Renewing a Lease (Active and Expired)

When a great tenant reaches the end of their contract, you want to sign them for another year. Landager gives you two distinct ways to handle this renewal in the system, depending on if the terms of the contract changed.

Method 1: The Seamless Extension (Recommended)

Use this when: The tenant is renewing for another term, and the primary terms (including the rent amount) remain exactly the same.

Instead of cluttering your database with two nearly identical lease records, simply trace over the existing one:

1. Navigate to the Leases list and open their current expiring lease.
2. Click "Edit".
3. Extend the End Date out by another 12 months (or leave it blank for a month-to-month agreement).
4. Upload the newly signed PDF renewal addendum to the Documents section of the lease.
5. Click "Save Changes".

By extending the End Date, the system never flips the Lease Status to Expired. The lease remains seamlessly Active, and your dashboard financial metrics see no interruption.

Method 2: The New Contract (Required for Rent Increases)

Use this when: The tenant is renewing, but you are raising their rent, changing who is on the lease (e.g., adding a roommate), or fundamentally altering the terms.

Because Landager uses the legal Lease Rent field to calculate your historical and future expected revenue, you must not overwrite last year's rent amount if it has changed this year.

If Sarah paid $1,000 all of last year, but you edit her active lease to $1,100 for the renewal, you forcefully rewrite her historical ledger. The system will suddenly think she was supposed to pay $1,100 last year, destroying your accurate tax data.

The correct workflow for a rent increase renewal:

1. Allow Sarah's current $1,000 lease to naturally reach its End Date so it shifts to Expired. This permanently seals her financial history at $1,000.
2. Go to the Leases page and click "New Lease".
3. Create a brand new contract for Sarah in the same Unit.
4. Set the new Start Date to begin the day after her old lease expired.
5. Set the new Rent Amount to $1,100.
6. Save the new lease.

Sarah now has a perfect historical paper trail on her Tenant Profile: one Expired lease proving she owed $1,000 last year, and one new Active lease proving she owes $1,100 this year.