Communications · Product guide
Communications
Communications is where you see what has been sent to your tenants and whether it arrived. It lists the notices and documents served to each tenant, with their delivery and acknowledgement status, and lets you send a document to one tenancy or many at once. This guide also explains the automatic notifications COHO sends, the channels it uses (email, WhatsApp, SMS and app notifications), and who can switch them off.
For step-by-step instructions, see Communications: how-to. For problems, see Communications: troubleshooting. Conversations with tenants (chat, email and SMS messages you write) are covered in the Message Centre guide.
Why you’d come here
Section titled “Why you’d come here”| You want to… | Usually you start from | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| Check a notice reached a tenant, or prove it was served | The room’s Communications panel, Notices | The room Communications panel |
| See everything awaiting acknowledgement or that failed across your portfolio | Menu > Communications | Find notices that failed or are awaiting a response |
| Send a document (house rules, a letter, a settlement statement) to one tenancy, a property, a building or everyone | The room’s Communications panel: Send document | Send a document to tenants |
| Reuse a document for many tenancies, with tenant names and dates filled in | The Communications panel settings cog: Tenancy Document Templates | Add a tenancy document template |
| Download a record of everything served to a tenancy | Generate report on the room’s Communications panel | Download a notices report |
| Understand an email or text a tenant received from COHO | This guide | What COHO sends |
| Get fewer (or more) notifications yourself | Your user menu: Settings > Subscriptions | Change your own notification settings |
| Fix “COHO has stopped sending emails to this address” | The tenant’s or team member’s details | Unblock an email address |
| Set default CC, BCC or reply-to for notices, credit control or messages, or your SMS sender name | Your Account settings cog: Company Settings | Set your sender details and email defaults |
Which panel to use:
| Panel | Use it when you’re thinking about |
|---|---|
| Organisation (Menu > Communications) | The whole portfolio: what’s awaiting a response, what failed, one type of notice across all properties. Also your document templates |
| Room (a tenancy’s Communications panel) | One tenancy: its messages, everything served to each tenant, sending a document, and the notices report |
How it works
Section titled “How it works”When COHO serves a document or notice to a tenant, it records one entry per tenant and delivers it in up to two ways:
- In their COHO account, if the tenant has joined COHO. It appears on their dashboard, and if you asked for it, they’re asked to acknowledge it.
- By email, if the tenant has an email address. The email has the document attached.
A tenant with neither an email address nor a COHO account receives nothing, and their entry shows an error. The entry then tracks what happens: served, delivered, bounced, acknowledged.
The notices you see here come from several parts of COHO:
| Type | Comes from |
|---|---|
| Compliance | Certificates and records shared with tenants, such as gas safety certificates, EPCs, EICRs, HMO licences, deposit information and inventories. See Compliance |
| Tenancy Document | Documents you send from Communications with Send document |
| Contract | Tenancy agreements. See Tenancy agreements |
| Credit Control Notification | Credit control emails. See Credit control |
| Rent Change Notice | Rent change notices from a rent review. See Rent review |
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”| Level | Where | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Organisation | Dashboard: Menu > Communications | Every notice of one type across your portfolio, and the template settings |
| Room | A room or tenancy page: its Communications panel | That tenancy’s messages and notices |
The room panel only appears when the tenancy has a tenant.
What you see
Section titled “What you see”The organisation Communications panel
Section titled “The organisation Communications panel”When closed, the panel reads “See your communications with tenants in your organisation.” Open it to see a list of notices.
| On screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search… | Finds notices by property, room or tenant name. Press Enter or click Filter |
| Type dropdown | Shows one type at a time: Compliance, Tenancy Document, Contract, Credit Control Notification or Rent Change Notice. You only see the types your role can view |
| All statuses | Shows only notices with the statuses you pick (see Statuses) |
| Property filter | Limits the list to chosen properties, buildings or tags |
| Filter | Applies the search and filters. Changing a filter does nothing until you click it |
| Each row | The notice title, its type, the tenant’s name, “Sent [date]” and a status pill. Rent change notices and credit control notifications don’t show a status pill. Click a row with files to open them |
| Settings cog (top right) | Opens Tenancy Document Templates |
If nothing matches, the panel says “No notices found matching your filters.” The list shows 10 at a time; you can show 20 or 50.
The room Communications panel
Section titled “The room Communications panel”When closed, it reads “See your communications with [tenant]”. For a joint tenancy, a card for each tenant lets you switch between them.
