Digital Rental Agreement

lrb_2

Hi there,

Somewhere I read that some clever person purchased a house and did all the documentation/paperwork digitally. I am in the process of letting my flat and I was wondering if a similar approach could be implemented.

Does anyone have any experiences/advice about this?

Thanks,

Lx

Fire_Fox

Why would you want to make your life difficult? Just get everything signed in the proper way.

lrb_2

Thanks but to me it seems a bit archaic to be printing endless documents especially when most of the communication and agreements are taking place via e-mail.
I think think it also makes it easier to store certain data, like pictures for the inventory.

Werdnal

Digital media, however well backed up, can be lost. I appreciate a paper agreement can also be mislaid, but I would much rather have a solid paper document in my hand, then rely on PC/Digital records and files that can be corrupted.

Also, if the tenant or LL lost their particular copy, it is probably easier to manipulate the other party's copy if it is digitally based, to change clauses and terms in their favour and present that as the legitimate version - however secure you think a digital document is, there is always that possibility.

If you are planning to conduct a letting exercise purely through email correspondence, please be careful - our british legal system and courts are still archaic and as has often been said here, emails are not always admissible evidence.

A signed, sealed and witnessed paper copy provided to tenant, landlord and letting agent is the time honoured acceptable way - if its not broke, don't fix it!

whalster

I have not thought of this in this way before only to the extent of buying selling property where I have had to get in my car grumbling and go 40 miles to the solicitor when there is a system to sign digitaly out there .However I do think you need to look your tenants in the eye ,now I'm no lawyer but as I have always understood it if someone can prove they have not understood the contract they have signed then it will not stand up , this is why if I think there is a language barrier then I hsve someone on hand to translate I think doing a contract this way in principle is a great idea but in practical terms would not work.
The main frustration for me was the printing of all the documentation relating to deposit protection however after asking the RLA was told it could be sent via e-mail to each tenant which does save a lot of trees!

paddyrg

Funnily enough, for durability it is hard to beat the 'old' methods.

When they did a digital restoration of 'The Red Shoes' (classic film), they looked at all the archive alternatives...and came to the conclusion that the safest and most enduring by far was recording it back to 35mm film! Having things in a format you can read without any special equipment is the surest way not to lose it when technology moves on (as it always does).

For instance, what use is a 3.5" floppy disc these days? Most home-burn CD's are rated at upto 20 yrs, many early ones now are unreadable, hard drives die all the time...but a printed paper copy stands a chance of lasting into the 30th century

lrb_2

lookingtosavemoney wrote: »

I decided to use openrent's "Rent Now" - still going through the process, but they claim their contract is fully digital and they store it online for you after sending it out.

They also found me my tenants, so I can't complain!

Thanks a lot! :T Didn't know about them. I like some of the services the offer, I might use them next time.

Lx

lrb_2

Thanks Walster!:T Now that I know it can be done I will definitely send the documentation for the DPS via e-mail.

Lx

lrb_2

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your comments and advice.

I think I'll do it both ways for now and research a bit more about digital contracts. The point about the language barrier is a good one and I agree with nothing beats human interaction. But if we do our shopping& banking online and enter legal contracts with phone and utility companies online, I don't see why we couldn't keep all letting/renting paperwork online as well.

Lx

theartfullodger

The only person who can tell you if your digital version of that particular format of that(**) tenancy related document is OK is the judge at the possession (or related..) hearing.

i.e. there will the layout/version you chose, there will/are/be many digital formats (.pdf but they are easy to edit - try GIMP, does most of what Photoshop does & more, but for free..), (**) there are many documents you may want for a tenancy (my record was 13 - including guarantor, recipients for deposits etc etc..)

AFAIK there is not a firm test-case yet that can be quoted for England/Wales tenancies... me, I wouldn't want to find something was left flaky & the judge chucked my eviction case out...

Do let us know, if you go ahead with your cunning plan, how the eviction in 4 years time goes...

I presume we are discussing an asset worth £100k++

Cheers!!