Rent Arrears & Writing Off Rent

The rent arrears area offers a report which allows you to monitor not only your rent arrears but also allows you to see other outstanding transactions easily. 

It is accessed via the 'Finance’ top menu and 'Rent Arrears’ from the drop down.

The form below is displayed:

1. Use the drop down box to select which branches you wish the report to show the data from.
2. If looking for someone in particular you can enter something in the Search Text box.
3. Using the calendar pop up enter the date range you would like to view.
4. Sort By: - This drop down box allows you to sort the report in the most useful way for you. In this example the due date has been chosen as the filter. You are also able to select if you wish to see more than just the rent which is outstanding on any of your tenancies.
5. You need to remember to click Filter if you amend any of the filter options at the top of the report to refresh the data.
6. Each row also has links to the records affected - Tenancy, Tenant & Landlord
7. You are able to print the list or export the data to CSV format if required.
8. There are various options as to how you can contact your tenants regarding rent arrears and the ability to select or deselect all or manual select via the tick boxes.  If you chose to contact the tenant via SMS, letter or email then this will be added as an event on the tenancy, applicant and property. If you chose to email, you will be asked if you wish to add an attachment to the email. 
9. Each row has the options to 'Mark as Paid', 'Write Off' and 'Add a Note'. This is allows you to perform actions with out having to go to the individual tenancies. 

By clicking 'Mark as Paid", the following window will appear:

1. State the amount received (use the button next to this field to quickly auto-fill the box with the total amount outstanding if all owed monies have been paid) and the payment method, select the payment date, the bank account the money is to go into and enter any payment references or notes if needed.
2. Tick the boxes against the charges payment has been received for – this allocates the funds to the appropriate transaction/s.
3. If you are showing an unallocated amount, it means you have not allocated all of the funds paid, so you would need to check you have ticked the correct outstanding transactions. This is covered in more detail in the Unallocated Funds - Tenancies chapter.
4. Click ‘Save’ to process the payment.

As you will note this is the same payment window as the Receive Payment window when receiving funds via the tenancy. You can therefore receive funds for multiple transactions. 

Clicking ‘Write Off’ next to an item on the ‘Rent Arrears’ screen opens the following window:

All of the outstanding rent arrears for this tenancy will show on this screen.

1. Select the date you’d like the arrears to be listed as having been written off on.
2. Add any relevant notes.
3. Tick the transactions you’d like to write off.
4. Click ‘Save’.

A confirmation message will pop up in the bottom corner of the screen.

Clicking 'Add a Note' opens an event log:

This is a useful tool if you have spoken to the tenant regarding rent arrears which will mean that a record will be placed on the event tab of the tenancy record.

1. Enter any notes that wish recorded in the Notes field or the Vendor/Landlord notes field.
2. You can via this window update the last contact date field of this tenancy. We highly recommend updating this field if you have to leave a message for the tenant etc as you are able to filter the Rent Arrears table by Last Contacted Date.  This allows you to come back to the rent arrears report and know where you had got to when contacting tenants.
3. You can also use this window to set a task for yourself or another member of staff. This is helpful if you may need to further chase the tenant. 

You can also write off rent from a tenancy record via the action menu

You are also able to show rent arrears on a landlord's statement. When creating the statement please select the template Landlord Statement with Arrears - Detailed - Styled.  This template is based on the By Property - Detailed - Styled and summarises the rent arrears for each property shown on the statement.