Messages (“View all messages with [tenant]”) lists your conversations with the tenant.
| On screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| New message | Starts a conversation with the tenant. See Message Centre |
| Archived only | Shows archived conversations instead of open ones |
| Each conversation | Opens the conversation; you can also archive it |
Notices (“View all documents shared with [tenant]”) lists everything served to the selected tenant.
| On screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| Send document | Opens Send document to tenants |
| Generate report | Downloads a PDF notices report for the tenancy |
| Contract | Each tenancy agreement, with “Proposed on…”, “Signed on…” and “Guarantor signed on…” dates |
| Compliance items and tenancy documents | Each with its delivery history (below) |
| Credit control - [template] | Each credit control email, with “Sent on…” |
| Rent Change Notice | Each notice, with how it was served |
For compliance items and tenancy documents, the history can include:
| Line | Meaning |
|---|---|
| “Served on [date] via email to [address].” | COHO emailed it to that address |
| “Delivered on [date].” | The tenant’s email provider accepted it |
| “Bounced on [date].” | The email couldn’t be delivered |
| “Complaint on [date].” | The tenant marked the email as spam |
| “Email failed to send: [reason].” | COHO couldn’t send the email, for example “No email address for tenant” or “Email address is on the suppression list” |
| “Available on their COHO account since [date].” | It’s on the tenant’s dashboard |
| “Awaiting acknowledgement.” | You asked for acknowledgement and the tenant hasn’t given it yet |
| “Acknowledged on [date].” | The tenant has acknowledged it |
For a rent change notice, you’ll see “Available on their “My Rent” panel.” (if the tenant has joined COHO) and either “Served by email on [date]”, “Email delivery scheduled” or “Couldn’t serve the notice by email.”
If nothing has been sent, the panel says “No documents have been sent to this tenant.”
Send document to tenants
Section titled “Send document to tenants”Click Send document on the room’s Communications panel.
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Template (optional) | Starts from one of your saved tenancy document templates |
| Send to | Tenancy (this tenancy), Property, Building or All properties |
| Tenants | For Tenancy: everyone on the tenancy by default. Click Change to pick some of them |
| Tenancy status | For Property, Building or All properties: which tenancies to include: Active (the default), Future or Prospective |
| Title | The document’s name, up to 100 characters. Tenants see it, and the email attachment is named after it |
| Document | One file. A Word (.docx) file can contain COHO merge fields, which are filled in for each tenancy and turned into a PDF |
| Require acknowledgement from tenants | Asks tenants with a COHO account to confirm they’ve received it. Only offered if at least one tenant on this tenancy has joined COHO |
| CC, BCC and reply-to | Filled in from your Notices default settings. Click Change to edit them for this send |
| Preview | Shows the merged PDF for each tenancy. Appears when the file has merge fields |
| Next | Shows the confirmation before anything is sent |
The confirmation tells you how many tenants will get it, how many have a COHO account and will see it on their dashboard, how many emails will be sent, and how many tenants “have no email address and no COHO account and will therefore not receive this document”. Click Confirm & send.
Tenancy Document Templates
Section titled “Tenancy Document Templates”Open the settings cog on the organisation Communications panel.
| On screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show archived | Includes archived templates |
| Name | Each template |
| View | Shows the file and any merge tags found in it |
| Archive / Unarchive | Hides a template from Send document, or brings it back |
| New template | Adds a template: a Name (up to 100 characters) and a Document. COHO lists any COHO merge fields it finds |
Merge fields
Section titled “Merge fields”Merge fields are placeholders in a Word (.docx) document, such as [COHO:TENANCY:MOVE_IN_DATE], that COHO replaces with the details of each tenancy when it sends. They work in Send document and in templates.
- Only Word (.docx) files are merged. PDFs and other files are sent exactly as uploaded.
- A merged file becomes a PDF. Check it with Preview before sending.
- Fields cover your organisation, the property, the room, the tenancy, the tenants, the onboarding and the property owner. The full list is under Help & Support > AST Merge Fields in the side menu; the same fields work in contracts.
- A field with no value is left blank.
When you upload a file, COHO says how many merge fields it found, for example “There are 4 COHO merge fields in your document”, and Show lists them.
