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Rent collection
How autopay works
How a tenant turns on autopay, when rent is pulled, and what happens if a payment fails.
The short answer
In Aptoria, a tenant links a bank account, makes it their default, and turns on Autopay rent. Rent is then pulled on each lease due date and confirmed by email. If a bank payment fails, Aptoria notifies the tenant and prompts manual payment; any NSF fee is sent to the landlord for approval rather than applied automatically.
Workflow at a glance
1
Setting up autopay
2
Paying without autopay
3
When a payment fails
Setting up autopay
Autopay lets rent be pulled from a tenant's bank account automatically each time it is due, so there is nothing to remember on the 1st. It runs on a bank account the tenant links once with Plaid — no card details to re-enter every month.
Autopay is a tenant-side setting. As the landlord you can turn on rent collection and enable the feature, but the tenant links their own bank and authorizes the recurring pull.
1
In the app, go to Settings → Bank accounts (Plaid) and link a bank.
2
Once a bank is linked, set it as the default account.
3
Toggle "Autopay rent" on for the default account.
4
Rent is then pulled automatically on each due date, and an email confirmation goes out for every pull.
Paying without autopay
Autopay is optional. If it is off, the tenant can still pay each period on demand through the in-app payment flow (card or US bank account, processed by Stripe). Autopay just removes the monthly step for people who would rather not think about it.
Autopay can be turned off at any time from the same Bank accounts screen.
When a payment fails
Bank payments can be returned — insufficient funds, a closed account, a decline. When that happens Aptoria marks the payment late, notifies the tenant that the auto-pay did not go through, and follows up over the next several days so they can pay manually. Follow-ups escalate in tone but are rate-limited and respect quiet hours; after a few attempts the automatic follow-ups stop, so a struggling tenant is not chased endlessly.
A returned bank payment can also lead to an NSF (returned-payment) fee. Aptoria does not apply that fee on its own — it surfaces it to the landlord to approve or dismiss in the approval queue. And a hard reversal, like a chargeback or an ACH return, deactivates the standing autopay authorization so nothing keeps re-pulling against a closed or disputed account.
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