Leave and licence agreement, drafted so it stays a licence
A licence grants permission to occupy without creating an interest in the property. Get the drafting wrong and a court will read it as a tenancy — which is exactly what the owner was trying to avoid.
Is this the right instrument for you?
Picking the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in a rental. If none of these describe your situation, tell us and we will point you to the right one — even if it is cheaper.
Not sure? Ask usOwners who want a cleaner route to possession at the end of the term
Serviced apartments and managed-stay operators
Companies taking premises for short corporate stays
Co-living brands onboarding residents at volume
Language that preserves the licence
Licensor and licensee throughout, licence fee rather than rent, permission to use rather than a right to occupy, and no exclusive possession granted. These distinctions are what a court looks at.
Control retained by the licensor
The licensor keeps overall control and access rights on notice — the single most important factual element in showing that no tenancy was created.
A defined revocation route
Clear termination and revocation on notice, without the statutory protections that attach once a tenancy exists.
Same digital pipeline
E-stamped, Aadhaar e-signed, delivered on email and WhatsApp, stored in your dashboard. Nothing about the licence structure slows any of it down.
Every clause in your leave & licence agreement
Some appear always, others only when your answers call for them. Nothing is boilerplate you didn't ask for.
- 01Grant of licence and period
- 02Licence fee and due date
- 03Interest-free refundable deposit
- 04No tenancy or interest created
- 05Licensor retains control and access
- 06Permitted use of the premises
- 07Revocation and notice
- 08Lock-in, where agreed
- 09Utilities and maintenance
- 10Inventory of furnishings
- 11Parking
- 12No transfer or assignment of the licence
- 13Handing over on revocation
- 14Governing law and jurisdiction
Three things cheap templates get wrong
These are the failures we see most often when someone brings us an agreement that has already gone wrong.
A licence that grants exclusive possession
The label on the document does not decide the question — substance does. If the occupant gets exclusive possession and the owner surrenders control, a court is likely to hold it a tenancy whatever the heading says.
Using the word 'rent' throughout
Sloppy drafting that switches between rent and licence fee undermines the whole structure. Ours is consistent from the first line to the last.
Assuming a licence avoids stamp duty
It does not. A leave and licence instrument attracts duty in the same way. The advantage is in possession and control, not in cost.
Six promises, in writing
We would rather be judged on what we guarantee than on numbers you cannot check. Each of these applies to your first order.
Government charges at cost
Stamp duty and registration fees pass through at exactly the rate the state levies, shown as a separate line on your invoice. We earn the platform fee and nothing else, and GST applies to that fee alone.
Every certificate is verifiable
Each sheet and e-Stamp carries a serial number you can check against the Registration Department's records. We print it on your invoice so you can verify us without asking us.
We tell you when you don't need us
If an 11-month agreement does the job, we will not sell you a registered lease. If your term crosses 12 months we flag the registration you cannot avoid, before you pay rather than after.
You see the document before you commit
The full agreement is on screen while you fill it in. Clauses appear and disappear as your answers change, so nothing in the final PDF is boilerplate you never read.
Refunds without a process
Cancel before the e-stamp is procured and you get everything back — no form, no questions. After that, the government duty is genuinely gone, but our fee comes back in full if the fault is ours.
Your identity data stays yours
Aadhaar and PAN are encrypted at rest, masked everywhere in the interface, and never written to a log. We do not sell data and we do not pass it to anyone but the stamping authority.
Leave & Licence Agreement — common questions
It can be, because a licensee does not acquire the statutory protections of a tenant and possession is easier to recover. But the protection comes from how the arrangement actually operates, not just the wording — if you hand over exclusive possession and never exercise control, the document alone will not save you.
The same rule applies as for a lease — registration turns on the term. Under 12 months, e-stamping alone. Twelve months or more and registration becomes compulsory.
You can, but for most straightforward residential lettings a standard 11-month rental agreement is the better fit and is what the vast majority of Tamil Nadu landlords use. Leave and licence earns its keep in serviced, managed and co-living arrangements.
More answers in the full FAQ.
Other agreement types
Residential Rental Agreement
The 11-month agreement that covers most lettings in the state — flats, independent houses and villas. E-stamped, signed with Aadhaar OTP, and in your inbox the same day.
Read moreCommercial Rental Agreement
Built for business premises, with the trade licence, GST, fit-out and business-use obligations that a residential template simply doesn't carry.
Read moreLease Deed
When the term runs 12 months or longer, registration stops being optional. A lease deed gives you the strongest evidentiary position available — and we handle the registration mechanics.
Read more