A co-signer is an individual who agrees to share the responsibility of ensuring that a lease or loan is paid alongside the primary signer. Unlike a guarantor, who typically does not reside at the rental property, a co-signer may choose to live there. Co-signers are commonly family members or close friends, but they can essentially be anyone willing to take on the obligation.

By co-signing, this individual confirms their commitment to fulfill all the financial terms and conditions outlined in the lease agreement. This includes making timely rent payments, covering damages or cleaning expenses, settling unpaid utilities, and handling any fees, fines, or additional charges. It's important to note that a co-signer's responsibility extends throughout the entirety of the lease term, including any extensions, renewals, amendments, or updates to the agreement.

Co-signers must formally acknowledge their acceptance of the lease's terms by signing a designated co-signer agreement. As a TurboTenant user, you have the benefit of finding this agreement in our comprehensive Forms Pack which is included with Premium membership.

Currently, when building a lease, there is not an area to add a co-signer except as a tenant. To maintain distinct roles, we will have a couple of options to sign the co-signer agreement in a way that clarifies the tenants and co-signers from each other.

You will want to have all sections of your lease completed. If you have the co-signer added as a tenant, you will want to remove them by editing the "People on the Lease" section, removing their name, and saving those changes.

If you would like the lease and co-signer agreement signed as one document, you will want to add the co-signer agreement form (already filled out with everything but the signatures) to the Attachments section of the "Provisions and Attachments" portion of the Lease Builder.

Once this is added and your lease is finalized, we are going to download the finalized draft and upload this into "Request Electronic Signatures" in the lease profile. To download a draft lease agreement, you have to select "finalize and e-sign" when you are in the building stage. Next, you will be prompted to set up e-signatures, you can select "skip for now" and then you can go back into the lease profile and use the blue hyperlink to download that copy of the draft lease in its completed form!

Once this draft is downloaded, we will automatically set up signatures for all parties by selecting "Request Electronic Signatures," clicking "Get It Signed Fast," and then uploading the lease there.

Once you have the document uploaded, you will select "Next: Add Signers." This will take you to where you will add all parties who are signing the document. If your co-signer applied through TurboTenant, they will be listed as a tenant, but this is okay in this scenario as the lease document only has the actual tenant listed. If your co-signer did not apply through TurboTenant, you will want to select "Add Additional Signer" and enter their full name and email for them to sign the document. All signers will need to have a checkmark next to their name.

Once everyone has been selected/added, you will add your message for the signers and select "Set Signatures." In the e-sign setup, all signature boxes for the lease should be set up except for the co-signer document, so we will need to drag and drop those boxes for the co-signer to sign as shown below. Your co-signer document should be filled out with all the information except the signature and date.

Once the boxes are added, you will select "Send For Signature" and the tenant and co-signer will be able to sign, and then it will come back to you for signatures. You can also delete the original agreement you started once the other one is signed by all parties.

The other option for the co-signer to sign would be to send out the lease agreement with no co-signer agreement attached and have the tenant sign the lease document on their own, and then send out the co-signer agreement as a separate document in "Request Electronic Signatures. This would make the lease and the agreement separate forms in your account.

For this option, when in the lease builder you will have only the tenant added (and no agreement added in the attachments) and select "Finalize and E-sign" and then "Set Up E-Signatures" to send the lease to the tenant for signatures. You will then upload the completed co-signer agreement to "Request Electronic Signatures" for you and the co-signer to sign.* If the tenant does not need to sign this form, you will want to unselect their name in the e-signature setup.

*If your co-signer did not apply through TurboTenant you will want to add them under "Add Additional Signers" but a tenant will need to be added to sign as well.

Once you have the signers set, you will go into the e-sign setup and drag and drop the signature boxes for you and the co-signer. You can see more on how to set up e-signatures here. Once the signatures are set up, you can send the document out for signatures, and you will see both of your documents listed for e-sign.

It is recommended the co-signer review the lease terms so they are aware of what they are responsible for, so if using this method you should provide the co-signer a copy of the draft lease to review as well.

By adhering to these methods, you keep your co-signer rightfully listed in the lease agreement as only a co-signer and clearly distinguish the roles of all parties involved in the lease agreement.