New tenant, same agreement
Edit a tenancy agreement PDF for a new tenant
You have last year's agreement as a PDF, a new tenant starting in a fortnight, and no wish to buy the same template twice. The names, the dates, the rent and the deposit details need changing, and everything else in the pack should stay exactly where it is.
- Retype the names, term dates, rent and deposit details in place, with the clause numbering and the schedules untouched.
- Last year's agreement holds the outgoing tenant's full name and often their bank details. It stays on your device and is never uploaded.
- Free to edit. Downloading needs a free account and starts at 99p for your first week.
Drag & drop your PDF here
Private: processed in your browser
Will this work on your file?
| Your file | Works here? | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The PDF your template supplier generated for you last year | Yes | Click a word. If it becomes an editable line, the pack is live text and every name, date and figure can be retyped where it sits. |
| A scan or photo of a printed, unsigned pack | After one step | Nothing highlights when you click: the page is a picture. Run the built-in OCR on your device, then proofread the recognised lines, because a misread rent figure is the one mistake you cannot afford. Edit Scanned PDF |
| An agreement your current tenant has already signed | Not here | Do not retype a live agreement. Issue a fresh one, or a separate written variation, and sign that instead. Sign PDF |
| A pack that asks for a password before it opens | After one step | The editor cannot open an encrypted file. Take the password off first, then open the unlocked copy here. Unlock PDF |
| Separate files for the agreement, the inventory and the guarantee | After one step | Edit each one here, then join them in reading order so the tenant signs one pack, not three. Merge PDF |
How to do it
- 1
Open the agreement and click a word with Select
A word that turns into an editable line means live text. A word that does nothing means the page is an image, so run OCR first.
- 2
Use Find, then Replace all, on the outgoing tenant's name
The name is rarely in one place: the particulars at the front, the signature block at the back, sometimes a schedule between. Search the full name, not the surname, and check the match count against what you expected.
- 3
Retype the dates, the rent and the deposit details front to back
Work in page order so the signature block is not forgotten: rent in figures and again where it is written out in words, then the payment day, the deposit sum, the scheme name and its reference. Add Text places a line the pack never had, such as a permitted occupier.
- 4
Check the footer, then Export and send it for signature
Footers carry last year's date or the version string from the pack you bought. Click it, retype it, then export and send the agreement for signature.
What you can change
- Swap two outgoing tenants' names for the three people moving in, on the particulars page and again in the signature block
- Move the term from 12 months to 6, in the particulars and again in the clause defining it
- Change the rent from 950 to 995 in figures, and from nine hundred and fifty to nine hundred and ninety-five where it is spelled out
- Move the rent payment day from the 1st of the month to the 28th
- Raise the deposit from 1,096 to 1,148 and update the scheme name and reference beside it
- Correct the property address to include the flat number the old pack left off
- Retype a footer that still reads v3, March 2024 with this year's version and date
Why the usual routes break this file
Buy the same agreement again from the template site
You pay twice for a document you own, and the clause numbering shifts, so your records stop matching what the last tenant signed.
Open the agreement in a word processor
The pack is rebuilt on import. Clause numbering restarts, the schedules break across pages differently, and the signature block lands on its own page.
Print it, write the new names in by hand and scan it back
You issue an agreement with handwriting in the particulars, a grey background and no selectable text, and that is the version produced if the let is disputed.
Send last year's PDF with a covering email listing the changes
Nothing happens to the file. The document being signed still says 12 months and 950, and the email is not part of the agreement.
What this will not do
- This page changes the words in your agreement. It cannot tell you whether a clause is still lawful. Letting rules move, so check a pack older than a year against current prescribed information and deposit rules before you reissue it.
- Retyping a line covers the original glyphs and stamps new text on top, so the outgoing tenant is still named inside the file. Where that matters, Redact deletes the original text and rebuilds the page as an image, at the cost of the selectable text on that page.
- Many tenancy packs are set justified. Justified paragraphs edit line by line rather than re-wrapping, so a long replacement is set slightly smaller to fit its line.
- Find matches within a single line, so a name split across a line ending has to be caught by eye.
- Editing is free. Downloading the finished agreement needs a free account, 99p for your first week and then a plan from £11.99 a year.
Where this stops being a formatting question
This page is about a document you issue: your own agreement, reused for a let that has not started. It is not a way to alter one a sitting tenant has signed. Changing the terms of a live tenancy is a variation both sides agree in writing, not an edit.
Questions people ask
Can I reuse last year's agreement, or do I need a new template?
Reusing your own pack is normal for a straightforward reissue: same property, same clauses, new names, dates and rent. The caution is age. Letting rules move, and a pack written two or three years ago can carry clauses and prescribed information that have since changed. We change the words. We do not know what the law says, so read the pack through first.
The rent appears in figures and in words. Do I have to change both?
Yes, and it is the one people miss. Packs often state the rent as 950 in the particulars and again as nine hundred and fifty pounds in the clause that defines it, so searching for 950 never finds the written version. Change the figure with Replace all, then read that clause and retype the words by hand. The term and the payment day usually appear twice too.
Is the previous tenant's name actually removed from the file?
Not by a plain text edit, no. Retyping a line lays a colour-matched cover over the original glyphs and stamps your new text on top, so the old name is still inside the PDF and can be copied out of it. For a routine reissue that is fine. Where the old name must not be copyable out of the file, draw Redact over it instead: the original text is deleted and the page is rebuilt as an image, so the selectable text on that page goes too.
Can I change an agreement my tenant has already signed?
No editing tool can, and that includes this one. Once both sides have signed, the document is the record of what was agreed, and retyping a date or a rent afterwards is not a correction. A change mid-tenancy is a variation: a separate sheet naming the property and the original agreement by date, stating what changes and from when, signed by everyone who signed the first one. Use this page for the agreement you issue at the start of a new term.
Does my agreement get uploaded anywhere?
No. The editor runs in your browser and the file never leaves your device. That matters more here than on most documents: last year's agreement carries the outgoing tenant's full name, their previous address, often a guarantor and sometimes the account the rent was paid from. None of it reaches a server. Downloading the finished file is the part that needs an account.
What about the footer from the old pack?
Check it. Supplier packs put a version string, a reference or last year's date in the footer of every page, and it is the most commonly missed item in a reissue, because nobody reads footers. Click the footer text and retype it like any other line. If it repeats on every page, put the old version in Find and the new one in Replace and use Replace all: the search covers pages you have not opened yet. Only a footer that differs from page to page, a page number or a per-page reference, has to be done by hand.
Open last year's agreement above and work front to back: names, dates, rent in figures and in words, deposit and scheme, then the footer. Nothing is uploaded, nothing you leave alone moves, and one click tells you whether your pack is live text.
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