We are thrilled to announce that the integrated remote signing for the Tenancy Builder is now ready for use.

The Tenancy Builder is one of our most popular services and used every single day by subscribers. Electronic and remote signing has become more popular over recent years but in particular since the pandemic, its use has increased massively.

Our system always worked with any remote signing app and was integrated with Signable. But, despite the integration, the agreement still needed to be manually uploaded and parties manually added.

Now, we have integrated remote signing directly into the Tenancy Builder.

It will only work with assured shorthold, contractual and assured tenancies at the moment. Lodger agreements will be added soon.

With just a few clicks, you can send the agreement for signature to each party and once completed, an audit trail is added to the agreement.

To use remote signing, see the video below and follow these instructions:

  • Create a new agreement or edit existing exactly the same as before. Ensure the option for “draft” is set to no and “will you upload to signable” is “No”.
  • Once you’ve received the email confirming the agreement has been built, go to “Remote Signing” from the Builder main page and click on the new “E-signing” link then “prepare and send”.

  • All fields will generally have been auto-filled depending on what was entered in the Builder but if any are missing, fill them in. It’s important to ensure all emails are unique for each signing party and every box is filled in.

screenshot remote signing

  • After submitting, the first party will receive an email requesting to sign. The first party will always be the guarantor (if one) otherwise the first named tenant.
  • As one party signs, our system will automatically send the agreement to the next party for signature and so on. The landlord will be the last person to sign.
  • Once all parties have signed, the agreement will be available for download and will have an audit trail attached to the bottom.

Will there be a charge for the service?

At this immediate moment, there is no charge to use the service. However, we plan to introduce soon a system which will allow a certain number of free signings per month for subscribers (thinking 10 per month but don’t hold us to that just yet). After the number has been used up, the idea is that credits can be purchased which will work out at about £1.20 including VAT per send.

We will see over the next couple of weeks what usage is like and go from there.

Roadmap for future

Whilst developing this system, we found a number of unexpected limitations both in my ability to code and also with the software currently being used on the server and in particular which runs the Tenancy Builder.

As such, we’ve already got a developer making a brand new Tenancy Builder version 3.0.

This will be a total re-write from the ground up and will keep all existing functionality and add some or all of the following:

  • will be much faster (initial testing of an early version is really quick)
  • at the moment in remote signing, you have to manually refresh to see updates. These updates will change live without refreshing
  • Royal Mail address lookup will be added to address fields
  • remote signing will generally be improved with a preview of the document and other visual improvements
  • option for in person signing using any device with an internet connection (e.g. phone or tablet)

Watch our video introducing remote signing.