Property owners: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every property owner task, roughly in the order you’ll need them. For what each option means, see Property owners; for problems, see Property owners: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’ve added a property and need to say who owns it	Set up a property’s ownership
Finances says some properties have no ownership information	Set up a property’s ownership
You’ve signed up a new landlord, or you’re talking to one	Add a property owner
Your fee, VAT or fee timing has changed, or the type is wrong	Change the management fee or ownership type
A property has been sold, or was linked to the wrong landlord	Change a property’s owner
A landlord’s email, phone or address has changed	Update an owner’s details
A landlord wants to log in and see their properties	Invite an owner to COHO
You want to control what an owner is sent and sees	Choose what an owner receives
You’re about to settle with an owner for the first time	Set the settlement start date
An owner leaves money with you for small costs	Set up a float and Top up a float
You need to contact a landlord	Message an owner
You’ve stopped working with a landlord, or have a duplicate	Archive an owner
A landlord should no longer see a property	Stop an owner seeing a property
You want a list of landlords and fees	Export your owners

Set up a property’s ownership

Do this when you add a property, before you add tenancies, financial items or deposits.

Before you start: know whether you own, manage or lease the property, your management fee, and the landlord’s name and email address. You need edit permission for Property Ownership.

1. Open the property and go to its Property Ownership panel. (Or, on the Finances panel warning “You have {n} properties with no ownership information…”, click View.)
2. Click Add property ownership information.
3. Choose Owned, Managed or Master lease.
4. For Managed:
   1. Enter the Management fee percentage.
   2. Answer Are you VAT registered?. If Yes, answer Add VAT to management fee?. Check the line underneath, for example “Management fees of 10%+VAT on the rent”.
   3. Choose When is management fee charged?: On rent paid or On rent due. For On rent paid, also choose When is management fee earned?.
5. For Master lease, enter the Guaranteed rent amount, how often, and the day it’s paid.
6. Under Child company (eg for an SPV), leave No child company, or choose an Existing company or New child company. You only see New child company if you also have edit permission for Finances.
7. For managed and master lease, under Landlord details, choose Existing landlord and search for them, or New landlord and fill in their details (see Add a property owner).
8. Optionally add Ownership Notes & Files.
9. Click Add.

What happens next: the panel shows a summary, such as “Property is managed with a 10% fee on rent paid, VAT not applicable”. COHO adds any rent items for the property to Finances, and management fees on managed properties from now on.

Tip

For a landlord with several properties, add them once, then choose Existing landlord on each property. Adding them as a New landlord each time creates duplicate owners.

Add a property owner

Do this when you take on a landlord, or want to record one you’re talking to, before linking a property.

Before you start: you need the landlord’s name and email address.

1. Go to Menu > Property Owners and click Add property owner.
2. Choose Individual or Company. For a company, enter the Company name and a contact name.
3. Enter the first and last name, Email address, Contact number and Address.
4. Optionally set a Status (for example Lead or Live), Property Opportunity and Revenue Opportunity, and add Owner Notes & Files.
5. Choose your settlement and sharing options (see Choose what an owner receives).
6. Click Add.

What happens next: the owner appears in the list. Link them to a property with Existing landlord in the property’s ownership form.

Change the management fee or ownership type

Do this when your fee, VAT position or fee timing changes, or the ownership type was set wrongly.

Before you start: to change who money belongs to, create and approve any outstanding settlements first. You need edit permission for Property Ownership, and for Finances to choose Regenerate.

1. On the property’s Property Ownership panel, click Edit ownership.
2. Change the type, Management fee, VAT or When is management fee charged?.
3. Under Financial Items, choose:
   • Regenerate to rebuild the property’s unsettled rent and fee items with the new settings; or
   • Leave as is to keep existing items and apply the change from now on.
4. Click Update.

What happens next: with Regenerate, COHO shows “Regenerating financial items…” and rebuilds the items. If some can’t be changed, it says “The property ownership has been updated but not all related financial items could be corrected.”

Caution

If you switch a property from Owned to Managed, choose Regenerate. Otherwise rent already recorded stays as your own income and won’t reach the owner’s settlements.

Change a property’s owner

Do this when a property is sold to a new landlord, or was linked to the wrong owner.

Before you start: create and approve all settlements with the current owner, and check the new owner’s email address.

1. On the property’s Property Ownership panel, click Edit ownership.
2. Under Landlord details, choose Existing landlord and pick the new owner, or New landlord and add them.
3. Under Financial Items, choose Regenerate to move unsettled rent items to the new owner, or Leave as is.
4. Click Update.
5. Invite the new owner to COHO if they want to log in.

What happens next: the previous owner keeps their record, history and settlements, and stops seeing this property. Costs you added yourself, such as maintenance invoices, stay with the previous owner.

