A new landlord client wants to see a sample tenancy agreement before signing up. The only sample you have is a live AST from last month — names, account numbers, references all over it. You can't send it as-is.
Proper redaction makes precedent reusable. Fake redaction makes it a data breach.
What to redact in a tenancy
Tenant full names, dates of birth, previous addresses, employer details, bank account numbers and sort codes, deposit reference numbers, and any guarantor information. The landlord's details may also need redacting if they're a private individual rather than a company. National Insurance numbers and passport numbers always.
Use proper redaction
Open the AST in redact PDF, mark each region, and apply. Flint removes the underlying text data, not just covers it. Test the output by selecting text in redacted regions — nothing should copy out. This step alone prevents most amateur redaction failures.
What to leave intact
Property address (unless the property is identifiable in a sensitive way), rent figures (often the whole point of the precedent), term and break clauses, and all the standard clauses. The redaction is about the people, not the agreement. Over-redaction makes the sample useless.
Sign and share
After redacting, password-protect the sample before sending to prospects. Add a footer making clear it's a redacted sample, not a current agreement. If you're sending many samples to many prospects, version each so you can track which prospect received which redaction set.
FAQ
Do I need tenant consent to share a redacted AST?
Best practice is yes — even with redaction, individuals have privacy rights. For samples, build a generic precedent rather than using live ASTs.
Is search-and-redact safe for a name?
Yes for the basic redaction, but verify visually — names appear in different cases, with middle initials, and in signature blocks. Don't trust search alone.
Should I redact the landlord's details too?
If the landlord is a private individual, yes. If a limited company, less critical but still consider — companies have privacy considerations too.
Can I reuse a redacted AST as a template?
Better to build a clean template from scratch with placeholder fields. Redacted lives are too risky to reuse repeatedly.
Precedent is reusable once it's properly anonymised. Redact your sample AST in Flint and the new landlord sees professionalism, not a breach.