The form comes from your state. The signing doesn’t have to be on paper.
Residential tenancy law is state law, so there is no national lease. Use your state’s current standard form, then sign it electronically:
- New South Wales. The standard residential tenancy agreement is prescribed in Schedule 1 of the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019. The note printed directly above the signature block reads: section 9 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 allows for agreements to be signed electronically in NSW if the parties consent, and if an electronic signature is used it must comply with Division 2 of Part 2 of that Act. There is no witness block on the form.
- Victoria. A written agreement is a residential rental agreement and must use the standard form: Form 1 for terms of no more than five years, Form 2 for fixed terms longer than that, made under section 26(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. The Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 does the rest. Where the parties sign on different days, the date of the agreement is the date the last person signs.
- Queensland. The general tenancy agreement is Form 18a under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, with the Electronic Transactions (Queensland) Act 2001 behind it. The completed form is not sent to the RTA: the tenant gets a copy and you keep one.
- Everywhere else. The same two-part pattern holds: your state’s prescribed form, plus its Electronic Transactions Act. Check the current form with your state or territory tenancy authority, because these forms are revised often.
The two conditions worth understanding
Consent. Both parties have to be willing to deal electronically. In Refrendo, each tenant is asked to agree to use electronic records and signatures before they see the lease, and the certificate records when they agreed.
A reliable method. The Act asks that the method identify the person, show their intention, and be as reliable as the circumstances require. If a signature is disputed later, the question is usually who signed, not what the signature looks like. Each signer gets their own link at their own email address, agrees to use electronic records before they see the lease, and sees the consent wording before they finish. The certificate records how each person was identified.
Three things a signature does not cover
- The bond. It goes to the state bond authority, through their process and within their time limit. Signing the lease does nothing about it.
- The condition report. Filling one in properly at the start of the tenancy is what protects both sides at the end. In NSW an electronic copy of the completed report is expressly allowed.
- The information statements. Most states require the tenant to be given an official statement of their rights. In NSW that is the Tenant Information Statement published by Fair Trading, and the standard form also has the landlord acknowledge they have read the Landlord Information Statement. In Queensland it is Form 17a.
Who this is for
Self-managing landlords with one or two properties. A head tenant sub-letting a room with the landlord’s written permission. Renting the granny flat, or renting to family, where nobody wants to pay an agent to send one document a year but everybody wants it done properly. A renewal at the end of a fixed term, which is the same document with new dates.
How it goes
Upload the completed state form as a PDF, add the tenants by name and email, place a signature and date field for each of them and for yourself, and send. Each tenant opens their own link, reads the agreement and signs on a phone or a laptop. You see where it is up to, and Refrendo reminds anyone who hasn’t acted.
When the last person signs, everyone is emailed a link to download the completed PDF and a certificate recording who signed, when, how they were identified, and SHA-256 fingerprints of the document before and after signing. Download both and save them with the condition report and the bond receipt, and the tenancy is properly documented from day one.
This is general information about signing, not legal advice, and tenancy law changes regularly in every state. Check the current form and requirements with your state or territory tenancy authority.