Rent Review: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every Rent Review task. For what each option means, see Rent Review; for problems, see Rent Review: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’ve got a “Rent review due” Action	Deal with a rent review Action
You want to see which rents are due	Find rents that are due for review
A tenant’s rent is going up, or you’re holding it	Review a tenancy rent
You want to send the tenant a notice through COHO	Serve a rent change notice
You need a Section 13 notice (Form 4A)	Download a Section 13 form
You want to set the rent you’re aiming for on a room	Set a room target rent
A review date is wrong, or you want the next review sooner or later	Change the next review date
You entered a review by mistake	Edit or remove a review
You scheduled the wrong rent change	Cancel a scheduled rent change
You want reviews yearly (or 6-monthly), or reminders earlier	Set up Rent Review settings
You don’t use rent reviews and want the Actions to stop	Turn rent review reminders off
You just need to change the rent, with no review	Change the rent in Rent Collection

Find rents that are due for review

1. From your dashboard, click Menu > Rent Review.
2. Click Tenancies to Review for tenants’ rents, or Units to Review for room target rents.
3. Change the due filter if needed: Due only shows reviews due today or earlier; Due within 2 weeks, 4 weeks or 8 weeks look ahead; No due date finds tenancies or rooms with no next review set.
4. Choose properties in the property filter, or click a column heading to sort. Sorting by Target % shows the rents furthest below target first.
5. Click View to open a review card, or Export (CSV) to download the list.

Review a tenancy rent

Do this when a tenant’s rent is due for review, whether it’s going up, down or staying the same.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Rent Review. The tenancy must be active. If you’ll schedule a rent change and the tenancy already has one waiting, cancel it first. If you’ll serve a notice, check every tenant has an email address.

1. Open the review card: on the Rent Review panel click Tenancies to Review, then View on the tenancy. (Or open the room page and its Rent Review panel.)
2. Click Review Tenancy Rent.
3. Enter the New tenancy target rent. To hold the rent, leave it at the current amount.
4. Check the review dates. To set them yourself, click Change and pick the Review date and Next review date.
5. To change what the tenant pays, tick Schedule rent change and choose the Rent change date. Check the rent records COHO shows, and adjust them if needed.
6. Optional: upload a Rent change notice (see Serve a rent change notice).
7. Optional: tick Also review room target rent to update the room’s target rent at the same time.
8. Click Save.

What happens next: the review is added to the history and the next review date moves on. Any Rent review due Action for the tenancy clears. If you ticked Schedule rent change, the rent changes now (for today or a past date) or on the date you chose, and the tenancy summary shows “Rent will increase to [amount] on [date]” until then. The tenant is only told if you uploaded a notice.

Caution

If you don’t tick Schedule rent change, the tenant’s rent stays the same. The review is only a record.

Serve a rent change notice

Do this when you want COHO to email the tenants a notice, such as a completed Section 13 form or your own letter, as part of a review.

Before you start: every active tenant on the tenancy needs an email address. Prepare the notice as a PDF, or as a Word (.docx) document. A Word document can use COHO merge fields.

1. Follow Review a tenancy rent up to step 5.
2. Under Rent change notice, upload your document. For a Word document, COHO says how many merge fields it found; click Show to see them.
3. Click Save.

What happens next: each tenant gets an email with the notice attached, and sees it on their rent panel in their COHO account for 30 days. The notice appears as a Rent Change Notice in the room’s Communications panel, which is your record of when it was served.

Caution

The notice goes as soon as you click Save, and can’t be recalled. Check the document first.

Download a Section 13 form

Do this when you want to propose a rent increase with the prescribed Form 4A.

1. Open the tenancy’s review card (Tenancies to Review > View, or the room’s Rent Review panel).
2. Click Section 13 Form. A PDF downloads.
3. Open it in a PDF editor and check every field. Fill in the proposed new rent, the date it starts, anything left blank, and sign and date it.
4. To serve it through COHO, upload the completed form as the Rent change notice when you review the tenancy rent.

