The Tenants page is everyone renting across your portfolio in one place — leases, rent status and contact details. It's also where new tenancies begin.

Inviting a tenant

1. Go to Tenants and click + Invite tenant.
2. Pick the Unit from your vacant units. The rent and deposit fill in from the unit — you can adjust them for this tenancy.
3. Choose how you can reach them: They have an email or Phone number only.

They have an email

Enter the tenant's email. If they're already on Rentor, their reputation appears right there before you commit: how many tenancies they've had, their star rating from previous landlords, category scores and recent comments. Add their phone if you have it (optional — if SMS is set up, Rentor texts them the link), the start date, monthly rent and deposit paid, then click Send invite.

Two things can happen:

• They already have a Rentor account — they're assigned to the unit immediately. Their lease and rent ledger are ready on the spot.
• They're new — Rentor creates a sign-up link that pre-fills the unit, rent and start date. Share it by SMS/email or copy it yourself. The link is valid for 7 days, and the moment they finish signing up they're assigned automatically.

Pending invites sit in a card at the top of the Tenants page, where you can Copy link or Cancel each one. Sending a new invite for the same unit replaces the old one.

Phone number only

Plenty of tenants have a phone and no email. Pick Phone number only, enter the tenant's name and phone, the start date, rent and deposit, and click Record tenancy.

There is no invitation to accept, because there's no inbox to send one to: the tenancy starts straight away. The lease, rent ledger and receipts all work, and that number is where their rent reminders are texted — on the days you pick under Reminders & Alerts, using your SMS credits. You hold the tenancy on their behalf until they ask to be linked to it. They show on your roster marked phone only.

If the number already belongs to one of your tenants, Rentor stops and asks: Same person — add this unit (someone renting a second unit from you) or Let me fix the number — one wrong digit would send their rent reminders to a stranger.

When a phone-only tenant wants to see their own ledger and receipts, open them on the Tenants page and click Give them a claim code. Read the code out to them: they create a Rentor account and enter it under Add a home, and their account is linked to the unit. A code is valid for 14 days and works once. The tenant's side of this is in Adding a home you already rent.

When your tenant signs up, their record joins their account (and how to detach within 7 days)

A phone-only tenant does not need a claim code if they sign up with the number you recorded. Rentor texts that number a code during sign-up; the moment they enter it, the record you hold (the unit, the rent ledger, the receipts and the lease) becomes part of their new account, and nothing changes on your side: rent reminders, receipts and everything else carry on as before. Signing up with Google works the same way.

You are told straight away, in the app and by email, who claimed which record, and a banner on the Tenants page shows every claim of the last seven days. If the name is not the person you recorded (a wrong digit on your side, or somebody else now holds that number), choose Not them? Detach on the banner within those seven days. The tenancy goes back to a held record with the tenant's name and no phone number, so you can correct the number; the person who signed up keeps their own account and the number they proved, and is told the record was not theirs. After seven days the claim stands; contact support if you need it undone later.

When the tenant comes to you: Join requests

Sometimes the tenant gets to Rentor first. Someone with a Rentor account can say they rent one of your units, and that lands on Join requests (under Portfolio, next to Tenants) — nothing happens until you answer. Each request shows who is asking, the unit they named, and the evidence, stated as evidence:

• Whether they proved their phone number with a code Rentor texted them — or, in amber, that they haven't, and only their word says the number is theirs.
• Whether confirming would hand over a record you already hold. If you recorded "Mwangi Kamau" on that unit by phone number and the request comes from that number, confirming moves the tenancy — ledger, receipts and lease — onto their account. If that isn't the same person, decline: the number on your record may be wrong.

Confirm and hand over the record (or Confirm and start a tenancy, when there's no existing record) links them to the unit. Decline takes a reason, which they see. Confirm only the people you recognise. A claim code, above, does the same job with no waiting.

Reading the roster

The stat cards show your Active tenancies, Monthly rent roll, Total arrears and Tenants in arrears. Filter the list by All, Active, On notice or Ended, or use the search box to find someone by name, unit or property. Each row shows the tenant, their unit and what they owe; past tenancies fold away under Past tenancies.

