Adding a tenant

A tenant in Habitia is a person — someone who lives (or will live) in one of your units. You add the tenant first, and then you can create a lease that links them to a specific unit. No account or password is needed at this step.

1. Open the Tenants page

From the left sidebar, click Tenants. You’ll see a list of every tenant in your organization, with a filter strip at the top for lease status (Active, Pending signature, Expired, etc.).

2. Click Add tenant

The button sits in the top-right. A form opens in a modal.

3. Fill in the basics

Required:

• First name
• Last name

Optional but useful:

• Email — needed if you want to invite the tenant to the portal later.
• Phone — for SMS reminders and general contact.
• Date of birth — used for some applications and background-check workflows.
• Emergency contact name and Emergency contact phone.
• Notes — anything internal you want to remember (e.g., preferred contact times, pet info, employer).

4. Save

Click Save tenant. The tenant appears at the top of the list.

Note: Adding a tenant does not create a portal account, send any email, or charge anything. It’s a record on your side only. The tenant won’t know they’re in Habitia until you invite them to the portal or send them a lease.

What’s next

Once the tenant exists, you can:

• Create a lease for them on a specific unit — the next natural step.
• Invite them to the tenant portal so they can sign documents, pay rent, and submit maintenance requests.
• Send them a lease for signature if you’ve already drafted one.

Bulk inviting tenants to the portal

If you have many tenants already added with email addresses, the Tenants page header shows an Invite N to portal button. Click it to send portal invitations to every tenant who has an email and doesn’t already have an account.

Tip: Tenants invited in the last 24 hours are automatically skipped — running the bulk invite repeatedly won’t spam anyone.

Adding a co-tenant to an active lease

If you need to add another tenant to a lease that’s already active — a spouse who moved in later, a roommate who joined after signing — you can do it directly without restarting the signing flow.

1. Open the lease (Leases → click the row).
2. On the Overview tab, find the Co-tenants card.
3. Click Add co-tenant.
4. Search by name or email in the picker. The list only shows tenants from your organization who aren’t already on this lease.
5. Click the one you want. They’re added immediately.

To remove a co-tenant later, click the × on their row in the same card and confirm. Removing them from the lease does not delete the tenant record — they stay in your Tenants list.

Note: This adds the person to the lease roster only. It doesn’t generate a signed amendment, send a portal invite, or change the rent. If you want any of those, handle them separately (portal invite is on the tenant detail page; an amendment is your own document).

The tenant has to exist before you can add them. If they’re new, add them on the Tenants page first, then come back to the lease.

For leases that are still in draft or pending signature, use the Signing tab’s signer roster instead — that flow sends them an invite to sign the lease properly. The Co-tenants card on the Overview is the right place once a lease is already active.

Editing or deleting a tenant

• Pencil icon on any row → edit the tenant’s contact info.
• Trash icon → delete the tenant. This is blocked if the tenant has an active lease — end the lease first.