Lease Renewals Process

We’re excited to announce that we have drastically simplified our renewals process and added more automation to take work off your plate. 

Now, you can: 

• Configure default lease renewal offers
• Renew existing leases without juggling multiple lease ledgers or transfers
• Schedule renewals and related charges months in advance
• Store historical information, like initial lease dates, in a single place
• Renew Expired leases
• Track move in dates to accurately record who is living in the unit outside of the lease start date
• Track the status and stages of every renewal and track communications sent out to tenants 
• Record a notice to vacate for tenants who are moving out 

Table of contents: 

• Configure default renewal offers 
• Renewing Expired lease
• Current and proposed terms for lease renewal 
• Entering custom terms on a lease renewal 
• Moving in new tenants / adding new cosigners when renewing a lease
• Moving out tenants when renewing a lease
• Changing and updating recurring charges when renewing a lease 
• Stop recurring charges after a renewal 

• Rent Proration on lease renewal   
• Record Notice to vacate

Expired lease

You can now renew an expired lease going back 240 days. Expired leases will show on the renewals page. You can renew leases multiple times. 

• Note: you will not be able to renew future leases, at will leases, and past leases. 

 

Current and proposed terms for lease renewal 

• When renewing a lease, the current terms will display the property, unit, start-end rent and lease type of the current lease (prior to the renewal) for reference. This information is read only and cannot be edited. 
• The rent will pull from the rent that will be effective at the end of the current lease term
• Underneath the section for renewal terms, you will see the option to select one of the two proposed terms entered on the previous page which will default the new lease end, type and rent. 
  • PLEASE NOTE: you cannot enter split rent charges using the proposed terms section. This should only be used with single rent charges. If the have a more complex rent set up, you can use the option for entering custom terms. 

 

Entering custom terms 

• When you select the option to enter custom terms, you can specify the lease type, end date (if applicable) and rent. 
• If the rent is split into multiple charges, you can set this up under the custom terms option 
• You will be able to select any income account under the rent section 
• The rent will start on the renewal date and will charge according to the next due date entered on this page. Posting days will use the global default. The next due date must be on or after the renewal date. 

• The memo will default to rent unless you enter a new note

 

Moving in new tenants / adding new cosigners when renewing a lease

Move in dates will allow you to accurately record who is living in the unit and when outside of the lease start date and track move-in dates and move out dates in the event history report.

• A new tenant or cosigner can be added during the renewal by clicking on the + card 
• When a new tenant is added and saved, you will see the move in date on the tenant’s card and the date will default the lease renewal date 
• The move in date must be between the current lease’s start and renewed leases end date. 
• The move in date can be edited if you need to make changes
• Move in dates are not applicable to new cosigners 

Show move in date on tenants tab

• You will now be able to see a move in date on the tenants tab of a lease that can be edited.
• When you move a new tenant in while recording a lease renewal, you will enter the move in date 
• Any existing tenants on a lease will also have a move in date field which will default to the lease start date. 
• The move in date field can be edited from this page if you need to update it outside of the renewals flow. 
• You can also enter a move in date when you move someone in from the tenants tab on the lease 
• If a tenant has already been moved out of a lease, they will already have a move out date so we will now show [move in date] - [move out date] 

 

Moving out tenants or removing cosigners when renewing a lease 

• If the person is a tenant, their profile can be edited or they can be moved out (previously, this was an option to remove rather than move out since a new lease was created.) 
• The tenant’s move out date must fall between the original lease’s start and renewed leases end date 
• When a tenant is moved out they fall into a former section. Their move out can be undone if it was done by mistake and need to move the tenant back onto the lease
• If the person is a cosigner, their profile can be edited or they can be removed from the lease 

• If the cosigner is removed, they fall into a former section. Their removal can be undone by clicking restore if it was done by mistake and need to move the cosigner back onto the lease 

 

Changing and updating recurring charges when renewing a lease 

• Any recurring charges that are set to post “until end of term” on the existing lease will show under the recurring charges section 
• In order to make adjustments or stop the recurring charges on the lease, you can toggle this section to “yes” 

• Saving adjustments to recurring charges
  • When you make a change to an existing recurring charge, the system will create a brand new recurring charge to begin on or after the renewal date 
  • The existing recurring charge will continue to post until the renewal date 
  • Existing recurring charges that were edited will continue to post unless the next due date is on or after the renewal date
  • If you have multiple recurring charges in this section, select “yes” to change 
  • You can make changes to some or all of the recurring charges
    • Charges with edits will have a new recurring charge created
    • Changes with no changes will continue to post for their entire duration

 

You can add a new recurring or one time charge while renewing, and the next due date for new recurring charges must be on or after the renewal date (but can post in advance) 

New recurring charges will use the default posting day (which is set in the global resident defaults)

Things to note: 

• New recurring charges cannot hit our default rent income account or any sub accounts of it (rent should be set under rent) 
• Customers can add a new one time charge 
• If the next due date minus post days is on or before today the charge will post to the ledger immediately 

• If the next due date minus post days is after today, the charge will be set up as a scheduled one time recurring charge

 

Stop recurring charges after renewal

You will be able to say that a recurring charge should stop posting after the lease is renewed. When you stop a recurring charge, the system will use the next due date to determine if it should or should not post. 

 NOTE:

• If the next due date is before the renewal date, the charge will post
• If the next due date is after the renewal date, the charge will not post 
• If the next due date is after the renewal date but is set to post in advance, the charge will not post 

 IMPORTANT NOTE: Rent Proration

• The current rent proration functionality will not work when extending the existing lease 

• If you would like to enter in prorated charges, you can do so manually by utilizing the one-time charge function

 

Record Notice to Vacate 

With the notice to vacate function, you can keep track of the date when tenants give notice for move out, so you can track who has signed confirmation of move out, who is giving late notice, and who needs to be charged fees accordingly.

To record notice to vacate navigate to the lease renewals page

• Click on the offers tab 
• Find the renewal offer for that tenant
• Click the overflow menu 
• Select "Record intent to move out" 

From here you can record the date that notice was given by the tenant, set the expected move out date, and upload any relevant documentation. 

Recording notice to vacate can also be done from the tenant tab of a lease by clicking "move out" on the tenant card, or when ending the lease.  

 

Configure default lease renewal offers 

You can now save time by setting default lease renewal offer terms so you do not have to manually enter an offer for each lease before sending the offer to the tenant via mail or email. 

You can also automatically calculate the offered rent amounts by setting the default to increase rent by a flat rate, increase by a percentage or use the market rent value entered for the unit. 

To set a default lease renewal offer, navigate to Application settings and select "Configure default lease renewal offer". 

For each offer you can select: 

• Lease type (Fixed, at will)
• Lease duration 
• Rent increase method 
• Percent rounding 
  • When increasing by a percent, select whether you would like to round up or down to the nearest dollar.