Residential lease agreement
Document overview
- Length:17 pages (3550 words)
- Available in:
Microsoft Word DOCX
Apple Pages
RTF
If the document isn’t right for your circumstances for any reason, just tell us and we’ll refund you in full immediately.
We avoid legal terminology unless necessary. Plain English makes our documents easy to understand, easy to edit and more likely to be accepted.
You don’t need legal knowledge to use our documents. We explain what to edit and how in the guidance notes included at the end of the document.
Email us with questions about editing your document. Use our Lawyer Assist service if you’d like our legal team to check your document will do as you intend.
Our documents comply with the latest relevant law. Our lawyers regularly review how new law affects each document in our library.
About this lease
This is a long form version of a lease, drawn to give the landlord maximum control over the terms of the lease. It is written in plain English, with full provisions including guarantor and a choice of over 30 covenants that control how the tenant must maintain the property.
The law in this lease
There are many lease agreements on the Internet, varying in price and quality. Most are short form, around 500 words (a quarter of the size of this one), and cover only the basic terms to create a lease. Residential lease agreements are generally governed by the provisions of the Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999, and Consumer Protection Act 2008 also apply to lease agreement. A landlord and tenant may agree to additional terms. As a landlord, you will know that the purpose of an agreement is to protect you against whatever might go wrong. The more comprehensive lease agreement is, the more it defines rights in this agreement, favouring you as a landlord) and leaves less room for subjective interpretation by your tenant or a judge.
When to use this lease agreement
This agreement should be used by a landlord wishing to rent one or more houses under the following circumstances. It is ideal for buy-to-let, and can be reused for multiple properties.
This agreement requires that:
- The tenant(s) is a private individual and not a company
- The whole space will be let to one or more tenants under a single agreement
- The property will be used for residential purposes only (not business or agriculture)
This lease agreement holds the tenants jointly and severally liable for the lease(all tenants are jointly responsible for payment of rent and not individual shares).
Features and contents of this tenancy agreement
- Basic provisions
- Agent: should the landlord wish to appoint someone to act on his behalf
- Rent: by default paid monthly in advance, but the terms can be changed
- Deposit by tenant
- Forfeiture
- Interest
- Insurance
- Repairs
- Landlord's choice of more than 30 tenant's “promises” setting out what tenant can and cannot do
- Landlord's access: to view or show prospective lenders or buyers
- Services of notices on the Tenant
- Services of notices on the Landlord
- Other legal provisions to protect your interests
- An inventory (provided in the document, with explanatory notes on how to use)
- Includes sensible, practical provisions
- List of defects
Recent reviews
Choose the level of support you need
Document Only
This document - Detailed guidance notes explaining how to edit each paragraph
Lawyer Assist
- This document
- Document with guidance notes explaining how to edit each paragraph
- Unlimited email support - ask our legal team any question related to completing the document
- Review of your edited document by our legal team including:
- reporting on whether your changes comply with the law
- answering your questions about how to word a new clause or achieve an outcome
- checking that your use of defined terms is correct and consistent
- correcting spelling mistakes
- reformatting the document ready to sign
All rights reserved