How to Sign and Return a Lease on iPhone (Initials on Every Page, One PDF Back)

By Xeplin · Published September 16, 2026

Signing a rental lease on iPhone and sending it back as one PDF

The lease arrives as a 14-page PDF at 9 pm with "please sign and return by tomorrow". It wants a signature on the last page, initials on every page, today's date in three places, and it came from someone who will notice if page 7 is missing. Printing it is not an option in most apartments, and the built-in Markup tool was made for one signature, not fourteen sets of initials. This guide walks through signing a lease on iPhone properly: what a lease actually asks you to mark, the quick built-in route for a short one, the Scanner App route for the real thing, what to do when the lease is on paper, and how to send it back so it does not come back to you.

The short version

Read the whole thing first. The addenda at the back are where the pet fee and the early-termination clause live. Screenshot anything you want to ask about before you sign.
Short lease, one signature: Markup in Mail or Files does it. Tap the PDF, Markup, +, Signature.
Long lease, initials on every page: Scanner App. Save your signature once and your initials once, then place them page by page, resize to the box, add the dates, export one PDF.
Paper lease: scan it with Scanner App, then sign the scan the same way, or sign the paper and scan the signed pages.
Return it as one PDF, named with your name and the address, and keep your own copy plus the countersigned one the landlord sends back.

What a lease actually asks you to mark

Leases are longer than most documents people sign on a phone, and they use several different marks:

Full signature on the signature page, and often on each addendum (pet policy, parking, lead paint disclosure, move-in checklist).
Initials in a small box at the bottom of every page, or next to specific clauses, to show you saw them.
Dates next to every signature, in the format the document uses.
Printed name under the signature line, and sometimes an address or phone number field.

Check whether the landlord expects a wet-ink signature. Most accept a typed or drawn signature on a PDF; a few, and some jurisdictions for certain lease types, still want paper. One text message saves a wasted evening.

Route 1: Markup, for a short lease with one signature

Open the PDF in Mail or Files, tap it, tap the Markup pen, tap +, then Signature. Draw it with your finger, place it, and drag the corners to fit the line. Add a date with the Text tool. Save, and reply with the file. Markup keeps your signature, so the second document is faster than the first.

Where it stops: initials on fourteen pages means fourteen trips through the + menu, the text tool has no memory for the date you typed twice already, and there is no folder to keep the signed lease in once it is sent. For a two-page sublet agreement it is exactly right. For a full lease, the next route saves half an hour. The general comparison is in signing a PDF on iPhone.

Route 2: Scanner App, for the full lease

Import it. Tap +, then Import from Files, and pick the PDF from Mail's attachment or from Files. All pages come in as one document with the page order intact.
Save two signatures. Open the signing tool and draw your full signature; save it. Draw your initials; save those too. The saved signatures list holds both, so from here on each mark is a tap, not a drawing.
Work through the pages. On each page, tap to place the initials, drag them into the box, pinch to resize so they sit inside the line rather than over the text. On the signature page, place the full signature the same way, then the printed name and dates with the text tool.
Check the addenda. Scroll to the end. Every addendum with its own signature line gets its own signature and date.
Export as PDF. One file, all pages, all marks flattened into the document so nothing can be moved after you send it.

The saved signatures list in Scanner App with a full signature and initials — One full signature, one set of initials, saved once. Fourteen pages become fourteen taps.

Placing and resizing a signature on a document page in Scanner App — Drag into the box, pinch to fit the line. Same motion on every page.

When the lease is on paper

Some landlords still hand over a printed lease. Two ways, both fine:

Scan first, sign digitally. Tap +, Scan with Camera, capture every page in order, and choose B/W so the print is crisp and the file small. Then sign the scan exactly as in Route 2. You end up with a clean PDF and a signed copy on your phone before the landlord has theirs.
Sign the paper, scan the signed pages. If the landlord wants ink, sign and initial on paper, then scan the signed document the same way so you have a full copy the moment you hand the paper over. Never give away the only copy of a signed lease.

Either way, check the page count after scanning against the page count on the document. Leases number their pages for a reason.

A signed and dated document page in Scanner App ready to export — Signed, dated, flattened. Export once, send once.

Sending it back so it stays sent

One PDF, not fourteen images. A folder of photos of pages gets bounced. Export the whole document as a single PDF.
Name it properly. "Lease, 12 Oak Street, signed, A. Smith.pdf" is findable in both inboxes for years. "scan.pdf" is not.
Reply in the thread the lease came in, so the landlord has your signed copy attached to their original. The send options are in scanning and emailing a document.
Ask for the countersigned copy. A lease signed by one party is a draft. When the landlord's signed version comes back, save that one too.
File both in a folder called Home or Lease, with the move-in checklist and photos of the apartment's condition. That folder is what you open when the deposit conversation happens a year from now.

Mistakes that get a lease sent back

Initials missing on one page. Scroll through every page before exporting.
Dates that do not match across pages, or a date in a different format than the landlord used.
Signature placed over the printed text instead of on the line, so the name under it is unreadable.
Filling in fields that were meant for the landlord: their signature line, the countersign date, the deposit received box.
Signing a version that was still being negotiated. Confirm it is the final PDF, then sign.

Quick answers

Can I sign a lease on my iPhone?

Yes. Markup in Mail or Files handles a short lease with one signature. For a long lease with initials on every page, Scanner App lets you save a signature and initials once and place them page by page, then export one PDF.

Is a lease signed on iPhone legally binding?

In most places an electronic signature on a lease is accepted, and most landlords accept a drawn signature on a PDF. Some lease types and some landlords still require ink; ask before you sign.

How do I initial every page of a PDF on iPhone?

In Scanner App, save your initials as a second signature, then on each page tap to place it and drag it into the box. Markup can do it too, but you draw or pick the signature again on every page.

How do I sign a paper lease and send it back digitally?

Scan every page with Scanner App using the B/W filter, sign the scan digitally, and export one PDF. Or sign the paper first and scan the signed pages so you keep a complete copy.

What should I keep after signing a lease?

Your signed copy, the landlord's countersigned copy, the move-in checklist, and photos of the apartment's condition, all in one folder on your phone.

Sign it tonight, keep it for years

Import the lease, save your signature and initials once, place them page by page, and send back one clean PDF. Download Scanner App, free to download, offline, no account, and keep every lease you ever sign in one place.