Investor · Longview/Kelso, WA · Member since 2015 · 16 posts · 8 votes
So I've got a couple that wants to rent out a house from us, one is in town and is able to sign tomorrow, the other is out of town for a while but can sign, scan and email a copy back to me tomorrow is well. Is this legally binding or does both parties need to sign in person? Any help is appreciated, I've never had to deal with this in the past. Thanks
In today's automated world, even puchase/sales are signed with eSignature (et al).
One real sig on the contact, annotated to have email scanned sig to be attached would be a reasonable effort (imo) by all parties to be binding - - the intent is perfectly clear
There are several services that allow you to create custom lease agreements to send to your tenants for them to sign online.
The best way to enforce the legality of an electronic signature is to ensure attribution and record integrity of the signed document. Mainly, one needs to prove the identity of the person who signed the document and that the document was unaltered after signing. Leading providers of electronic signatures services offer advanced authentication methods, like linking a signature to a password-protected account and email address to prove who signed the document. Record integrity is managed with hashing, encryption and secure retention and storage to ensure the document has not been altered.
DocuSign and HelloSign are a couple legally authorized eSignature options. Your rental management software probably already integrates on of these solutions - which makes it even easier to use.
Sure it is legal to fax/scan. For electronic signatures don 't just accept a PDF "electronic signature" with no physical signing but just the computer stamp. For that you need something like a service that is validated (several official services out there for this). In general I sign when I have both signatures.
If you want the original ask them to mail it in addition to the scan. The money seals the deal too.
Kaycee, That was my concern is that how can one prove that the person that signed it is the actual tenant. I'll have to look into the DocuSign for future reference but 99% of the time we meet all our future tenants in person because the properties are local.
Colleen, that is a valid point, I did have to tell her that I wanted her actual signature, not just a PDF stamp. I think as long as I have that and the money, I should be good to go. Mailing the original is a good idea too but if everyone's in agreement, then I don't think I need it.
Thank you everyone for the feedback, it really helped me out.