Channels and sender details
Section titled “Channels and sender details”COHO sends notifications by:
| Channel | Who gets it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Anyone with an email address | Sent from COHO. For notices, credit control and messages you can set a reply-to address, so replies come to you | |
| App notification | People using the COHO app with notifications allowed on their device | Follows each person’s notification settings |
| People with a mobile number | Used instead of SMS for many notifications (see below) | |
| SMS | People with a mobile number | Used when WhatsApp isn’t used or can’t be delivered |
WhatsApp first. For the notifications marked “WhatsApp or SMS” in What COHO sends, COHO tries WhatsApp first and sends an SMS instead if:
- the person has replied STOP to COHO’s WhatsApp messages;
- WhatsApp can’t deliver the message, or it fails;
- the person has turned off All COHO notifications;
- the person has turned off WhatsApp notifications, or that notification, under WhatsApp Settings in their own settings.
You don’t need to set anything up for this. Other text messages are sent by SMS only.
SMS sender name. Most text messages show your Company SMS Name as the sender (up to 11 letters, numbers or spaces). If it’s blank, COHO uses the first 11 characters of your organisation name. A few, such as verification codes, come from “COHO”.
Email defaults. In Company Settings you can set a default CC, BCC and reply-to for three kinds of email:
| Setting | Used for |
|---|---|
| Email communication default cc / bcc / reply-to | Emails you send from the Message Centre |
| Credit control template default cc / bcc / reply-to | Credit control emails |
| Notices default cc / bcc / reply-to | Send document, and compliance documents served by email |
Notification settings
Section titled “Notification settings”There’s no single switch that turns off notifications for your whole organisation. What gets sent is controlled in three places:
- Each person’s own settings. Every COHO user (you, your team, tenants, owners and suppliers) chooses which notifications they get, on their own Settings page. You can’t change a tenant’s settings for them.
- Feature settings. Some automatic messages have their own on/off switch or template in the feature that sends them (see What your organisation can turn on, off or customise).
- What you choose to send. Many messages, such as invites, documents and rent reminders, are only sent when you click to send them.
Each person’s own settings
Section titled “Each person’s own settings”Open your user menu (top right) and choose Settings. Under Subscriptions:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| All COHO notifications | Turns off every notification you can control. Turn it back on to see the other settings |
| Email Settings, SMS Settings, Push notification Settings | Turn a channel on or off, and set its default: Grouped, Immediately or Off |
| WhatsApp Settings (if you have a mobile number) | WhatsApp notifications is on by default, so texts COHO would send you by SMS go by WhatsApp instead. Turn it off to get SMS only, or turn off a single notification to get just that one by SMS |
| A section per area, for example Maintenance Settings, Messaging Settings, Rent Collection Settings | Turn a whole area on or off, or set each notification to Grouped, Immediately or Off for each channel |
- Grouped holds notifications for about 45 minutes and sends them together in one email (“You have [number] actions”). Immediately sends each one straight away.
- Defaults: managers get most notifications grouped. New messages, new repairs, severe maintenance issues, new viewing requests and assignments are sent immediately. Tenants, owners and suppliers get everything immediately.
- SMS is only offered for viewing invites and confirmations, rent reminders and supplier job alerts.
- You only see notifications for your role and for the features your organisation uses.
- Some notifications can’t be turned off, because the person needs them to use COHO: email verification, password resets, sign-in links and codes, invites (to join COHO, a tenancy, an onboarding, your team or a viewing), signing requests, onboarding steps for the applicant, rent reminders you send, credit control emails, rent change notices, documents you serve, and COHO’s own invoices. These still arrive even with All COHO notifications off.
