Lease agreement: what to mask before you send it as proof or for advice

Send only the pages the recipient needs, and mask the other people on them. Often the first page, the rent clause and the signature page are enough, but only the recipient can say. Recipients rarely need your landlord's bank details, your guarantor's details or the photos of your flat. This is general information for France, Germany and the UK, as of November 2026, not legal advice.

What does a lease reveal about other people?

• The landlord or agency: name, address, phone, email.
• The guarantor: name, address and what the guarantee deed says.
• Co-tenants and other occupants named in the text.
• Bank details: an IBAN for the rent or the deposit, if the lease prints one.
• Annexes: move-in inventory, sometimes with photos, energy and safety reports, insurance certificate.

Which pages does each recipient need?

The first two rows follow the official pages cited below. The others are common sense, so ask the recipient what it accepts.

What do France, Germany and the UK say?

France

There is no single list of proofs of address. Service-Public, the French government's information portal, says a residence card application accepts the lease, a utility bill or a rent receipt. The proof must be less than six months old. The page for a driving licence does not list the lease. It lists a tax notice, a rent receipt and a bill, among others.

For housing aid, a Caf page lists the documents to prepare: identity document, Carte Vitale, your lease, bank statements, bank details and proof of income. The lease is on the list, so leave the rent and charges readable.

A French lease follows a model set by decree under the law of 6 July 1989, says ANIL. It names the landlord and tenants and states the rent, charges and deposit. Service-Public (checked 1 October 2026) lists the annexes: diagnostics, move-in inventory, insurance certificate and any guarantee deed.

Germany

To register an address, the lease is the wrong paper. Section 19 of the Bundesmeldegesetz requires the landlord to confirm the move-in. This Wohnungsgeberbestätigung holds the landlord's name and address, the move-in date, the flat's address and the names of the people who register. Berlin's service portal says a lease does not replace it.

For Wohngeld, Berlin's service portal asks for a copy of the lease, any amendments and proof of the last three months of rent. Other towns may ask for other proofs.

The Grundsicherungsgeld replaced the Bürgergeld on 1 July 2026, says the Federal Employment Agency. The Lower Saxony data protection commissioner (FAQ, July 2026) says you can prove housing costs with the lease and other papers. You may black out details that are not needed for that proof. Its FAQ covers only the 16 Lower Saxony districts that run their own Jobcenter. Elsewhere, ask your Jobcenter.

United Kingdom

For Universal Credit housing costs, GOV.UK lists a tenancy agreement, rent statement or rent book as evidence. Without one, a signed landlord letter may do. The DWP guide for landlords says this evidence should confirm the names, addresses and contact details of tenant and landlord. It should also show the property address, the start date, the rent and any deposit.

Right to Rent is another check. GOV.UK says landlords in England must check every adult tenant, even without a written agreement, using identity documents or a share code. It is about your right to live in the UK, not your lease.

In England and Wales, the landlord must put your deposit in an approved scheme within 30 days of getting it, says GOV.UK. In a deposit dispute, leave the amount and the dates visible. Banks and employers set their own proof-of-address rules, so ask which pages they accept. Keep your original lease and send masked copies only.

How do you send only some pages and mask the rest?

1. Ask the recipient which pages or details it needs.
2. Cut the PDF down to those pages. Delete the others instead of covering them: a black box over text in a PDF can leave the text underneath.
3. Mask the other people, the IBAN and any photos. Keep your name, the address, the rent, the charges, the deposit and the dates if the recipient reads them. Then review every page.
4. Use a tool that flattens each page, then try to select text under a mask. Nothing should come up. Check the file name too: it may carry a surname.

ONYRI Sanitize masks names, addresses, IBANs and dates in a PDF, Word or scanned lease, inside your browser. A full name found once is also masked in capitals elsewhere. Amounts with a currency are masked too, so untick your name, the address, the rent, the deposit and the dates the recipient reads. Signatures and photos need “Draw an area”. Without an account, a document can have 5 pages at most.

Can you give a lease to an AI assistant to explain a clause?

Yes, if you paste the clause and not the whole lease. Pick the clause you do not understand, such as the notice period or the deposit return. Keep it as written, with the amounts and dates it uses, because the answer depends on them. Mask the names of the tenant, landlord and guarantor, the address, the IBAN, phone numbers and signatures. Labels like Landlord and Tenant A keep it readable.

An assistant like ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini still sees what you leave. The rent, the type of home and any town you keep say something about you. Its answer is not legal advice either, and it can be wrong. For a dispute or a large sum, ask a lawyer or a tenants' association.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references