Not every tenant opens the app. From the Messages page you can reach them the old-fashioned way — a text or an email — sent by Rentor on your behalf, with a sign-off that names you and the property.

The three ways to communicate

Messages under Communication has three views:

• Property channels — each property's Property forum, an open discussion for everyone there (you included), and its Official notices: formal announcements from you or your agency, with read receipts so you know who's seen them.
• Direct messages — private one-to-one conversations with a tenant.
• Reach tenants off-app — a text or an email to someone who isn't opening the app.

The first two are in-app — tenants see them in Rentor (their guide is Messages & notices). The rest of this article is about the third view, "Reach tenants off-app". For the automatic reminders Rentor sends about rent, see Rent reminders & alerts.

Sending an SMS or email

1. Open the "Reach tenants off-app" tab.
2. Toggle the channel: SMS or Email.
3. Pick the recipient — "A tenant of mine" (your portfolio tenants, with a flag if one has no phone or email on file) or "Someone else", where you enter their name, number or address, and which property the message is about.
4. Write your message. Email also takes a Subject.
5. Check the Preview. It shows the message exactly as it will arrive — under the sender ID "Rentor", ending with an automatic sign-off identifying you and the property. The sign-off is added by Rentor and can't be edited or faked, which is what makes these messages trustworthy to tenants.
6. Click Send SMS or Send email.

Every send lands in your Recent sends outbox so you have a record of what went out and whether it delivered.

How SMS credits work

SMS is metered: each message costs credits based on its length — the preview counts your characters and shows exactly how many credits the send will use (one credit per standard 160-character text; longer messages use more). Your SMS credits balance sits beside the composer.

• Running low? Click Buy credits and choose a bundle — pay by M-Pesa, card or bank, and the credits land the moment payment confirms. You can also top up from Billing & Plans, and some plans include monthly SMS credits — see Plans, billing & add-ons. Credits are bought on the website; they don't expire, and they're shared across your whole account, so the same balance pays for these messages and for any rent reminders you've chosen to text.
• If a text can't be delivered — say, a wrong number the network rejects — the credits are refunded automatically. You only pay for messages that go out.

Email is free

Email costs nothing, with a sensible daily cap to prevent abuse — the composer shows how many of your daily emails you've used.

For agencies

An agency can use the off-app composer too, but only for tenants on properties where the landlord granted the Send official notices permission — see Your portfolio & permissions.

On the phone app: open Messages and tap the icon at the top right — Reach a tenant off-app. The sheet has the same SMS / Email switch, One of my tenants or Someone else, the automatic sign-off, and a live count of what the text will cost against your balance. You send from the credits you already hold; SMS credits aren't sold in the app.