Tip

COHO fills in the landlord’s details from the property’s ownership record, and your organisation as agent only when the property is managed for an owner. If these are wrong or blank, update the property owner or your organisation details, then download the form again.

Set a room target rent

Do this to record the rent you’re aiming for on a room, for example after checking the market. It doesn’t change what a current tenant pays.

1. On the Rent Review panel, click Units to Review, then View on the room. (Or open the room page and its Rent Review panel.)
2. Click Review Rent.
3. Enter the New Target Rent.
4. Leave Update the rent listing amount for the room ticked to change the room’s advertised rent too, or untick it to keep the advertised rent.
5. Optional: enter the Current Minimum Viable Rent.
6. Check the review dates, or click Change to set them yourself.
7. Click Save.

What happens next: the room’s target rent and review dates update, and the Target % for its tenancy is worked out against the new target. To change the current tenant’s rent as well, review the tenancy rent.

Deal with a rent review Action

A Rent review due Action appears a few weeks before a review is due (4 weeks unless you’ve changed it).

1. Open the Action from your Actions list. It opens the tenancy or room review form.
2. Fill it in as in Review a tenancy rent or Set a room target rent.
3. Click Save.

What happens next: the next review date moves on, and the Action completes itself shortly after. You need edit permission for Rent Collection to complete the Action from the Actions list; otherwise it says “You do not have the permissions necessary to complete this action”. You can still review the rent from the Rent Review panel.

Note

There’s no button to dismiss this Action without a review. You can snooze it, or turn reminders off for the property.

Change the next review date

When you’re doing a review: click Change on the review form and set the Next review date (and the Review date if needed). Click Use property defaults to go back.

To correct a past review’s date:

1. Open the review card and click the edit (pencil) icon on the review.
2. Change the Review Date and click Update.

What happens next: if it’s the latest review, the last review date updates and the next review date is worked out again from your review interval.

Tip

For a tenancy that has never been reviewed in COHO (for example a historic tenancy showing a review due years ago), record a review with today’s date, or with the date of the last real review, so the next review date is right.

Edit or remove a review

1. Open the review card.
2. To correct it, click the edit (pencil) icon, change the Review Date, Opening Rent or Target Rent, and click Update.
3. To delete it, click the bin icon and confirm.

What happens next: the history and review dates are updated. Editing or removing a review doesn’t change the tenancy’s rent, a scheduled rent change, a notice already sent, or the room’s target or advertised rent. To undo a rent change, see Cancel a scheduled rent change.

Cancel a scheduled rent change

Do this when a rent change scheduled through a review (or through Rent Collection) is wrong, or you need to schedule a different one.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Rent Collection. This works only before the change date.

1. Open the room page and find the tenancy summary, which says “Rent will increase to [amount] on [date]” (or decrease).
2. Click the bin icon beside it, and confirm.
3. Check the rent records in the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel, and correct any that used the new amount.

What happens next: the rent stays at the current amount. The review stays in the history; remove it too if it was a mistake.

Set up Rent Review settings

1. Open a property page and scroll to Services.
2. On the Rent Review card, click Configure.
3. Choose Manual.
4. Set How regularly do you want to carry out rent reviews? and How many weeks before it’s due should we remind you?.
5. To use the same settings everywhere, tick Save for all properties (or Save for all properties in this building).
6. Click Save, and confirm if asked.

What happens next: future reviews use the new interval to set the next review date. Existing next review dates don’t change until the next review. Reminders follow the new number of weeks.

Note

You need edit permission for Rent Collection to see the Rent Review card under Services.

Turn rent review reminders off

1. Open a property page and scroll to Services.
2. On the Rent Review card, click Configure.
3. Choose Off. Tick Save for all properties to turn it off everywhere.
4. Click Save, and confirm if asked.

What happens next: open Rent review due Actions for those properties clear, and no new ones are created. The organisation Rent Review panel still lists their rooms and tenancies.