Setting your fee policy
When a tenant pays rent online, Stripe takes a processing fee plus Habitia’s small platform fee. You decide who pays it: the tenant (the fee is added to what they pay) or you, the landlord (the fee is deducted from your payout). Set independently for ACH (bank transfer) and card — most landlords absorb the cheap ACH fee but pass the expensive card fee to the tenant.
Note: This article is about Stripe/Habitia processing fees on rent payments. It’s not about late fees, which are something completely different.
How much are the fees?
The numbers Habitia shows on this page (current as of writing — verify in-app for the latest):
| Method | Total fee per $1,000 rent |
|---|---|
| ACH (bank transfer) | $6.00 (1%, capped) |
| Credit / debit card | $34.30 (3.1% + $0.30) |
ACH is roughly 6× cheaper than card for the same payment.
1. Open Settings → Rent Payments
Open Settings → Rent Payments, scroll down to the Processing fees card.
Note: Only the organization admin can change fee policy. Other roles see the section in read-only mode.
2. Choose who pays for each method
Two rows, one per method. Each has a two-option segmented control:
- Tenant pays (default) — the fee is added on top of the rent at checkout. You receive the full rent in your payout.
- Landlord pays — the fee is deducted from your payout. Tenants see only the rent amount.
Click the option you want. Habitia shows a confirmation dialog explaining what’ll change starting with the next charge of that method. Click Yes, switch to confirm.
3. The typical pattern
Most landlords on Habitia use:
- ACH: Landlord pays. $6 on a $1,000 rent is small enough that you’d rather absorb it than annoy the tenant with a “convenience fee.”
- Card: Tenant pays. Card fees are real money. If a tenant chooses to pay by card instead of ACH for convenience, the convenience is on them.
This nudges tenants toward ACH (cheaper for them too) without forcing it.
4. Per-lease overrides
You can override the org-level policy for an individual lease. Open the lease detail page, find the Fee policy card. Each method shows its current setting (with Org default noted) and lets you set a lease-specific value.
Note: Per-lease overrides can only be set before the lease is activated — during Draft, Pending signature, or Pending review status. Once active, the lease is locked to its current policy.
Use lease-level overrides for one-off cases:
- A long-term tenant you don’t want to surprise with a new fee schedule.
- A higher-rent tenant where absorbing the card fee is part of the deal.
What tenants see
- Tenant pays — the checkout page shows the rent amount, then a separate “Processing fee: $X” line, then a “Total” line. They know exactly what they’re paying.
- Landlord pays — they see only the rent amount. The fee is invisible to them.
What’s next
- Late fees — the other kind of fee on a lease (auto-posted to the ledger).
- Reviewing payment receipts — what tenants and you see after a payment goes through.