Approval process in leasing: Setting up approvals before the lease agreement

The approval of the applicant is in one email, that of the contract in another, and later no one can show who confirmed what and when. Approvals sit in the inbox of the person who was asked, not attached to the case file in question. An approval process consists of a few defined checks with clearly designated owners that are completed and documented directly within the case file.

Why do approvals belong in the case file instead of the inbox?

Anyone who asks in a property management office how an applicant is approved often gets the same answer: "Our team lead handles that." What is usually meant is an email asking "Does this look good?" and a reply that arrives eventually. This works as long as everyone is in the office and the parties involved remember. It works less well when two prospective tenants are being considered in parallel for the same apartment, when the contract is modified again after approval, or when the approving person is on vacation.

The pattern is usually the same: Approval is granted, but not stored where the case file resides. It gets stuck in an inbox, in a chat, or in a verbal "Looks fine." Anyone who wants to know weeks later whether the applicant was approved and on what basis searches across three systems and, in the best case, finds two clues that cannot be clearly attributed to the same contract version.

This is not an issue of poor discipline, but of process design. The process does not require the approval to appear in a specific place. Therefore, it appears wherever it happens to be convenient.

Why does this matter especially before the lease agreement?

Before the contract, a decision is made that can hardly be reversed afterward. Once the contract is signed, the selection and terms are legally binding. Checks that were not completed or documented beforehand can at best be made up for retroactively, but can no longer serve as a prerequisite.

In addition, multiple responsibilities intersect at this point. Letting agents select the applicant, management approves, someone checks sanctions and creditworthiness, and another person approves the contract for signing. The more hands involved, the more critical it is that every handoff is visible. Who has the next move should be evident directly from the case file, not only after following up.

The article Audit-Proof Letting provides an overview of the fundamentals of an auditable process. This article describes the operational setup: approvals between applicant selection and signature. How these approvals fit into the entire process up to the signature is shown in the article From Applicant to Lease Agreement.

Which checks are required before the lease agreement?

Four checks arise repeatedly in practice. Which of these apply to your organization and in which order they are completed is decided by the company itself. A fixed sequence is not presupposed here.

Approval of the applicant by an authorized person. Letting proposes an applicant, and an authorized person confirms the selection. This makes the decision documented and traceable in writing.

Sanctions screening. The applicant is screened against sanctions lists before the contract is generated. Who needs to check, what is checked, and what the legal situation looks like is explained in the article Sanctions Lists in Property Management. This article does not repeat that, but addresses where the result is stored and who can see it.

Credit check. What information is permissible at what point in time and what the Data Protection Conference (DSK) says about it can be found in the article Credit Checks in Tenant Selection. For the approval process, something else matters: the result should be recorded on the case file and not as an attachment in an email.

Approval of the lease agreement before signing. An authorized person confirms that the version sent to the applicant is correct. This is the point where disputes later arise over which version was actually approved.

Three of these checks concern the applicant; one concerns the document. Therefore, it pays to manage them separately: an applicant approval does not replace a contract approval, and a contract approval says nothing about whether creditworthiness was verified.

This table is an organizational suggestion. You determine for yourself who approves what in your company.

Who approves what?

An approval process stands and falls with two decisions that only the company itself can make: which role approves which check, and at what threshold a case requires greater depth.

Responsibility by role, not by person. "The team lead approves" is a statement that becomes outdated with the next personnel change. "The Letting Team Lead role approves applicants" survives personnel turnover. Write down the role and list the names currently fulfilling it alongside it. It is common for the Head of Letting to approve applicants and contracts, while sanctions screening and credit checks rest with the role designated by the organization. Whether this looks the same in your company is your decision. Why roles sustain processes and individuals do not is shown in the article Person-Independence in Property Management.

Thresholds as an organizational decision. Not every case requires the same depth. Possible thresholds include property type, contract volume, or residential vs. commercial. Which thresholds you define is decided by management and the Head of Letting. What matters is that the threshold is documented in writing. A threshold that exists only in two people's heads is no threshold at all.

What does a walkthrough look like in practice?

An illustrative workflow, without claiming to represent any specific company:

A letting agent selects one applicant from among three. The authorized person reviews the documents and approves the applicant directly in the case file. The approval is stored in the same place as the documents.

In this example, sanctions screening and credit check follow; each company determines the sequence itself. The results are recorded in the same case file. Only when the defined checks are completed can the contract be initiated. If it is modified again after approval, the version must be marked so that it remains clear which version was approved. The designated role approves the version before signing.

In the end, nothing required for proof remains in an email inbox. Anyone who wants to know four months later how the signature came about starts with the case file.

How do you set up the letting approval process? Five steps

Define the checks. Decide which of the four checks are mandatory in your organization prior to the contract. Start with a few and expand once the process is established. A check that is not firmly anchored in the workflow does more harm than none at all.

