Create a new DoorLoop lease with tenant, rent and deposit

1. Click Create New at the top of the DoorLoop main menu and choose Lease under Leasing to start the New Lease wizard.
2. On the Overview step, pick the Property and Unit, choose Fixed Term or Month-to-Month, enter the dates and decide whether the lease rolls over to month-to-month when it ends.
3. On the Tenants step, click Add Tenant to pick an existing prospect or tenant, or New Tenant with a name and an email or mobile number, and set Tenant Portal access, renters insurance and the welcome text.
4. Fill First Rent Date, Frequency and Amount on the rent step (a first rent date after the lease start prompts a prorated one-time charge), select Yes for Move-in Fees to add the security deposit with its Charge Date, and answer Yes or No on the Late Fees step.
5. On Review, Save Lease stores a Draft Lease under Leasing > Draft Leases. The next screen offers Request signature electronically via DoorLoop, Manage signatures outside of DoorLoop (the lease stays a draft) or Already Signed, which uploads the signed copy and makes the lease active. Every lease repeats these screens, and a duplicate tenant contact or an overlapping lease is only caught along the way.

Set up a 12-month lease for Dana Reed (dana@example.com) in Unit 4 at Maple Court, $1,600 a month due on the 1st, starting Nov 1, with a $1,600 deposit. Check the unit is free first.

1. 01

   Make sure the unit can take a lease

   list_units for the property shows whether the unit is vacant. An occupied unit stops the run: the agent reads the current lease from list_leases and tells you its end date, because that date has to move before a new lease fits.

2. 02

   Reuse the tenant record if there is one

   list_tenants is searched by email and phone before anything is created. An exact match is reused. A near match, such as the same name with another email, goes to you instead of becoming a second contact. Only a new person goes through create_tenant.

3. 03

   Read the terms back before writing

   The agent restates unit, tenants, term, rent, due day and deposit. An end date before the start, or a start date in the past, is questioned rather than entered, because the lease posts charges on the ledger from those dates.

4. 04

   Create the lease with your OK

   create_lease runs after you confirm the summary. The end date stays empty only when you asked for month-to-month, and co-tenants go on the same lease rather than on two.

5. 05

   List what is left in DoorLoop

   The report names what this job does not touch: late fee settings on the lease, the e-signature request and any prorated first month. Those stay as a short to-do so nothing is missed before move-in.

Lease created for Dana Reed, Unit 4 at Maple Court, after your OK.
Term: 1 Nov 2026 to 31 Oct 2027, fixed term.
Rent: $1,600.00 due on the 1st. Security deposit: $1,600.00 due 1 Nov 2026.
Tenant: new contact created for dana@example.com; no existing record matched.
Unit 4 was vacant, no overlapping lease.
Still to do in DoorLoop: turn on late fees for this lease and send it for e-signature.

• DoorLoop allows one active lease per unit; an overlapping lease triggers a warning, and the fix is to edit the existing lease's end date and turn off Month-to-Month and Rollover on it.
• A new DoorLoop tenant needs a first and last name or a company name, plus a primary email or mobile phone.
• DoorLoop late fees only run on leases where they are switched on, in the Late Fees step of the lease wizard or later from the Lease Late Fees report.
• An active DoorLoop lease cannot go back to draft; to add an e-signature request you forgot, DoorLoop says to delete the lease and create it again.
• For a DoorLoop lease with a past start date the wizard offers no e-signature option; requests go out from Files & Agreements > Signature Requests. E-signatures cost $3 per document on Starter, $1 on Pro and nothing on Premium.

create_lease asks for your OK by default. To run it on a schedule without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: DoorLoop Help: Create a new lease · DoorLoop Help: Set up automatic late fees · DoorLoop Help: Create a new lease from a rental application · DoorLoop pricing (e-signatures by plan)

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/doorloop/create_lease \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"unit_id":"un_5b20d4","tenant_ids":["tn_91c0e7"],"start_date":"2026-11-01","end_date":"2027-10-31","rent":{"amount":"1600.00","due_day":1},"security_deposit":{"amount":"1600.00","due_date":"2026-11-01"}}'

{
  "lease_id": "ls_9e13b5",
  "unit": "Unit 4",
  "tenants": [
    "Dana Reed"
  ],
  "start_date": "2026-11-01",
  "end_date": "2027-10-31",
  "rent": {
    "amount": "1600.00",
    "due_day": 1
  },
  "security_deposit": {
    "amount": "1600.00",
    "due_date": "2026-11-01"
  },
  "status": "created"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is doorloop_create_lease. Example data.

• Record check and cash rent payments in DoorLoop
• Send DoorLoop announcements to tenants and check who got them
• DoorLoop API and MCP server: every tool
• All use cases