Add Roommates, Secondary Tenants, Co-Renters

In the software, you are able to add a co-renter in two different ways depending on the rental agreement terms. 

Option 1: Grouped Together means all the renters in the unit are collectively responsible for the rental invoice. 

Option 2: Keep Separate means the co-renters are not grouped with a primary renter (tenant) but instead have their own rent charges they are responsible to pay.  

Option 1: Group Together Co-Renters

Adding roommates (or secondary tenants) that are all responsible for the same bill is easy within the property management software by following the steps below. 

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Move in the primary renter (the group leader) to a vacant property. Information on moving a tenant into a property can be found here: Place a Tenant Into a Property | Move-In
   
   Tip: The group leader can also be an assumed name for the group if you wish rather than an actual person's name (such as: Dorm Room 5).  All settings used for the move-in details (rent, late fees, etc) will apply to all grouped tenants.
2. Add additional tenants to the group.  You can do this either of two ways:
   1. If the additional tenant is not currently in the system navigate to Properties and select the Place New Tenant link
      • Select Option 1 - Group Together at the next screen
      • Enter the new tenant's information
      • Click Add Tenant when finished
   2. If the additional tenant already exists, go to Tenants. 
      • Right-click on the tenant and choose Add To Group  
        
        
      • Choose the group leader (setup in step 1), and click the Add To Group button
      • Then select Connect Tenant 
        

      Note: A tenant must be inactive with a zero balance in order to be added to a group.  If they are currently moved into a property, you must move them out first to make them inactive, then add them to the group.

3. Repeat step 2 as many times as necessary until all sub-tenants have been added.

Important Notes: 

All accounting operations (payments, charges, deposits, etc) will apply to the group leader's ledger.  All subtenants will not have a ledger. If it is important to you to know which tenant in particular a charge is for or a payment was received from, be sure to label that in the memo field when entering the transaction.

Online Payments are compatible with this function. You can set up Online Payments for each subtenant, and their transactions will post as credits to the group leader's ledger. Online Payments posted in the ledger will be tagged with the subtenant's name.

Email addresses can be entered for secondary tenants that are grouped under the primary tenant. This allows you to email the secondary tenant directly, however, only the primary tenant will receive automated emails sent by the system.

Option 2 - Keep Separate

 Choose this option if the new tenant is not to be grouped with the primary renter(tenant). Each separate co-renter receives their own account ledger, rent charges, etc. 

RELATED ARTICLES

Subsidized Housing / Section 8 / HUD