Real estate

Qualified electronic signatures for rental agreements

Verify the tenant and their income, then sign the lease with a qualified signature.

Use case
Digital signatures
Wallet data
PID · EAA · QES
Authbound capability
Digital Signatures
Flow
Sign
What changes

Before and after the wallet

Today

  1. Payslip PDFs
  2. Employment letters
  3. Click-to-sign or notary
  4. Letting the property

With the EUDI Wallet

  1. Present identity and income
  2. Authbound verifies
  3. Sign with QES
  4. Letting the property

The wallet changes how the evidence is collected. The step at the end stays yours.

The problem

Why this is worth changing

For the business
Lettings stall between a promising applicant and a lease that is actually signed.
For the user
Applicants gather payslips and employment letters, then book a signing appointment.
For operations
Agents check PDFs anyone can edit and chase missing documents by email.

Why the wallet helps

The wallet carries all three. Identity attributes verify the applicant, employment and income attestations come signed by whoever actually knows, and the same wallet produces a qualified electronic signature, which under eIDAS has the legal effect of a handwritten one across the EU.

  • Identity, affordability and signature in one flow instead of three tools
  • Income evidence nobody can edit in a PDF viewer
  • A signature with EU-wide legal equivalence to wet ink
User journey

What actually happens

  1. 01

    You request identity and supporting attestations

  2. 02

    The user gets the request by QR or deep link

  3. 03

    The wallet shows the data and the document

  4. 04

    The user approves on their device

  5. 05

    The wallet presents credentials and signs

  6. 06

    Authbound verifies presentation and signature

  7. 07

    Your backend receives the result and signed document

  8. 08

    Your existing workflow continues

How it works

Three steps with Authbound

  1. Step 01

    Verify the applicant

    Request identity and address attributes so you know who you are dealing with before sharing property details.

  2. Step 02

    Check affordability

    Employment status and income attestations arrive signed by the issuer, so the edited-payslip problem goes away.

  3. Step 03

    Sign with QES

    The tenant signs from the same wallet, and the signature carries the identity binding with it.

Technical flow

  1. Your application
  2. Authbound API
  3. Wallet request
  4. Presentation and signature
  5. Trust and revocation checks
  6. Your backend
Technical details
const verification = await authbound.verifications.create({
  policyId: 'pol_…',      // the claims this flow requests
  customerUserRef: user.id,
});

// Your webhook then receives verification.completed
// with the verified result and its audit record.
  • Request: an OpenID4VP presentation request built from your policy.
  • Hand-off: QR code on desktop, deep link on mobile.
  • Checks: issuer against the EU trust lists, status list revocation, device binding.
  • Result: structured claims plus an audit record, delivered by webhook.
Who does what

What Authbound handles, what you handle

Authbound handles

  • The wallet request, with QR on desktop and a deep link on mobile
  • Verifying the presentation the wallet returns
  • Checking the issuer against the EU trust lists
  • Revocation and device binding checks
  • A structured result delivered to your backend
  • An audit record of every verification

Your application handles

  • Choosing which attributes the flow requests
  • Your business logic and account creation
  • Letting the property
  • Risk and fraud decisions
  • How long you keep the result
  • A path for users without a wallet
What's involved

Credentials, standards and rules

Wallet presents

  • PID
  • EAA
  • QES

Regulatory context

eIDAS 2.0 qualified electronic signature, national tenancy law

Under eIDAS a qualified electronic signature has the legal effect of a handwritten one across the EU. Wallet QES is free for non-professional use, while member states may keep professional use as a paid service. Tenancy law, deposit rules and tenant screening rules remain national and yours to follow.

Keystone demo
Live demo

See the complete flow in Keystone

Rental application, income verification, and lease signature in a single wallet flow.

What it asks the wallet for

  • name
  • address
  • employment_status
  • proof_of_income
  • qes_ready

What the business gets back

Move-in date
01 May 2026
Signature status
QES complete
Key handoff
By post
Open the Keystone demo

Keystone is a fictional company built by Authbound. The wallet integration in it uses the real Authbound SDK.

Questions

What buyers ask

How is QES different from normal e-signing?

A qualified signature uses a qualified creation device and a certificate tied to a verified identity, and under eIDAS it has the same legal effect as handwriting everywhere in the EU. Most click-to-sign products produce advanced or simple signatures, which a court weighs as evidence rather than accepting outright.

How does income get attested?

As an attestation from a source that already knows: an employer, a payroll provider, or a tax authority depending on the member state. You verify the issuer instead of interpreting a document.

Does the tenant need special hardware?

No. The wallet on their phone acts as the signing environment, which is the change that finally makes remote QES workable at consumer scale.

Can we keep our current e-signature tool?

Yes. Use wallet QES where the higher legal standing matters and keep your current tool for everything else.

What does our system receive?

The verified identity and income attributes you requested, the signed document, and a verification ID tying them to the same person.

Is QES from the wallet free?

For the tenant signing privately, yes. The free QES rule covers non-professional use, so a landlord signing as a business may still pay through their trust service provider.

What if the applicant has no wallet?

Use your current screening and signing process. The wallet is the faster path, not the only one.

Does it work for tenants from other member states?

Yes. Identity and signature are verified the same way for every EU wallet, and the QES is legally recognised in every member state.

Is income attestation available everywhere yet?

No. It depends on employers, payroll providers or tax authorities issuing it, and coverage varies by country. Keep document upload as a fallback.

When can tenants sign with a wallet?

Signing is a default wallet feature, so it arrives with the wallets themselves by 24 December 2026.

Next step

Have a different wallet use case in mind?

Tell us what you are trying to build. We will map the user journey, the credentials and the wallet interaction to an implementation.