Send Tenancy for Digital Signing
One of the most outstanding features of Tenancy Builder is the integrated digital signing.
The agreement must have first been "built" and a downloadable PDF available. When using digital signing, we automatically upload the final built PDF agreement, which will be used for the signing.
The "Is this to be draft" field must be set to "no" to use digital signing.
A digital signing costs 100 credits. Subscribers are given free credits each time you join/renew, and also, some credits were given for free on the launch of the new Builder to get you started.
Credits
If you don't have sufficient credits (100 are required), the link for digital signing will instead say "digital signing (purchase credits)". Clicking the link will divert you to the credits purchase page.
The 100 credits are irrespective of the number of parties signing, and it's per document, not per signatory.
Procedure for using digital signing
After an agreement has been built, you should carefully check the PDF's contents by downloading and checking.
Once the PDF has been checked, from the actions button in the tenancies list, click on "Digital Signing".
Next is to check all fields are completed correctly.
Ensure all party names and emails are completed.
Ensuring all party names and emails are filled in and spelt correctly is essential.
Fields
From / Notification Email
When an email is sent to a party for signature (e.g. the tenant), this email will be the" from" and" reply to" addresses as the party will see it in their email client.
This email will notify you when a party has signed and when the agreement is completed.
From Name
The from name will be displayed in the email requesting a signature.
Tenancy Address and Fixed Term
These are read-only fields to ensure you have selected the correct agreement for digital signing.
Guarantor Name and Guarantor Email
If there's a guarantor, these will be displayed and must be completed.
Check all are spelt correctly.
Tenant Name and Email
The name and email, as previously entered, will be displayed for each tenant. If any are blank, they must be filled in.
Check all are spelt correctly and that there are no empty boxes. If you see empty boxes, you must edit the agreement and on page two (tenant details), click “remove” next to the blank tenant details.
Landlord Signers Name and Email
Each landlord signer will display The name and email as previously entered. If any are blank, they must be filled in.
Check all are spelt correctly. If you see empty boxes, you must edit the agreement, and on the last page, select the correct number of landlord signers.
Receive event email notifications.
After the agreement has been submitted for digital signing, you can receive emails every time a party is sent, opens or signs the document.
Please be aware that you can receive a lot of emails! Some parties (for whatever reason) open the document many times before they sign.
If you're new to the system, leave this as "yes". However, if you're familiar with the system, you'll know how many emails you get, and we recommend selecting "no". You can monitor progress and events from the digital signing events page (see earlier).
Sending
After submission, an email will be sent to every party in the same order as seen on the screen. The emails will be sent one at a time in the following order:
Guarantor 1 (if one)
Guarantor 2 (if one)
Guarantor 3 (if one)
Guarantor 4 (if one)
Guarantor 5 (if one)
Guarantor 6 (if one)
Guarantor 7 (if one)
Guarantor 8 (if one)
Guarantor 9 (if one)
Tenant 1
Tenant 2 (if one)
Tenant 3 (if one)
Tenant 4 (if one)
Tenant 5 (if one)
Tenant 6 (if one)
Tenant 7 (if one)
Tenant 8 (if one)
Tenant 9 (if one)
Relevant person (someone who paid the deposit on behalf of the tenant, if one)
Landlord signer 1
Landlord signer 2 (if one)
Landlord signer 3 (if one)
Landlord signer 4 (if one)
As one party signs, the system automatically sends an email to the next party in the list until all parties have signed.
Once completed, all parties get an email with the final PDF signed agreement to retain.
The current signing party will automatically receive an automatic reminder every day.
The agreement is automatically set to expire after 90 days if all parties have not signed by this time. Without an expiry, parties would continue to receive email reminders every day forever! It's not possible to revive an expired document, and the process would need to be started again.
When the signing has been completed
When the document has been finalised by all parties signing the agreement, all parties automatically receive an email with a link to download the email to retain for their records.
The finalised document contains an audit log at the end showing all events, like when it was opened and signed.
Furthermore, Tenancy Builder receives the signed document and replaces the initial PDF that was sent. When you click the completed indicator or download link from the actions button, this will download the final signed version of the document. From this point, you'll no longer be able to save and build that tenancy again to avoid accidentally editing and overwriting the signed document.
Digital Signing Events
As the signing progresses, you can view events by clicking" digital signing events" in the actions button (where the edit is) from the tenancies list.
The digital signing events page shows each party's current progress. At the bottom, you can see all events, including when a party was sent, opened and signed a document.
The status will show pending, whilst one or more parties are yet to sign the document.
From the events page, whilst the signing is in progress, you can preview and download the document's current state and cancel it (see next). The final document, including the audit log, can be downloaded when the signing is completed.
Digital signing reminders
The system automatically sends a reminder to the current signing party once per day.
However, suppose you wish to send a manual reminder. In that case, you can go to the digital signing events page (from the actions button) and at the top in the signing status section, you can click a “send reminder” button next to any party where the option is available.
Cancel a document
Before the document has been completed, you can cancel it.
Go to the digital signing events page (from the actions button where the edit is), and there are two options in the top right corner.
Cancel
Clicking cancel will formally cancel the document. All parties will be emailed that the agreement has been withdrawn.
Silent cancel
A silent cancel does not technically cancel the document but instead "expires" it. This would be the same if the document were left unsigned for 90 days, which would automatically expire.
Clicking silent cancel will expire the document immediately, and no emails will be sent to any party.
Download the completed agreement.
Once all parties have signed, the document will be marked as completed (seen on the events page).
It can take a while (several minutes) after the last party has signed before the agreement is marked as completed.
Once the agreement has been completed, the document will automatically be emailed to all parties, where you can download the copy to store it somewhere safe.
You can download the document by clicking "download final" from the actions button in the tenancies list (the system overwrites the previously built agreement with the signed one). Or, go to the digital signing events page (via the actions button) and click preview and download at the top right.
I've Realised the Document Has Been Sent to the Wrong Email Address.
If the agreement has been submitted for remote signing and you realise there's a wrong email address entered for one of the parties, you can change the email after it bounces. You will receive an email and follow the instructions.
Unfortunately, the Signable API does not allow us to update an existing party to an agreement once submitted for digital signing, except when it bounces as described above.
If you realise a contact needs updating, you can do one of the following:
- Wait for the email to be sent to the party and let it bounce - you'll then get the email to change the email as above
- Cancel the document, edit the agreement, save and build and send again for digital signing or,
- Contact us and ask us to make the change manually - for this option, please submit a ticket. We'll need you to provide the following:
- the filename from the top of the events page (you can click in the box to automatically copy the filename to the clipboard),
- the party name,
- old email,
- new email and
- tenancy address (so we can check we're changing the right one).
Note: If you submit a ticket using the link from the top of the digital signing events page, the filename will auto-populate into the message.