Click a tenant to open them. Their panel shows their contacts, status and lease chips, Monthly rent, Outstanding balance (red if they owe, green if clear) and how long they've been your tenant — and everything you can do, grouped:

• Lease → Manage lease — draft, send and sign the tenancy agreement. See Creating & signing leases.
• Property → Open property, and Inspection checklist for the move-in and move-out condition report.
• Money → Billing & charges — recurring charges, penalties, the rent due day and VAT (see Recurring charges, penalties & VAT) — and Payments before Rentor, for rent they paid you before the tenancy was on Rentor (see Collecting rent).
• Contact → Message — a private conversation with the tenant.
• Tenancy → Give notice and End tenancy.

Giving notice and ending a tenancy

• Give notice starts the clock: set the notice period in days (Kenyan tenancies commonly use 30) and an optional reason. The tenant's panel shows the expected move-out date, and the unit stays occupied through the notice period. When the move-out date arrives Rentor closes the tenancy for you — final meter readings billed, the unit freed, the deposit return opened — provided nothing is still owing. If there is a balance the tenancy stays open and you are told, so you decide what to do. Tenants can give notice themselves too, never shorter than the lease's notice period, and you are notified and emailed when they do.
• End tenancy finishes it now: the unit is freed and marked vacant, and the tenant becomes able to rate you. This can't be undone, so Rentor asks you to confirm.

Bringing many tenants at once (CSV)

If you already have tenants living in your units, don't invite them one by one:

1. On the Tenants page, click Import CSV.
2. Click ⬇ Download template — it lists your vacant units with rent pre-filled; just add each tenant's name and a way to reach them. (Or build your own CSV with columns: property, unit, tenant_name, email, phone, start_date, monthly_rent, deposit.)
3. Upload the file. Rentor checks every row and shows the result — how many are ready, and which need something changed, with the reason on each one.
4. Fix anything that needs fixing right there. Every row in the preview is editable: correct a door number, add a missing phone, or drop a row you don't want. Press Re-check and Rentor validates your changes. You never have to go back to the spreadsheet and start again.
5. Click Onboard N tenants. Existing Rentor accounts are assigned immediately; everyone else gets an invite link tied to their unit. Download the results CSV to keep the links.

An email address is not required

Each tenant needs an email address or a phone number — one is enough, and most Kenyan landlords' books have only the phone.

A tenant you import with a phone number and no email gets their lease and rent ledger straight away, and there is nothing for you to chase. That number is where their rent reminders are texted, on the days you pick under Reminders & Alerts — texts use your SMS credits. Rentor also texts them a link inviting them to create a free Rentor account whenever they want to see their ledger for themselves — they don't have to, and their tenancy works either way. In the results these are counted as recorded rather than invited, precisely because there is no acceptance to wait for.

A row with neither an email nor a phone number is the one thing Rentor can't take: it would create a tenant nobody can reach. Add a number in the preview and re-check.

If Rentor can't work out your columns

Bring the spreadsheet you already keep — Rentor recognises the usual names for each column ("House No.", "Occupant", "Mpesa" and so on). When it can't place one, it asks rather than rejecting the file: pick which column holds the unit, the phone, or whatever is missing, and it reads the file again. Nothing is saved until you press the onboard button.

For migrating a whole portfolio — properties, units, tenants and opening balances — use the bigger Importing your existing records wizard instead.

On the phone app

Tenants has its own tab on the bar at the bottom of the landlord app — Home · Properties · Tenants · Discover · More — because who has paid is the question you open the app with.

The screen has the same four stat cards and one extra filter the web doesn't: In arrears, beside All, Active, On notice and Ended. (Tapping In arrears on Home lands you here with it already switched on.) Tap a tenant and their details slide up as a sheet with the same groups as the web — Lease, Property, Messages, Money, Tenancy — including Message privately, Billing & charges, Payments before Rentor, Give notice and End tenancy, and Give them a claim code for a phone-only tenant.

The person icon at the top right opens Invite tenant, with both modes — They have an email and Phone number only. After an email invite the phone's share sheet opens with the sign-up link, so you can send it on WhatsApp. Importing tenants from a CSV is done on the website.