Create a new application

Our application process is fully customisable, allowing you to effortlessly tailor each journey to the exact requirements of your customers and landlords. Whether you’re dealing with tenancies in the PRS, BTR, PBSA, or co-living sectors, Yorlet Leasing can adapt to a variety of tenancy types, providing your team with a reliable and repeatable process. Each application runs on an application configuration, so make sure you have published at least one before you start.

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Create a rental application

To create an application, navigate to Applications and click New application, then follow these steps:

1. Choose an Application configuration. The rest of the form appears once you have selected one.
2. Choose an application type:
   • Standard: Full application and rent payments setup.
   • Renewal: Renewal application and rent payments setup.
   • Let only: Full application with no rent payments setup.
   • Active tenancy: Add an existing tenancy where payments and contracts have already been handled.
3. Select a building and unit. The form shows the unit’s availability so you can release it if it is not yet on the market. Ensure your compliance documents, such as the Energy Performance Certificate, Electric Safety Certificate, and Gas Safety Certificate, are uploaded and up to date.
4. If the unit has an owner, choose whether to Auto apply unit fees to this application.
5. Add your applicants. You only need a customer’s email address to get started — legal and contact details can be self-served by the customer within the Application Portal.
6. Set the Schedule: the start and end dates and the billing interval for rent collection (for example monthly, quarterly, or custom). Press Save on the schedule to continue with the rest of the form.
7. Review rental Pricing, and add any Invoice items that should appear on the first invoice only.
8. Optionally Overwrite contract dates if your customers move in or out on different days to the contract dates, and set the End of tenancy behaviour.
9. Calculate the application Payments, including the Holding deposit, Move-in payment, and Deposit, and choose a Rent collection method.
10. Select a Contract template and set your signing preferences.
11. Optionally set an Assignee and Deal assignee, then click Create.

Once you have completed this process, your customers will be automatically emailed an onboarding link giving them access to the Application Portal. You can always resend this link or generate a fresh one at any point from the application summary page.

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Unit availability

For a Standard or Let only application, the unit you pick must be lettable. After you select a unit, the form shows its letting state — To let, Coming available, Vacant, or Held — and the Available from date. A unit that is To let is already on the market. For a unit that is not, you can release it from this form:

1. Click Release to list it now. You can set Available from and the advertised rent, the same as releasing from the unit.
2. Or turn on Release when creating this application to list it when you click Create. This is on by default for Coming available units.

Occupied units that have not been released cannot be used for a new letting until you release them. Renewal, Active tenancy, and revision applications skip this check — they act on a tenancy already in the unit.

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Settings taken from the configuration

Selecting a configuration pre-fills parts of the form so your journeys stay consistent. Depending on the steps in your flow, this includes:

• The Contract template, restricted to the templates allowed by the contract step.
• The Owner signature and Owner email notification options.
• The Rent collection method.
• The End of tenancy behaviour.

You can still change these values on the application before you create it.

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Application payments

Depending on your rental application setup, customers may be prompted to make several payments in the Application Portal to secure the tenancy. You can easily configure these payments using the Calculate payments button during application creation. The default calculation is as follows, but you have the flexibility to customise these values:

• Holding deposit (one week’s rent): This payment represents a small commitment towards the tenancy. It is collected after the customer provides their legal information and agrees to your terms and conditions, privacy policy, and pre-application terms. The holding deposit adds a credit to your customer’s balance.
• Move-in payment (three weeks’ rent): A larger upfront payment towards the rent, which can be collected before or after the contract is signed.
• Deposit (five weeks’ rent): The security deposit, collected before the contract is generated.

When each payment is requested is determined by your application configuration. A payment is only collected if your flow includes the matching step, and the steps run in the order you designed them. It’s important to note that the holding deposit and move-in payment contribute as a credit towards the rental contract. You can leverage this by using the move-in payment to facilitate a large upfront financial commitment. For example, if you collect rent monthly but require a 6-month upfront commitment, setting the move-in payment to 6 months applies a credit to your customer’s account. They won’t be billed until the sixth month of their tenancy, at which point monthly billing will commence.

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Partial payments

When creating an application, you can turn on Enable partial payments to collect a portion of the rent upfront. The partial payment generates a credit grant that is applied to the customer’s future invoices. Enter the total pre-tax Amount and an optional Description.

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Share of rent

For tenancies with more than one applicant, you can control how the rent is split between them as you add each applicant to the form. For each applicant, you can:

• Set their Share of rent as a percentage. The combined share of all applicants must total 100%.
• Mark an applicant as the Lead tenant.
• Mark an applicant as a Permitted occupier — permitted occupiers do not contribute to the rent.
• Toggle Require guarantor if that applicant needs a guarantor.

By default the lead tenant carries the full rent, and Split rent equally divides it evenly across the other applicants. If you have turned on Split share equally between tenants in Settings > Leasing, this is reversed: the rent is split evenly by default, and Assign 100% to lead tenant puts it back on the lead tenant. You can change the split after the application has been created — see Update an applicant.

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Revising a tenancy

If the terms of a pending or active tenancy need to change more substantially than a lease change allows, you can create a revision. A revision is a new application that replaces the existing tenancy once it completes. To create a revision, follow these steps:

1. Open the tenancy, click the overflow menu (•••), and select Create revision.
2. Choose how to Credit note the previous tenancy:
   • No credit note: Do not issue a credit note for the previous tenancy.
   • Credit outside of Yorlet: Record a credit note that is handled outside of Yorlet.
   • Credit to customer balance: Apply the credit note to the customer’s balance for future invoices.
3. Complete the rest of the form as you would for a new application, then click Create.

The revision runs through its configuration like any other application. When it completes, the original tenancy is cancelled and replaced by the new one.

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Compliance

Yorlet ensures compliance at every step by addressing the following requirements:

• Energy Performance Certificate, Electric Safety Certificate, and Gas Safety Certificate: Before creating an application, Yorlet verifies the addition and validity of all compliance documents. These documents are presented clearly to customers at each stage of the application portal. You can manage the validity of your essential documents by navigating to Reports > Compliance.
• Pre-application terms, Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policies: Customers must accept your legal terms before making a holding deposit. The pre-application terms (also known as Reservation fee terms) are particularly important. You can add these terms to your account by navigating to Settings > Leasing > Application portal.
• Renter’s Handbook: For UK based applications, before signing the rental contract, customers are provided with a link to the Renter’s Handbook and have the option to download a PDF copy.

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Guarantors

For certain applications, you may require a guarantor to mitigate risk. Adding a guarantor is simple: after creating an application, navigate to the application page, and access the overflow menu (•••) related to the applicant. From there, select Add guarantor.

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Payment Sessions

If you need to collect an ad hoc payment for a holding deposit, move-in payment, or deposit, you can utilise Payment Sessions. This feature may come in handy if you accidentally forget to calculate an application payment or require further payment from your customer.