Initial Every Page of Lease?

Question

I am revising my lease and I am curious if I should have my tenants initial every page of my lease. I was given a lease from a friend who requires it, but it seems a bit like overkill.

Do you require your tenants to initial every page of your lease, or just sign the final page?

Kyle J. · Answer

@Thomas Garza  I also have my tenants initial every page, and then sign the last page.  It's not legally required to do that (at least not in my state), but here's a few reasons why I do it.

First, I actually go over every clause on every page when I'm initially reviewing my lease with a new tenant.  So if I'm already reviewing every page with them, it's super easy for me to just have them write their initials when we get to the bottom of each page.

Second, I don't ever want them to later be able to say they didn't see a term/condition/clause (or a whole page), or allege that I swapped out a page after the signing with a different page that had different terms/conditions/clauses.  They'll never be able to say that because their initials are on every single page.

Lastly, my lease actually has lines for "Tenant initials" at the bottom of each page.  So if I didn't have them put their initials there, it would look like an oversight or like we did not actually review it.

Ultimately, it takes a few extra seconds per page.  It's not that big of a deal for, what I feel is, a significant benefit.

Michael Ablan · Answer

@Thomas Garza - You'd be surprised by the BS you can avoid by carefully reviewing your lease with your tenants.  Carefully reviewing it involves having them initial after every page as a way of saying "Yes sir, I understand that I'm not allowed to flush paper towels down the toilet."

Unfortunately some will do it anyway,...but at least you have them on the hook for it.

Will Fraser · Answer

It's definitely overkill, but it is the kind of overkill you want.

Have them initial every page.  At scale you will NEED them to have signed and initialed everything along the way because sometime, somewhere, someone is going to say that they never saw X or didn't know Y and you'll want that simple initial as suggestion otherwise.