The deposit argument happens two years later. Win it now.
Signing the lease is the easy part. The hard part arrives at the end, when somebody has to prove what the flat looked like on the day you moved in. Seal the incoming inspection and the photos the day you take them, and the argument is about a dated, tamper-evident record instead of two people remembering differently.
Personal plan, no card. R99 a month including VAT covers a household of up to five people — R79 a month on the annual rate.
The lease, and the thing everyone forgets to keep
Most tenants keep the lease and lose the inspection report. It is the inspection report that decides the deposit.
Incoming inspection — kitchen
Scratch on the counter left of the sink, approximately 40mm. Lower cupboard door does not close flush. Two photographs attached. Signed by the tenant and the managing agent on the date of occupation.
From lease to deposit, with the evidence kept
Sign the lease wherever you are
Landlord, tenant and agent each sign from their own phone, in the order the lease requires. No printer, no courier.
Seal the inspection on the day
Photograph the flat, attach the incoming inspection, and seal it. It gets a fingerprint and an independent timestamp — proof of when, not just what.
Two years later, produce it
The record is dated and tamper-evident, and your landlord can check it at /verify without an account or a KuduDoc login.
Before you sign the lease
It gives you evidence rather than an argument. A sealed incoming inspection carries a SHA-256 fingerprint and an independent timestamp, so the date it was made cannot be quietly moved and the contents cannot be altered without that being detectable. Whether a deposit is returned is between you, your landlord and the Rental Housing Act — but the conversation goes better when the condition on day one is documented and provable.
Yes. Anyone can verify a sealed KuduDoc document at /verify, free, with no account. That matters here: the person you need to convince is exactly the person who has no reason to make an account.
No. Scan & Seal takes a document that was signed on paper and seals the scan, so everyone holds the same fingerprinted copy from that point on. It does not change what happened before — it fixes the record from now.
On your shelf, in your shelves. If you are in a household, you can put it on the shared shelf so everyone in the home can find it rather than asking you for a photo of it.
Keep the evidence, not just the lease.
Personal plan available · South Africa · POPIA-minded
Also see: Your family's records · Car & licence papers · Real estate leases (for agents)