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End a Lease

All the scenarios you might encounter when ending a lease

Written by Samuel
Updated this week

Overview

When the terms of a lease are finally over and the tenant is moving out of the rental unit, it is time to End the Lease. When ending a lease, there are multiple scenarios to consider. You might want to withhold a deposit for unpaid charges, refund all or part of a deposit, or end the lease with an outstanding balance.
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Note: Use these steps to end a lease. Do not use the Move-Out tenant feature if the tenant is no longer renting the unit. You would end the lease and then create a new lease for the new tenant.

If you're looking to remove a tenant completely from DoorLoop, read the article: Delete a Tenant.

The Steps

Note: Once a lease is ended, there is no way to reactivate it. However, you can still edit and add transactions later if needed. (Ending a lease can only be done on a computer or with your mobile browser in desktop mode. You can not end a lease using the mobile app.)

  1. To end a lease, click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.

  2. Find and click on the lease you want to end.

  3. Once on the lease, click on Manage Lease in the top right corner and select End Lease.

  4. On the End Lease wizard, enter the required Move-out date (entering a Notice Date and uploading files is optional) and click Next.

    The Move-out date will become the new lease end date, and tenant portal access will immediately end for all tenants on this lease.

  5. This step will be different depending on which scenarios apply to the lease. There are several scenarios that can occur, and some may require the use of multiple solutions. Below are the possible outcomes and scenarios:

    • Scenario 1: No outstanding balance and no deposit to refund

      • Action: Finish the lease.

      • Accounting Impact: No accounting entries needed

    • Scenario 2: Deposit used for unpaid charges

      • Action: Withhold deposit

      • Accounting Impact: Reduces tenant liability (deposits) and offsets outstanding charges

    • Scenario 3: No outstanding balances, but tenant is owed a deposit

      • Action: Refund deposit

      • Accounting Impact: Decrease deposit liability and records a cash refund

    • Scenario 4: Credit exists due to a missing charge

      • Action: Post a charge

      • Accounting Impact: Adds expense/charge to reduce tenant credit

    • Scenario 5: Credit due to an overpayment

      • Action: Refund credit

      • Accounting Impact: Cash refund issue to the tenant

    • Scenario 6: Tenant owes money

      • Action: Collect and receive payment

      • Accounting Impact: Cash received reduces Accounts Receivable

    • Scenario 7: Tenant will not pay outstanding balance

      • Action: Issue credit / write off

      • Accounting Impact: Converts receivable to bad debt expense

    • Scenario 8: There is a negative balance shown for deposits held

      • Action: Record payment or adjustment

      • Accounting Impact: Corrects liability account imbalance

    • Scenario 9: Lease closed with unresolved balances

      • Action: End lease anyways

      • Accounting Impact: Lease closed but accounting remains open

    Note that the goal is to get the Balance due = $0. If you choose to not resolve any of the balance issues when ending a lease, you can always go back and resolve those issues later. Here is an article explaining how to edit a lease after it has been ended. The article on withholding or refunding lease deposits after ending a lease explains specifically how to deal with deposits.

  6. If you need to keep tenant portal access open for the tenant, even after you end the lease, toggle on the option that reads, "Extend access to the tenant portal after a tenant has moved out." This allows your tenant access so they can make any payments they might owe you.

  7. Once you've sorted out any deposits and balances on the lease, you can click Finish to finally end the lease.

Next Steps

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