, not on the lease.
3. Confirm. The lease moves to Pending signature and every signing party gets an email with their own link. They don’t need a Belrald Assets account to sign.

The lease activates on its own once the contract is fully signed — you don’t need to come back and do it.

Note

Signed on paper, or somewhere else? Use Manual override on the lease to activate it without a completed signing ceremony. It is audited, so keep it for genuinely offline signings.

Tip

Attach the inventory list and any ID copies on the lease’s Files tab before the tenant moves in. They are much harder to chase afterwards.

What happens next

Activating the lease sets several things in motion at once:

• The unit’s occupancy changes to Occupied.
• A rent schedule is created, and invoices generate on the cadence you set.
• A manager-held deposit posts to the ledger as a receipt.
• A move-in inspection is scheduled against the lease.

From there the lease moves through Draft → Pending signature → Active → Notice given → Expired, Terminated or Renewed as the tenancy runs its course. Every change is recorded on the lease’s Timeline tab.