The business that holds the lease — how it sees the portal, and why Alfred stays out of its issues.
This article explains who your business tenant is in Abodient, how you add or change them, and what changes compared with a home. A business tenant is called the occupier. The example is Pennyroyal Provisions Limited at Unit 3 Cordwainer Row. For the lease itself, see The Lease tab.
The occupier is a company, not a person. The Lease tab shows the company name and company number, with a named contact underneath. The contact is the person you deal with day to day.
The Properties list shows the company name in the Tenant column. A property with no lease has no occupier yet, so add the lease first.
The occupier sees a portal once they accept. Until then the card shows Invited, and then On portal when they have joined.
Once a contact is recorded, Add contact becomes Manage access. It opens a window where you can change their name, email or phone, see whether they have joined, and press Remove occupier.
To change the company itself, click the lease figures in Current lease and edit Occupier (business) and Company number. When one business replaces another, press End lease, then New lease for the new company. The old lease stays under past leases on the same tab.
They sign in to the Occupier portal. It is the tenant portal, worded for a business. It has five pages: Home, Issues, Messages, Documents and Rent. Home opens on Your lease: rent, start date, end date, repair basis, rent deposit and security of tenure, with their active issues beside it.
Issues is where they report a problem and follow it. Documents has My lease and Safety & building, and they see only what you have shared. They never see your finances or your compliance list. A notice you record and share appears on their Home page.
Rent shows what they pay, with VAT added if you charge it, and which quarters are paid.
The occupier presses Report an issue in the portal and describes the problem. Here Pennyroyal reports water coming through the stockroom ceiling. It appears at the top of the Issues list on the property's Maintenance tab, next to anything you log yourself; it is the first row in the picture.
Open it to see who raised it, the steps so far and the buttons to Choose contractor or Mark completed.
The occupier follows the same issue in their Issues page and chats with you there.
Whose repair it is depends on the lease, not on you. The Repair basis chip on the Lease tab tells you. Under a full repairing and insuring lease the occupier repairs the whole of the premises, and you insure the building and recharge the premium. Read the lease before you send a contractor.
The Alfred switch at the top of the Maintenance tab works as it does for a home. With it off, every issue comes to you. With it on, Alfred looks at the lease you uploaded to decide whose repair it is. He also asks the occupier for a visit time that disrupts trading least, such as before opening or after closing. Upload the lease first, or he has nothing to go on and asks you.
The occupier pays by the quarter or the year, not monthly, and their Rent page includes VAT if you have opted to tax. Rent, VAT and finance covers how you record it and chase arrears. Abodient does not send VAT invoices or hold service charge accounts for a shop.
Notices between you and the occupier are in Key dates and notices.
A business lease sits outside the rules for homes. There is no Renters' Rights Act paperwork, no tenancy deposit scheme, no Right to Rent check and no gas safety certificate. The Lease tab has none of those rows, and Abodient does not send you reminders for them. Commercial compliance lists what does apply.