Designate the responsible roles. For each approval, record the role and the current names. One page is enough; it must be accessible to everyone on the team.

Determine the storage location. Every approval and every test result resides in the case file. Approval emails are no longer used as proof, but at most as a reminder to grant the approval where it belongs.

Keep documentation lean. Record: what was approved, by whom, when, and with what result. A case file needs nothing more. Clarify with your data protection officer how long specific data must be retained.

Review after four weeks. Pull out two or three case files and ask: Can we show who approved what and when without asking follow-up questions? Where that is not the case, the gap lies in the workflow, and adjustments must be made there.

Which gaps frequently arise in the approval process?

Approval after signature. The approval is obtained retroactively because it got lost in day-to-day business. This turns it from an approval step into post-hoc documentation.

Verbal approval. A quick "Looks fine" in the hallway satisfies the team and no one else. Whoever needs to prove later what was approved is left empty-handed.

Unclear responsibilities. No one knows exactly who is authorized to grant an approval. Case files pile up, or someone approves who is not intended to do so.

The version changes after approval. The contract is adjusted once more after approval. Specify in your standard operating procedure whether the modified version must be approved again.

Scattered test results. Credit checks are in an email, sanctions screening in a folder, applicant approval in a chat. Each can be found individually, but pulling them together requires significant effort.

Thresholds that exist only in people's heads. Some on the team know that commercial leases require management approval, while others do not. The outcome then depends on who handles the case.

Too many approvals. If everything requires approval, the review turns into a mere rubber stamp. Fewer approvals anchored solidly in the workflow are better than many that are simply waved through.

How does EverReal anchor checks to the case file?

EverReal keeps a case file in one place from initial inquiry to signed contract, and optionally through to handover. Starting with the Pro edition, the company defines which of up to four checks must be completed: applicant approval by an authorized person, sanctions screening, credit check (SCHUFA), and approval of the lease agreement before signing.

Once checks are defined, the contract cannot be initiated or sent until they are completed. These toggles are turned off by default. The company decides which ones to enable. The approvals for the applicant and the lease agreement are each granted by an authorized user. How you organize responsibilities and thresholds remains your decision and belongs in your standard operating procedure.

You can learn more about these features on the Applicant Management and Contract Execution pages. How a guided process is structured overall is described in the cornerstone article Guided Workflows in Property Management.

Conclusion

Approvals prior to the lease agreement are not a formality; they are the point that determines whether a process can be verified later on. The solution is rarely another form. It consists of a few defined checks, clearly designated roles, and one place where every result resides: in the case file.

Those who document this in writing do not need a new rulebook, but rather a one-page operating procedure and a workflow that anchors it to the case file. The fillable checklist helps establish checks, responsible roles, and storage locations for your own organization.

If you would like to walk through the workflow for your property management business together: Book a consultation.

We do not provide legal advice. Property managers are best advised to clarify specific legal questions with a specialized attorney or their industry association (e.g., VDIV, IVD).

Sources

• EverReal product status on the approval process, as of 19/10/2026 (confirmed internally by Product Management).

• EverReal Editorial Team: Sanctions Lists in Property Management, 30/08/2026.

• EverReal Editorial Team: Credit Checks in Tenant Selection, 26/08/2026.

• EverReal Editorial Team: Audit-Proof Letting, 30/08/2026.

FAQ

Which approvals are typical prior to a lease agreement?

Four steps are typical: approval of the applicant by an authorized person, sanctions screening, credit check, and approval of the lease agreement prior to signing. Which of these a company makes mandatory is its own organizational decision. What matters is that every approval is stored in the case file with name, date, and result.

Who approves what prior to the lease agreement?

The company defines this through its role assignments. Applicants and lease agreements are typically approved by an authorized person from management; sanctions screening and credit checks are assigned to the role designated by the organization. It is essential that responsibilities are documented by role and that every result is kept in the case file.

Why are email approvals not sufficient?

An email approval sits in an individual person's inbox rather than in the case file. It is difficult to locate later, its relationship to the specific contract version is unclear, and it is inaccessible if that person is absent. Approvals stored directly in the case file are visible to all authorized users and clearly attributed to both the applicant and the contract.

Which solution supports an approval process in letting?

A suitable solution is one that keeps the case in a single place from inquiry to signed contract (and optionally through to handover) while anchoring all checks to the case file. In EverReal's Pro edition, the company can define up to four checks. The contract can only be initiated or sent once the specified checks are completed. These toggles are disabled by default.

Who should define approval thresholds?

Executive management or the Head of Letting defines thresholds, such as by property type or contract volume. This is an organizational decision, not an external mandate. The thresholds belong in a concise operating procedure that applies to everyone on the team and can be adjusted as needed.