Owner approvals for repairs and new tenants

Who this is for

Property managers whose owners want a say on costly repairs or on who moves in. Owner approvals exist only in Property Manager mode. Owners answer in the owner portal. Only the account owner can recommend an applicant to the owners.

Before you start

• For repairs: on the owner's profile (Rentals → Owners, then the owner), enter a Maintenance Approval Threshold and click Save. Leave it blank if the owner doesn't want to approve repairs.
• For new tenants: on the same profile, switch on Approves new tenants.
• The owner needs an owner portal login to answer. See Invite tenants, owners, vendors and your team.

Steps

Repairs

1. A repair needs approval when its cost is above the threshold: a tenant's estimate, a cost you enter on the request, or a quote you click Accept on. The request moves to Pending Approval and the owners are told.
2. You can also send any quote to the owner yourself: while the request is waiting for quotes, click → Owner on a submitted quote.
3. The owner opens Maintenance in the owner portal and clicks Approve or Reject.
4. If the owner approved a single quote, the vendor's work order is created and the request is In Progress. Otherwise the request goes back to Open for you to assign. A rejected request is Rejected.

New tenants

1. Open the application under Leasing → Applications. In the Owner approval section, click Recommend.
2. Optional: write a Note to the owners, then click Send to the owners.
3. Each owner who approves new tenants sees a summary in Applications in the owner portal and approves or declines it. The section shows each answer: Approved, Declined or Waiting.
4. Once every one of them has approved, approve the application as usual.

Example

Maple Court is owned by Dana Whitfield (threshold $500) and Luis Ortega (threshold $750). When a property has several owners, the lowest threshold counts: $500.

• A plumber quotes $850 to replace a water heater. You click Accept. Because $850 is above $500, the request moves to Pending Approval.
• Dana approves in the owner portal. The first answer from any owner of the property decides, so the request goes ahead.
• A $300 faucet repair is under $500, so you can assign it straight away.

What happens next

• Repairs: while a request waits for the owner, you can't change its status except to Rejected, and you can't assign a vendor. The timeline shows "Owner approved" once they do.
• New tenants: owners see a summary only: move-in date, monthly income, people in the household, pets, screening and other applications for the unit. They never see the files, phone or email. Recommending one applicant clears the recommendation on any other applicant for the same unit.
• An owner who declines must say why. You read the reason; the applicant is never told an owner declined.

If something looks wrong

• "Recommend this applicant to the owners first." An owner of the property approves new tenants, so you can't approve until you recommend.
• "Waiting for an owner to approve." At least one owner hasn't answered. Ask them to open Applications in the owner portal.
• "An owner declined this applicant." Recommend someone else, or deny the application. Recommend again clears every owner's answer and asks again.
• "No owner of this property approves new tenants, so there is no one to recommend it to." Nobody needs to approve. Approve the application directly.
• A vendor can't be assigned and you see "Owner approval required before assigning a vendor." The cost is above the threshold. Get a quote and send it to the owner.
• You want the owner to approve a repair under the threshold that has no quote. There is no button for this yet; send them a message instead.