Statuses
Section titled “Statuses”| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Awaiting response | On the tenant’s COHO account; you asked for acknowledgement and they haven’t given it |
| Acknowledged | The tenant acknowledged it in COHO |
| Acknowledged manually | A manager marked it acknowledged on the tenant’s behalf |
| Served | Emailed to a tenant who hasn’t joined COHO. No acknowledgement is possible |
| Error while serving | COHO couldn’t deliver it: no email and no COHO account, or the email address is blocked |
| Signed | A contract the tenant has signed |
| Not applicable | On the tenant’s COHO account, with no acknowledgement asked for |
Settings
Section titled “Settings”| Setting | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tenancy Document Templates | Organisation Communications panel, settings cog | Your reusable documents for Send document |
| Company SMS Name | Your Account > settings cog > Company Settings | The sender name on most text messages (11 characters max) |
| Email defaults (cc, bcc, reply-to) | Same | See Channels and sender details |
| Your notification settings | User menu > Settings > Subscriptions | What you personally receive |
Who can use it
Section titled “Who can use it”| To | You need |
|---|---|
| See the organisation Communications panel | View permission for at least one of Tenancies, Tenancy Agreements, Compliance or Credit Control |
| See each type of notice | Compliance: Compliance. Tenancy Document: Tenancies. Contract: Tenancy Agreements. Credit Control Notification: Credit Control. Rent Change Notice: Rent Review and Tenancies |
| See the room Communications panel | View permission for Tenants, plus Conversations or any of the above |
| See messages on the room panel | View permission for Conversations |
| Send a document | Edit permission for Tenancies |
| Open template settings / add or archive templates | View / edit permission for Tenancies |
| Mark a document as acknowledged | Edit permission for Compliance |
| Change Company Settings (SMS name, email defaults) | Edit permission for Organisation Settings |
| Unblock a tenant’s email address | Any manager in the organisation the tenant belongs to |
| Unblock a team member’s email address | The organisation owner, or the team member themselves |
Rules and automatic behaviour
Section titled “Rules and automatic behaviour”Sending documents
- Sending runs in the background. The panel shows “Sending documents… Depending on the scope, this could take a while”, then “Documents sent”.
- Property, building and all-properties sends go to every tenant on tenancies with the chosen statuses. If the property isn’t in a building, Building sends to the property only.
- Who receives it: tenants with a COHO account see it on their dashboard; tenants with an email address are emailed it as an attachment, whether or not they have an account. Tenants with neither receive nothing.
- Blocked addresses: if a tenant’s email address is blocked (see below), COHO doesn’t email them and marks the entry Error while serving.
- No resend: COHO doesn’t resend a document. To serve it again, send it again.
- Acknowledgement is only asked of tenants with a COHO account. Tenants who were only emailed show Served.
Email delivery
- Blocked addresses. When an email to an address bounces permanently, or the recipient marks a COHO email as spam, COHO stops sending any email to that address. This includes verification codes and signing links. The person’s details then show “COHO has stopped sending emails to this address.”
- Unblocking with Resolve lets COHO email the address again. It doesn’t resend emails that were missed.
- Failed sends are retried up to three times.
WhatsApp and SMS
- WhatsApp first applies to the notifications marked in the table below. If WhatsApp fails, COHO sends an SMS instead.
- Replying STOP to a COHO WhatsApp message, or turning off WhatsApp notifications in Settings, stops WhatsApp to that number; COHO sends SMS instead. Turning WhatsApp notifications back on starts WhatsApp again. When you add a lead or invite someone to a viewing, COHO warns you: “This mobile number has opted out of WhatsApp notifications.”
What COHO does automatically
- Records delivery, bounces and spam complaints against each emailed notice.
- Blocks email to addresses that bounce or complain, and clears the block if the address is removed from COHO’s list.
- Chooses WhatsApp or SMS for each text message.
- Groups notifications for people who chose Grouped.
- Converts merged Word documents to PDF, one per tenancy.
What COHO doesn’t do automatically
- send rent reminders to tenants on a schedule. A reminder goes only when you click Send a Reminder in Rent Collection, or send a credit control email;
- resend a document, notice or invite;
- send anything to tenants who have no email address and no COHO account;
- let you change a tenant’s own notification settings;
- unblock an email address. You or the person need to click Resolve.
What COHO sends
Section titled “What COHO sends”Every automatic message COHO sends, by area. “Can be turned off” means the person receiving it can switch it off in their own settings; “No” means it always goes when it’s triggered. As a rule, Actions, assignments, messages and supplier job alerts follow each person’s settings; emails and texts sent directly to an address (invites, signing links, documents, alerts) don’t. Messages you write yourself in the Message Centre aren’t listed.
