Property contacts and billing contacts

Not everyone connected to a property will ever log in. The owner might live in another state and rent the place out. The resident might be 82 and prefer a phone call over an app. HomeHerald handles both with contacts on file - person records that live on the property itself, with no account needed.

Contacts vs. residents - the difference in one line

• A resident has an account and has claimed the property. They see the ledger, pay dues, book amenities.
• A contact on file is someone the HOA knows about - a name, an optional email, an optional phone, and a role. No account, no login, no portal.

A property can have both at once: a tenant who claimed the home and lives there, plus the owner on file as a contact.

Adding a contact

Three ways, same result:

From the Members area (fastest for one-offs)

1. Go to Members in the admin sidebar
2. Click the Property Contacts tab
3. Click Add Contact
4. Enter a name (email and phone are optional), pick a role - Owner, Tenant, or Other
5. Search for the property and select it
6. Save

From the property itself

1. Go to Properties, open the property, click Modify
2. Scroll to Contacts on File
3. Click Add Contact and fill in the same details

From import

When you import your property list, the owner name and email columns automatically become Owner contacts on each property. Nothing extra to do.

Contacts don’t need an email

A name alone is enough. This is exactly for the resident who will never touch a digital system: put them on file with a phone number, and you’ll always know who’s in the home. They won’t get emails (there’s nothing to send to), but paper still works - letters reach them at the property, or at a mailing address you put on file - and their phone number is right there when you need to call.

Billing contacts

Any contact can be marked as the billing contact for a property. One per property - setting a new one replaces the old one.

Here’s the rule that matters:

When a property has a billing contact, dues and billing notices go to the billing contact instead of the resident.

Not in addition to - instead of. The resident living in the home stops getting payment reminders, and the billing contact starts. Everything else (announcements, amenity confirmations, request updates) still flows to the resident as normal.

This is built for rentals: the tenant claims the home and uses the portal for day-to-day life, while the landlord - on file as an Owner contact with the billing flag - gets every dues notice. The tenant never sees a payment reminder for a bill that isn’t theirs.

If the billing contact has a HomeHerald account, notices arrive in-app, by email, and by push like any other notification. If they don’t have an account, notices arrive by email. A billing contact with no email can’t receive notices, so HomeHerald falls back to notifying the resident rather than letting the property go silent.

One owner, many properties

The same person can be the billing contact on as many properties as they own. A landlord with five rentals shows up five times in Property Contacts - once per property - and gets dues notices for each one.

Landlords can pay, too

A billing contact with a HomeHerald account gets a Properties You Pay For section in their portal: every property they’re the billing contact for, each with its balance, a one-time Pay Now button, and its own AutoPay enrollment. One card can put every rental on AutoPay.

Physical mail follows the billing contact too

Every contact can carry a mailing address - for the landlord in another city, the snowbird owner, anyone who doesn’t get mail at the property. It’s optional, and it’s all-or-nothing: street, city, state, and ZIP together.

When you send formal letters (Communicate > Formal Letters), a Mail Billing Contacts toggle controls the routing. With it on (the default), any property with a billing contact mails that person’s letter to them - at their own mailing address if one is on file, otherwise addressed to them at the property. The recipient list shows exactly where each letter will go before you send, so there are no surprises. Flip the toggle off and everything mails to the resident at the property, like before.

So the late-dues escalation reaches the right person on every channel: email goes to the billing contact, and the paper letter lands in their actual mailbox - even if that mailbox is three states away.

Reaching billing contacts in bulk

Billing contacts show up as their own rows in both Email Blast and Formal Letters - amber entries with a BILLING badge, right in the recipient list, plus a Billing Contacts quick-select pill next to All Residents and Late Dues. What you see selected is exactly who receives the send; nobody is included invisibly.

• Email Blast lists every billing contact that has an email on file. Select the pill (or individual rows) and they get the email directly - no account needed.
• Formal Letters lists every billing contact. Each row shows exactly where the letter will mail: their mailing address if one is on file, otherwise the property. This also means a vacant property can still receive mail - no resident required, the owner on file is letterable directly.
• In-App messages can’t reach contacts (there’s no account to deliver to), so they don’t appear there.

What happens if a contact signs up later

If someone on file signs up for HomeHerald with the same email, their contact profile connects to their new account automatically at claim time. You’ll see a Signed up badge on their contact entry. Nothing is lost or duplicated - the roster entry and the account become one person.

Connecting is not claiming: a contact whose profile connects to an account does not become the resident and does not take over the property. Claiming only happens when someone signs up and claims the home themselves.

Claiming a residence as a tenant

For rentals, the usual sequence is:

1. Admin adds the owner as a contact on file (role Owner, billing contact if they pay the dues)
2. The tenant signs up with the community join code and claims the property - they become the resident
3. The property now shows the tenant as the resident and the owner under Contacts on File

The tenant gets the full portal. The owner gets the bills. Nobody gets confused.

Where contacts show up

• Members > Property Contacts - every contact in the community, searchable, with role and billing badges
• The property’s quick view - a Contacts on File card under the resident
• The property editor - where you add, edit, or remove them

Contacts on file never appear in the resident directory. The directory is for people with accounts who chose to be visible; contacts are admin roster data.

Common gotchas

“I set a billing contact but the resident says they’re still getting reminders.” Check that the billing contact has an email or a connected account. A billing contact with neither can’t receive notices, so HomeHerald keeps notifying the resident instead.

“I added the owner as a contact - why can’t they log in?” A contact isn’t an account. If the owner wants portal access, they need to sign up like anyone else; their contact profile will connect automatically if the emails match.

“Who gets the dues notice when there’s no billing contact?” The resident, exactly as before. Billing contacts only change anything for properties where you set one.

Where to go next

• Linking residents to a property - the resident and household side
• Dues Chaser - the automation that sends the payment reminders
• Glossary - claimed, contact on file, signed up, and the rest