The key to drafting a Tenancy Agreement is to keep it as simple and easy to understand as possible. A good draftsman avoids unnecessary use of legal jargons and phrases. It does not make sense for a draftsman to draw up an agreement to which the parties themselves have no idea what it is talking about. Concise words are used and sentences are kept short.
The presentation and layout of the Tenancy Agreement should be as clear as possible. In this connection, the goal of the draftsman is to organise the text so that it is reader friendly. Proper use of fonts, size of text, white spacing and paragraphings go a long way to ensure that the Tenancy Agreement is coherent and not intimidating to the reader.
In some cases, the draftsman uses Schedules in the Tenancy Agreement so as to keep the important details in a separate page. These details would enable the parties to know the important terms which bind them. What are some of the details that are usually kept separate in the Schedules?
1. Name of parties
2. Addresses of the parties
3. Address of Demised Premises
4. Type of demised premises eg. whether it is residential or commercial
5. Permitted use of the demised premises
6. Date of the Tenancy Agreement
7. Date of Commencement of the Tenancy
8. Date of Expiry of the Tenancy
9. Rental and frequency of payment of rental
10. Option to renew
11. Rental Deposit payable
12. Security Deposit payable
13. Fixtures and Fittings included eg. cabinets, bedroom furniture, electrical appliances etc.
An additional advantage of using Schedules is that it allows the draftsman to create a master Tenancy Agreement which only need an amendment of the details in the Schedules as and when a new tenancy agreement needs to be drafted. This saves the draftsman from having to draw up a new agreement everytime a need arises.
Tags: schedules, tenancy agreement