Creating a delinquency report in Appfolio & sending notices

In real estate leasing, 'delinquency' refers to a situation where a tenant fails to fulfill their financial obligations under the lease agreement, typically by not paying rent or other charges (e.g., late fees, utilities, or maintenance fees) by the due date.

Delinquency can lead to further actions such as late payment notices, penalties, or even eviction proceedings, depending on the terms of the lease agreement and local landlord-tenant laws.

Here's what to do:

Set up Reminder Notifications

This is a monthly process, and you need to conduct two monthly checks:

Once on the 5th of every month, to create Deliquency Reports and send 'Notice of Late Rent' documents.
Once on the 10th of every month, to send 'Notice to Vacate'

Please create two calendar events on your Google Calendar. Each event should repeat monthly. Configure the calendar events to send you an email reminder on the morning of the 5th and the 10th of each month, so that you never forget to complete this process.

Creating Delinquency Report

On the 5th of every month, we generate the 'Delinquency (As Of)' report from the reports section of Appfolio.

2. Once the report is created, delinquent rent will be visible under 'Accounts Receivable.'

If there are no delinquencies, then you may skip the rest of this process.
If anyone has NOT paid their rent, then the next step is to send late rent notices to tenants, urging them to pay their dues promptly to avoid incurring late fees.

Sending Notice of Late Rent Breach of Lease

The Notice of Late Rent Breach of Lease is shown below. We need to generate it in Zipform, fill it out, and send it to the PM.

Pull up the property, generate this form. Make sure the following information is complete on the form:

Tenant Name(s)
Property address
Check box 1.a and enter the month where the rent payment was missed.
- E.g. if it is June 6th, 2025 and the tenant has not paid June rent, enter 'June 2025'
2.a:
- enter unpaid rent amount
- $25 per day
- {{Month}} 5th, {{YEAR}} e.g. June 5th 2025
- check 'electronically through the online portal' as shown below.
Make sure that property address also appears at the top of page 2.

Preparing the document for signatures

Log in to DocuSign and upload the document
Add the recipient name and email address. Here, we will add the PM's name and email address. Click next to proceed.

Add the "sign" and "date signed" fields for the PM on page 2. Click the send button to DocuSign.

After getting it signed by the PM, attach the document with email template and send it to the tenants

Email template for late rent payment

Please send the template below along with the late rent notice to the tenants via AppFolio. Be sure to copy Adrienne or the PM based on the appropriate portfolio.

Subject: Notice of Late Rent - {{PROPERTY ADDRESS}}

Dear [Tenant's Name],

I hope this message finds you well. This is a formal notice regarding your rent payment for the property located at [Property Address], which is currently overdue.

As of today, [Current Date], we have not received your rent payment for the month of [Month/Year].

Please remit the outstanding rent amount of [Amount Owed] immediately. You can make the payment through your online portal.

Failure to address this matter promptly may result in additional late fees as outlined in your lease agreement, and it may also initiate further actions, including but not limited to, termination of your lease and eviction proceedings.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this important issue.

Notice to Vacate

On the 10th of every month, you'll need to check this again. If tenants have still not paid, then we must send them a "Notice to Vacate".

Pull up the 'Notice to Vacate' document in Zipforms, and fill it out as shown below.

Make sure that:

All tenants are listed on the notice
Landlord's name is included (be sure this is the LANDLORD/OWNER, not the PM's name)
Make sure property address is correct.
Check A.1
Check B.1 and enter "3" on the days section
Certified Mail: ****ALEX TO ADD INFO ON THIS****

Then, send this to the PM to sign via DocuSign.

Once the PM has signed, send the 'Notice to Vacate' email template as shown below.

Email template to vacate the property

Send the below template with the notice to vacate the property attached to the tenants through Appfolio. Be sure to copy the PM that is handling this property.

Subject: Notice to Vacate - {{PROPERTY ADDRESS}}

Dear [Tenant's Name(s)], This is an official notice to vacate the property at [Rental Property Address] due to nonpayment of rent. As of [Insert Date], you owe $[Insert Amount] for the period of [Insert Period].

You are required to vacate the property by [insert deadline, per local laws]. Failure to comply may result in legal action, including eviction.

If full payment, including late fees, is made before the deadline, this notice may be rescinded.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Alex Wiki Questions/Other changes

If LC sends an NTC, LC needs to add a reminder to check on this to confirm if tenant has paid rent, or if we need to proceed to eviction process. Need to add that step on the wiki.
If rent remains unpaid 3 days after 'Notice to Vacate' is sent, I want to clarify next steps:
- We likely need to confirm tenant has fully vacated. Who will verify this? Field tech?
- If tenant has vacated, then I assume we then should launch relisting process (i.e. make ready, cleaning, supra, etc)
- If tenant has NOT paid and NOT vacated, we move to eviction process, correct? Leasing Coordinator should then notify PM, and PM takes over at this point?
Do we only deliver NTV by certified mail, or can we enter 'electronic delivery by email' or something like this?
- If only by certified mail, who handles this? Where do we get the Return Receipt Requested #?

Note: photo below was the original photo, but I have replaced it with a digital copy above. Just saving the below photo for reference until we fully fix this process.