If your tenant stops paying rent, you can put them through delinquency automation, which you can customize based on your state guidelines. You can also create tasks within the delinquency automation, which show up in the Task Center and remind you of necessary actions that need to be taken for delinquent tenants. 

The Delinquency Automation Corporate Level offers a collection of delinquency automation tailored for different states, with workflow scenarios based on space types. These automation workflows will apply to all properties unless modified on the property settings tab.

Adding a Delinquency Automation

To add a delinquency automation

1. Click the settings icon from the leftmost navigation menu and then click Automation.
   Note: You can only modify or create a new delinquency automation workflow from your Corporate account. 
   
2. Click the state and the space type for which you need to add a new stage.
3. Click  +Add New Stage to include a stage in this delinquency automation workflow. 
   
4. On the Add/Edit page, provide the following information: 
   • Stage Name - Enter a name that clearly describes what will occur in this stage. The stage name shows up on the delinquency timeline of a tenant’s profile, so make sure you use names that can help keep track of your tenant’s delinquency. For example, the tenant turns delinquent, apply a late fee, etc. 
   • Description - Describe what will happen once this stage is triggered. For example, the tenant’s status turns delinquent, generate a fee due to a past due invoice, etc.
   • When does this stage happen - Define the number of days after an account becomes past due for the stage to trigger. You can link the stage to specific events, such as: 
     - After Delinquency start date
     - After Completed Auction
     - After Paid to Date
   • Payment Reversal - You can assign a Delinquency Anchor Stage to ensure better control over delinquency automation when a payment reversal occurs. Anchor Stage limits how far the automation progresses after a payment reversal, aligning delinquency with the unpaid invoice date. To know more about anchor stage, refer to the Delinquency Anchor stage for Payment Reversals.

5. To associate actions with this stage, click Add Action. Choose an action from the Select Action drop-down list. 
Note: This list contains two types of actions - automated actions that will be completed by Hummingbird and those which will add an action item to your do-list in the Task Center. 

• Add Fee (Automated action) - Charge a fee automatically once a tenant turns delinquent. Select the type of fee that you want to add from the Select Fee drop-down list. 
  

Note: The fees that appear here are the ones that have been configured under the Delinquency category in the Fees section of your Property Settings. 

You have an option of applying this fee once or making it recurring. You can apply it to every invoice generated in the delinquency process by clicking the checkbox. Then, click Add Action to include the late fee action in your delinquency stage. 

• Cancel Insurance (Automated action) - Automatically cancel the tenant’s insurance coverage and no longer provide protection for their stored belongings.

Note: This only applies to tenants who have purchased insurance from the property and are not using their personal insurance. 

• Change Status (Automated action) - Automatically change the tenant’s status to Delinquent or Active lien based on the delinquency stage. Select a status from the Choose Tenant Status drop-down list. 

• Create Task - Add a task to remind yourself about an action, such as creating a newspaper ad, making a collection call, etc. This task will be displayed in your to-do list in the Task Center of Hummingbird. You will be notified when this task is due for your action. You can also assign this delinquency action task to someone from your team. 

To make it a recurring task with every invoice of the delinquency process, click the checkbox as shown below:

Note: The tasks that you see in the Task Name drop-down are as per the categories set in your Task Center. If you select Collection Calls, they will show in the Collection Call category, while the other tasks will show under Delinquent Tasks.

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To know more about accessing these tasks in the Task Center, refer to Task Center Guided Tour.

• Deny Access (Automated action) - Automatically deny access and lockout a tenant from the gate of your property. With such an action, the tenant’s status will change from Current to Suspended.

Note: This action can only be used if your property has its gate integrated with Hummingbird. For properties equipped with Noke, the deny access trigger will send a gate lock-out status to Noke.

• Deny Online Payments (Automated action) - Show delinquent tenants an error message when they attempt to make an online payment. In such cases, they will have to call up the property and speak to a representative for more information.

• Generate document - Generate a document and send it to your delinquent tenant via email or SMS. Select an appropriate document from the Select Document drop-down list. 
  
   

Note: The documents that you see in the Select Document drop-down list are the ones that have been set up in the Document Manager and assigned a category of Delinquency. These can be configured by navigating to Settings. 

You can choose to send the document to your tenant through your preferred mode by clicking +Add Delivery Method. 

