California Residential Lease Agreement
Fill your California lease, review the property disclosures, then print or send it for signatures.
Save your private landlord link & PIN
Copy and save these details yourself so you can return later to check signatures, sign, and download your PDF. Keep this landlord access private.
No time limit on landlord access. The tenant signing deadline does not expire your landlord link. Access ends if you delete or withdraw this agreement. If you change your PIN, use the new PIN with the same link.
Keep your landlord link and PIN so you can return to this agreement. Email them to yourself, text them on your phone, or copy and save them.
Review the draft and choose Send in your own app. If the app does not fill in the message, use Copy my link & PIN and paste it. Friendly Landlord does not send the message. Keep these details private. After a PIN change, send yourself the updated details.
Review the agreement, then add your signature.
Prepare to send for signature
Starts when you lock the agreement. The same deadline applies to all tenants.ALL PARTIES SIGNED
Your lease is fully signed
Download the completed PDF, open it, and save your own copy.
Let your tenants know
Contact every tenant and ask them to reopen their own link with their PIN to download the fully signed lease. You can also send them the PDF directly from your email or messaging app.
Keep your copy
Delete from server when you choose
After completion, you can delete this contract at any time. First save your PDF and ask every tenant to download theirs, or send them the PDF directly. You do not have to wait for their saved-copy confirmations.
Deleting turns off every signing and download link. It removes the PDF, contract details, signatures, and application-managed database copies.
Hosting-provider backups follow the provider’s retention policy.
Signing history
Signatures record the names asserted by the people using each private link. They do not independently verify identity.
Prepare a California rental lease your household can understand
This California residential lease tool offers three ways to prepare an agreement: download a blank form, fill the lease online and print it for signatures in person, or send private links for electronic signatures. It is designed for ordinary houses, condos, duplexes and apartments. Subsidized housing, mobilehomes, room-only rentals and other special arrangements require additional terms and a different review.
Choose the way you want to sign
- Blank PDF: fill the fields in a compatible PDF reader or print and write by hand. There are three tenant spaces and a separate landlord signature area. The download includes California mold information and the EPA lead pamphlet; complete the applicable disclosure sections and add any property-specific documents before signing.
- Fill, download and sign in person: enter the names, property, dates, rent and agreed terms on this page. Complete the California property details and give any required separate documents directly to each tenant before signing. Download the draft PDF, review the entire packet and have all parties sign and keep copies.
- Sign online: add up to six signing tenants, choose a deadline and create separate link-and-PIN invitations. Each tenant reviews the same locked agreement and documents, confirms receipt, draws required initials and signs. The landlord signs after every tenant. Everyone can then download the completed packet.
California security deposits and move-in payments
The standard security-deposit limit for new residential agreements is one month of rent. A qualified small-owner exception can allow two months, subject to ownership conditions and the service-member exclusion. Additional security charges count toward the limit even if called a pet or key deposit. The form asks about the exception instead of assuming it applies. Review the deposit, first rent payment and any additional charge separately. See the California Attorney General’s tenant guidance and Department of Real Estate deposit guidance.
Check the city as well as California law
State rent-limit coverage and just-cause coverage are separate questions. A fixed lease end date does not by itself authorize eviction. City and county rules can add rent, notice, relocation, registration or disclosure requirements. Enter the local review source and give applicable notices directly to each tenant; this tool does not certify an address or an exemption. Use the 2026 California landlord and tenant guide alongside the official housing rules for the property’s jurisdiction.
Keep disclosures with the agreement
The tool includes the California mold booklet. For homes built before 1978, it includes the EPA pamphlet and asks for known lead information, available records and any involved agent’s certification. Other answers can require local, translation, pest-control, utility-meter, appliance or parking documents. Give these directly to every tenant with the lease before signing. No file upload is needed. Separately supplied documents are not included in the downloaded PDF; keep them with the signed lease and obtain any required separate signatures. Each tenant confirms receipt before signing online.
For covered older housing, the EPA disclosure rules require information before signing and retention of the completed disclosure for at least three years from the lease’s commencement. Deleting an online copy does not remove the obligation to retain your own records.
Returning, downloading and sharing
No account is needed. Save your private landlord link and PIN to return, track signatures and download the lease. Each tenant uses their own invitation. Copy the readable message into your email or text app; optional app links open a draft for you to review and send. Friendly Landlord does not send those messages. A signing deadline closes an unfinished tenant invitation; it does not expire the landlord’s return access or remove a completed agreement.
After completion, ask every tenant to download a copy or send them the completed PDF yourself. The landlord may delete the agreement’s application-managed copies after confirming the deletion warning. All private links then stop working. Hosting-provider backups follow the provider’s retention policy. Create another lease for a different rental home without changing a completed agreement.
Reviewed October 31, 2026. This is a document-preparation tool, not a property-specific legal opinion. Review unusual terms, claimed exemptions, applicable local rules and changes in law before execution. A rental agreement cannot waive protected rights.