Create, edit or delete a tenant
Create a tenant
To add a tenant, follow these simple steps: go to the “Tenants” section, then click “New tenant”.
For each tenant you can enter the following information:
- The tenant type.
- The surname and first name, or the company name.
- The email address (if you want to invite your tenant).
- The address and other contact details.
- Employment details.
- Details of the guarantors.
- Bank details.
- The option to add documents.
Some of this information is carried over into the pre-filled agreements.
Import tenants
You can import several tenants at once from a CSV, Excel or Open Office file. Please use the following templates for the import:
Invite your tenant
You can give your tenant access to the software, so that they can reach the tenant area, download their rent receipts and manage their account.
To give your tenant access, follow these steps:
- Create the tenant record.
- Enter the tenant’s email address (one address per tenant) and switch the invitation on.
- Save the tenant record.
- The tenant receives an invitation by email.
- The tenant clicks the invitation link, confirms their account and sets their password.
Note that inviting the tenant is not compulsory, and you can do it later. An “Invite” link is available in the “Tenants” section for each tenant. It stays there until the invitation is accepted, and then disappears.
Once the tenant has access to their own area, they can see the following:
- Their receipts and rent due notices
- The landlord’s contact details
- The details of their tenancy
- The shared documents
- The tasks relating to the tenancy
- The maintenance jobs relating to the tenancy
- The messages between them and the landlord
Why give the tenant access to an account?
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in force since 25 May 2018, users — here, tenants — must be told how their data is used. As a rule they have to consent to it being processed, be able to see it, or be able to object to it.
If the tenant asks for access, we are legally obliged to give them access to the platform.
The landlord also has a legal duty to give the tenant certain records and documents, even after the tenant has left.
Guarantors
For each tenant you can add one or more guarantors on the “Guarantors” tab. Guarantor details go into the pre-filled agreement templates and into the guarantor agreement. They are also saved in the “Contacts” section.
Edit a tenant
To edit an existing tenant, go to the “Tenants” section, click the “Edit” action to the right of the tenant concerned, make your changes and click “Save”.
Note that a change to the tenant’s name only applies to future payments. Rents already generated in the “Finance” section keep the old name and have to be edited by hand, one at a time.
Changing the email address of a connected tenant
The email address of a connected tenant — one who has accepted your invitation — is their login. The “Email” field on their record is therefore locked and marked with a padlock.
If your tenant no longer has access to that address, you can replace it yourself:
- Open the tenant record: “Tenants” section, “Edit” action.
- Click the “Unlock” button to the right of the “Email” field.
- Confirm the warning: the tenant’s email address is their username, any changes will update this username and the tenant will be notified.
- Enter the new address, then click “Save”.
The tenant keeps their password and their entire history: they simply sign in with the new address. A “Change login details” email is sent to their old address to inform them of the change.
The tenant can also make this change themselves from their own account, in their login details.
Before you change the email address
Tell your tenant the new address: the notification goes to their old address and does not state the new one.
The address must stay unique among your tenants. If another of your tenants already uses it, the record cannot be saved.
If your tenant also rents from another landlord on Rentila with the same address, a change made from your account applies only to your record: their two tenancies will no longer appear together in the same tenant area.
Delete a tenant
To delete a tenant, go to the “Tenants” section and click the “Delete” action to the right of the tenant concerned.
If the tenant is attached to a tenancy, an inventory (“Inventories”) or a furnishings list (“Furnishings”), you have to delete those first and then empty the trash. Otherwise the software will not let you delete the tenant.
Note that this will lose that tenant’s history. It is usually better to archive a tenant than to delete them.