To tenants and applicants
| When | Who gets it | How | Can be turned off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| You invite a tenant to join COHO, or re-invite them | The tenant | Email (“[Your organisation] has requested that you join COHO”), and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| You add someone with a COHO account to a tenancy | The tenant | Email (“[Your organisation] has added you to a tenancy”), and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| You start an onboarding, or resend the invite | Each applicant | Email (“[Your organisation] has invited you to begin a tenancy”), and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| An onboarding step needs the applicant | The applicant | An Action, with email and app notification | No |
| You save move-in details | Every tenant | Email, and WhatsApp or SMS (“Congratulations! Everything is ready for your move in to [property]”) | No |
| You send a contract for signing, or chase signers | Each tenant still to sign | Email (“Sign your tenancy agreement”), and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| A contract is proposed, expiring or expired | The tenant | An Action, with email and app notification | Yes |
| You send a document, or a compliance document is shared by email | Each tenant | Email (“You’ve been served a new [type] record for [property]”) with the file, and on their dashboard | No |
| A compliance certificate or record is shared | Tenants with a COHO account | An Action to view and acknowledge it | Yes |
| You send a rent change notice | Every active tenant | Email (“New rent change notice”) with the notice | No |
| You click Send a Reminder in Rent Collection | The lead tenant | Email, and an Action in their account | No |
| You send a credit control email | Every tenant on the tenancy | No | |
| You invite someone to a viewing | The applicant | Email (“You’ve been invited to view [property]”), and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| About 24 hours and 2 hours before a viewing | The applicant | A request to confirm attendance, by email, app, and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| A viewing is confirmed, changed, cancelled or updated | The applicant | Email, and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
| A viewing is booked at their home, if alerts are on | Current tenants | Email (“Viewing in your property [property]”) and app notification | No (set in Viewings) |
| A repair is scheduled or completed | Active tenants in the issue’s conversation | Email (“Maintenance issue scheduled” / “Maintenance issue completed”) | No |
| You or a supplier click Alert tenants on a repair | Every active tenant at the property | No | |
| Deposit information needs signing | Each tenant | Email (“Sign deposit management information”), and an Action | No |
| A GoCardless payment or mandate is needed | The tenant | No | |
| A new message from you | The tenant | Email and app notification | Yes |
To your team
| When | Who gets it | How | Can be turned off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| An Action is created (a certificate due, an onboarding step, a contract to countersign, a deposit to register, a rent review due, an inspection, a Xero sync error, and so on) | The assigned team member, or everyone who can see that area | Email and app notification, grouped by default | Yes |
| You’re assigned something | That team member | Email and app notification, immediately | Yes |
| A new message, repair conversation or viewing request | Team members in the conversation | Email and app notification, immediately | Yes |
| A severe maintenance issue is reported | Your team | Email and app notification, immediately | Yes |
| A tenant changes their email or mobile number | Your team | An Action, with email and app notification | Yes |
| You’re invited to join an organisation | The new team member | Email (“You have been invited to join [organisation]”) | No |
| A COHO invoice is due, paid, failed or overdue | Your organisation’s invoice contacts | No |
To property owners and suppliers
| When | Who gets it | How | Can be turned off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| You invite an owner | The owner | Email (“[Your organisation] has invited you to join COHO”) | No |
| A certificate is expiring, expired or missing, with Alert owner saved | The owner | Set in Compliance | |
| A certificate or maintenance issue is shared with them, or a settlement is published | Owners with a COHO account | An Action, with email and app notification | Yes |
| You publish a settlement with Send settlement PDF upon publishing on | The owner | Email (“New settlement report shared to you”) | Set per owner |
| You assign a job to a supplier, or its status changes | The supplier | Email (“New maintenance issue assigned”), and WhatsApp or SMS | Yes |
| A guarantor needs to sign, or their agreement is fully signed | The guarantor | Email, and WhatsApp or SMS | No |
What your organisation can turn on, off or customise
Section titled “What your organisation can turn on, off or customise”| Message | Where | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Credit control emails: wording, attachments, CC, BCC, reply-to | Credit Control templates | Credit control |
| Owner alerts for expiring certificates: on/off, timing, wording | Compliance, Alert owner | Compliance |
| Serving compliance documents to tenants by email | Compliance, Serve documents via email… | Compliance |
| HMO licence reminders and gas safety reminders to send to the council | Compliance settings | Compliance |
| Viewing alerts to current tenants | Viewing settings | Viewings |
| Rent-due Actions for your team | Rent Collection settings | Rent Schedules & Rent Collection |
| Rent review reminders | Rent Review settings | Rent review |
| Settlement PDF to owners | Each owner’s settings | Property owners |
| Message templates and quick replies | Message Centre | Message Centre |
| Reply-to and CC addresses, SMS sender name | Company Settings | Set your sender details |
You can’t edit the wording of COHO’s standard emails and texts, such as invites, signing requests or rent reminders. Rent reminders let you add your own text.
Related guides
Section titled “Related guides”- Communications: how-to: step-by-step instructions.
- Communications: troubleshooting: fixes for delivery problems and error messages.
- Compliance, Credit control, Rent review, Tenancy agreements, Tenancies, Viewings, Maintenance, and the Message Centre guide.