How to sign and return a lease by email

A landlord or property manager emails you a lease PDF with a one-line ask: “sign and send it back.” No printer, no scanner, and you’d like it off your plate tonight. The signing itself is the quick part — the piece people actually get wrong is the return: replying to the right message, attaching the signed copy the right way, and keeping proof of what you sent.

Here’s the whole round trip, honestly, so the version that lands in the landlord’s inbox is the one they expect.

First: read before you sign

The email round-trip is fast, which is exactly why it’s tempting to skip the reading. Don’t. Before your signature goes anywhere, check the rent, deposit, exact start and end dates, late-fee terms, and any blank fields — never sign a lease with empty blanks you didn’t fill in. If a number doesn’t match what you agreed, reply in writing and get it fixed before signing, not after. The full checklist lives in how to sign a lease online — read that section once, then come back here for the signing and sending.

Option 1: iOS Markup, then reply (free, built in)

If this is a one-off and the lease is straightforward, your iPhone can already do it — no app:

Open the landlord’s email in Mail and tap the lease PDF attachment.
Tap the Markup (pencil) icon in the top corner.
Tap + → Signature, draw one with your finger (or reuse a saved one), and drag it onto the signature line. Add the date and any initials as text boxes.
Tap Done. Mail offers to attach the signed copy to a reply — take that offer, so it goes back on the same thread.

Where this is enough: a single signature on a short residential lease. It’s free and already on your phone.

Where it gets fiddly, honestly: the signature is a raw finger-drawing that takes a few tries to look decent; dates and initials are manual text boxes you nudge into place; and a multi-page lease that wants your initials on every page turns into real work. If you’re on Gmail or Outlook rather than Mail, you also have to detour through Files to reach Markup at all — see the general flow in how to sign a PDF from an email on iPhone.

Option 2: a signing app (for a lease you’ll reuse the signature on)

You’ll sign again — the renewal next year, a deposit form, an addendum. Setting up a real signature once makes every future send a ten-second job:

In Mail, Gmail or Outlook, open the attachment and tap Share → choose Signed (or save to Files and import it there).
Drop your saved signature, initials on every page, and an auto-filled date — one tap each. You create the signature once: draw it properly, type your name in a real handwriting style, or generate one from your name.
Tap Finish. You get a flattened PDF — the signature is baked into the page, not a floating annotation someone could drag off later.
Share it straight back into a reply to the landlord’s email.

The whole round trip is genuinely under a minute after the one-time setup, and it looks the same on every document you’ll ever sign. Because Signed is local-first, the lease never leaves your phone — no cloud copy of your address, rent and signature sitting on someone’s server.

Sending it back the right way

This is the part the guides usually skip, and it’s where a clean return goes sideways:

Reply on the same thread — don’t start a fresh email. The landlord asked from a message; replying keeps the lease, the ask, and your signed copy in one place both of you can find later. Use Reply-All if a co-signer, agent or property manager was on the original.
Attach the signed copy, not the blank one. Double-check the file you’re attaching actually has your signature on it before you hit send — attaching the original unsigned PDF is the single most common mistake here.
Say what you sent, briefly. One line — “Signed lease attached, signed [date]. Let me know if you need anything else.” — gives you a timestamped record of when you returned it.
Ask for the fully-signed copy back. If the landlord counter-signs after you, request the version with both signatures. That’s the copy that protects you — keep it. (If you’re the landlord reading this from the other side, the sender’s version is how to set up an online lease signing process.)
Save your own copy the moment you send. Don’t rely on the email thread staying accessible; download the signed PDF to Files so it’s yours regardless.

Is a lease signed and emailed this way valid?

For a standard residential lease, a signature placed on the PDF and emailed back is how these are handled in practice, and it’s what a landlord who emailed you a PDF is expecting. The honest caveats:

Whether any signature — typed, drawn, or ink on paper — creates a binding agreement depends on your jurisdiction, the document type, and what both parties agreed to. This guide can’t tell you it’s enforceable where you live; that’s a legal question, not a software one.
Some situations call for more than an emailed signature: long commercial leases, anything needing notarization or a witness, or leases your local law says must be executed a specific way. When unsure, ask the landlord how they want it executed, or check a tenants’ rights resource in your area.
Prefer a flattened export over a floating annotation, so nothing can be moved or removed after you send.

The 60-second version

Read the lease → question anything unclear in writing → open the PDF in Signed or your iPhone’s built-in Markup → drop your signature, initials and date → Finish → reply-all on the original thread with the signed copy attached → save your own copy → ask for the counter-signed version back. Printer stays off; you’re moved in on schedule.