Note: All the generated documents and their delivery methods appear in the Notice Manager. If you do not add a delivery method and save the Generate Document stage, the selected document will get generated for all the delinquent tenants on the specified day; while if you specify a delivery method, say, Standard email or SMS, the document will be attached to an email or in case of an SMS, a link to the document will be sent to the tenants. 

The most commonly used delivery methods are standard email and SMS. The other delivery methods are based on a Simple certified integration and are used when you do not have the email addresses of tenants. 

• Certified mail - A postal service that provides additional security and proof of mailing and delivery for important or sensitive documents. It is mainly used for legal documents, essential business communications, and other critical items where proof of mailing and delivery is required.
• First class mail - A standard mail service provided by postal services, which is one of the most common and widely used services.
• First class mail with a certificate of mailing - Service that provides additional proof that an item was sent on a specific date. It is often used when you want to have evidence that you mailed a particular item, but you do not require the same level of tracking and delivery confirmation provided by Certified Mail.
• Certified mail with electronic return receipt - An enhancement to the traditional Certified Mail service, which provides proof of mailing and delivery in the form of electronic receipts.
• Standard email - Send a templated email to your tenant. Provide a subject line and the required message in your email. 

There are various Merge Fields available for you to quickly send automated messages to your tenants without having to enter their information manually every time. 

To view the merge fields, click Show Available Merge Fields. You can use a merge field by copying and pasting the text in brackets and adding it to your message. When you send the message, these placeholders will be filled with the tenant’s details.

• Overlock - The manager places a physical lock or restriction on a tenant's unit to prevent access due to non-payment or delinquency.
  Note: Access is restored on payment that brings account current.
• Schedule Auction: Set a date and time for the auction of a tenant's belongings when their account remains delinquent and overdue payments are unresolved.
• Send Message: Send a notification, reminder, or communication (Standard email or SMS) to the tenant regarding their account status, upcoming deadlines, or consequences of delinquency. You have the option to send the message to every invoice in the delinquency process, include the alternate contact or Lien holder. 
  
• Cut Lock & Space Inventory: Remove the tenant's lock from the unit (often after they default) and conduct an inventory of the unit's contents, typically in preparation for an auction or other legal actions. 

You can associate multiple actions with a stage by clicking the Add Action button. Click Save Stage to save a delinquency stage with the defined actions.

Similarly, add other stages to your delinquency workflow based on your state guidelines. 

Note: When setting up your delinquency automation, ensure that the defined days are as required because changing a day later on can trigger duplicate actions to the delinquent tenants.  For example, let us say you have set up a “Deny Access” stage for Day 6, and you want to move it to Day 8, which is associated with a Pre-lien fee; it could lead to confusion, duplicity, and discrepancy in the tenant’s billing. It is recommended that you reach out to us in such cases. 

Sample Delinquency Automation

A sample delinquency automation workflow with all the stages and actions defined, would look like this: 

Note: The stages, actions, and timelines would vary based on your state laws.

The Stage description is mentioned below the name of a stage and the number of associated actions on its right. You can Edit or Delete a particular stage and its associated actions from the corresponding vertical ellipsis and modify the properties this automation applies by clicking Edit Properties. 

Although these delinquency stages and actions depend on state laws, the delinquency process primarily includes the following stages. It is usually a 60-80-day window following which the tenant’s belongings go into auction if they still don’t make a payment. 

• Delinquent Status - A tenant’s status turns delinquent post the payment due date
• Deny access - The manager denies access to the gate of the property
• Late fee is applied - A late fee is applied to the tenant’s account
• Past Due notice - The tenant is notified through email or SMS regarding their past due status
• Pre-lien Fee - A pre-lien fee (a fee associated with sending an Intent to Lien Notice) is added to the tenant’s account
• Notice of lien - A notice of lien is sent out to the tenant and their alternate contact based on the state laws
• Overlock - The manager puts an additional lock on the space so that the tenant cannot access it
• Cut the lock and schedule auction - Break the Space lock, take pictures, and advertise the items online for the auction.

Certain communications can be made in between these steps, for example, collection calls, reminder emails, sending notices, etc. and also various other fees can be applied to the delinquent tenant’s accounts based on the state laws, for example, Lien fee, cut lock fee, Advertising fee, etc. 

Once tenants enter delinquency, they cannot exit the process until their rent balance is paid in full. Once the payment is made, their status changes to Current, and they can resume accessing their Space.