Caution

Don’t use Edit owner for a new landlord: it changes the existing landlord’s own details, on all their properties.

Update an owner’s details

Do this when a landlord’s contact details, address or status change.

1. Go to Property Owners, click View on the owner, then Edit. (Or use Edit owner on one of their properties.)
2. Change the details and click Update.

What happens next: the change applies to all the owner’s properties, statements and contract merge fields.

Caution

Changing the Email address disconnects the owner’s COHO account from this record and resets their invite. Invite them again at the new address. They must join or sign in with that address.

Invite an owner to COHO

Do this when a landlord wants their own login to see their properties.

Before you start: link the owner to their managed or master lease properties first, or they’ll have nothing to see. Check their email address: they must join with it.

1. Open the owner (Property Owners > View), or the property’s Property Ownership panel.
2. Click Invite property owner.
3. Check the Email address and Mobile number, then click Send.

What happens next: COHO emails the owner “[Your organisation] has invited you to join COHO”, with a link and invite code. The panel says “[Name] has been invited”, with a link you can send them yourself. When they’ve joined, the panel says they have access to an ownership dashboard.

If they haven’t joined after four days, COHO gives you an Action to remind them. To resend, click Resend invite (available an hour after the last invite), or send them the link shown on the panel.

Note

If the owner already has a COHO account with the same email, for example as a supplier, they sign in with it and can switch between their accounts.

Choose what an owner receives

Do this when you set up an owner, or they ask for more or less from you.

1. Go to Property Owners, click View on the owner, then Edit.
2. To email them each statement when you publish it, tick Send settlement PDF upon publishing.
3. Under Automatically share all maintenance issues with owner?, choose Yes to share every new issue with them, or No to share only the ones you choose.
4. Click Update.

What happens next: the owner’s card shows “Sent by email upon publishing” (or “Not sent automatically upon publishing”). To alert owners about expiring certificates, use Alert owner in Compliance.

Set the settlement start date

Do this once for each owner, before their first settlement.

1. Go to Property Owners and click View on the owner.
2. Under Settlements, click the pencil next to Start from.
3. Under Start settlements from, choose the date. “No financial items with an invoice date before this date will be available for settlement.”
4. Click Save.

What happens next: the owner appears under Owners to process in Finances. To create and send settlements, see Finances & reports.

Set up a float

Do this when an owner leaves money with you to pay small costs.

Before you start: the owner needs at least one property linked to them that isn’t already in a float.

1. Go to Property Owners, click View on the owner, and scroll to Floats.
2. Click Add float.
3. Choose the Properties it covers. Optionally add a Name and a Preferred balance.
4. Click Create.

What happens next: the float appears with a balance of Not set. Top it up to give it a balance.

Top up a float

Do this when an owner sends you money for their float, or you’ll take it from their next settlement.

1. On the owner’s Floats, click View on the float, then Top up.
2. Enter the Amount and, optionally, Comments.
3. Under Have you received the money already?:
   • Yes: enter When was it paid?.
   • No: the top-up will be taken from the owner’s money in a settlement.
4. Under Create settlement?, choose Yes or No. If the money hasn’t arrived and you choose Yes, pick Draft only, Approve or Approve & Publish.
5. Click Top-up.

What happens next: if you created a settlement, COHO shows its progress (“Settlement processing queued…”). The balance goes up when the top-up is paid: straight away if you’ve received the money, otherwise when the settlement is approved. To pay a cost from the float, see Finances & reports.

To stop using a float, click Archive on it. Nothing is deleted, and you can Un-archive it.

Message an owner

1. Go to Property Owners and click View on the owner.
2. Click Send message, choose how to send it (COHO Messenger, Email, SMS, or WhatsApp if connected), write it and send.

What happens next: the message is kept in the conversation. Click COHO Messenger Conversation to open it later. To message all owners at once, use the message tool on your dashboard and choose All property owners.

Archive an owner

Do this when you no longer work with a landlord, or you have a duplicate record.

1. Go to Property Owners.
2. Click Archive next to the owner, then Archive to confirm.

What happens next: the owner leaves the list and settlement lists. To see them, switch on Archived only; click Restore to bring them back. Archiving doesn’t unlink their properties: change the property’s owner first if needed.

Stop an owner seeing a property

COHO has no switch to turn off an owner’s login. To stop a landlord seeing a property:

1. Settle anything outstanding with them.
2. On the property’s Property Ownership panel, change the owner (see Change a property’s owner), or click Remove ownership and add the ownership again without them.

What happens next: the property drops out of their account. Remove ownership also deletes the property’s unsettled rent items, so use it with care.

Export your owners

1. Go to Property Owners.
2. Click Export all.

What happens next: COHO downloads property-owners.csv, with each owner’s name, email, number and archive date, and one row per managed or master lease property with its management fee.