> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nyumbazetu.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Residents > Create and maintain resident records — tenants, owners and contacts — and keep them correctly linked to leases and units. **Residents → `/residents`** A **resident** is a person the platform knows about in relation to a unit: a tenant, a unit owner, a next of kin, or another contact. Residents are the identity layer under billing, communications and the tenant portal — a wrong phone number here means a reminder that never arrives, and a missing link to a lease means an invoice with nobody to send it to. ## What a resident record holds | Group | Fields | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Identity** | First name, last name, full name, national ID, passport, birthday, occupation, company | | **Contact** | Primary phone, primary email, secondary phone, secondary email, other phones, other emails, address | | **Association** | Company (organisation), property (branch), block, unit, role, status, start date, end date | | **Extras** | Vehicles and licence plates, comments, notes, documents | **Role** is the resident's relationship to the unit — **tenant** or **owner** are the two roles that carry paying responsibility; other roles (such as next of kin) are contacts only. **Status** reflects whether the association is current. Start date and end date bound it, so a resident who moved out remains on the record with a closed period rather than being deleted. A person and their tenancy are separate ideas. The same individual can be the **tenant** of one unit and the **owner** of another; each association carries its own role, unit, status and dates. ## The residents list The list is a full grid: filter, sort, group, choose columns, and export. Columns available include Id, Company, Property, Block, Unit, First/Last/Full name, Email, Phone, Other emails, Other phones, Company, Vehicles, Licence plates, Occupation, National Id, Birthday, Address, Comments, Role, Status, Start date, End date, and the audit columns (Created by / at, Updated by / at). Use the **Block** and **Unit** columns with a filter to answer "who is in this building right now" in one step — faster than opening leases one at a time. ## Adding a resident From **Residents**, click **Add**. Name and national ID are what other staff will search on. Capture the ID at onboarding — it is much harder to collect later. Phone and email drive every notification the platform sends. Enter the phone in the format your organisation uses consistently, and use the secondary fields for alternates rather than overwriting the primary. Choose the block and unit, set the role (tenant, owner, contact), and set the start date. The resident is now selectable when you create or edit a lease. ### Importing many residents at once Use **Import residents** from the list, or **Admin → Bulk Upload** with the *Residents* type. The importer maps your spreadsheet columns to resident fields, validates before committing, and records the run in the upload history with a per-row outcome (created / skipped / failed and why). See [Bulk upload](/guides/bulk-upload). ## Viewing and editing a resident Open a resident to see their profile: contact information, address, birthday, occupation, company, licence plates, comments, notes and documents. From the profile you can: * **Edit** identity and contact details. * **Manage documents** — attach IDs, signed agreements, KYC files. * **See linked leases and units** — current and historical. * **Open the tenant's statement** to see what they have been billed and what they have paid. Editing a resident's phone or email changes where **future** communications go; it does not retrospectively change messages already sent. Check the [Delivery Tracker](/guides/communications) if a resident says they never received something. ## Residents and leases * A lease names the resident who is responsible for it. Billing, statements and collections all resolve the person through the lease. * A resident can be linked to several leases — a current one and historical ones, or several units at once. * Ending a tenancy does **not** delete the resident. Set the end date and status; the history stays intact so statements and audits remain correct. See [Managing leases](/guides/managing-leases) for the lease side of this relationship. ## Residents and the tenant portal Residents with a valid email can be given access to the [tenant portal](/guides/tenant-portal), where they see their own bills and statements, pay, raise service requests, and book amenities. Portal access is per person, and it inherits the units they are associated with — so a resident who holds two units sees both. ## Screening Where enabled, the resident record carries a **screening** section used during onboarding to record background and reference checks before a lease is signed. It sits alongside [lease applications](/guides/applications), which handle the wider intake workflow. ## Common problems | Symptom | Cause and fix | | -------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Resident does not appear in the lease form | The resident is in a different branch, or has no active association. Check branch context and status. | | SMS reminders are not arriving | The phone number format is wrong or the number changed. Check the profile, then confirm the outcome in the Delivery Tracker. | | The same person appears twice | Two records were created (often one by import, one by hand). Merge by moving the association to the correct record and closing the duplicate — do not delete a record that has billing history. | | Statement shows units the resident no longer holds | The old association has no end date. Set it, and the historical period closes cleanly. | ## Next steps Attach residents to units under a contract with rent and charges. Intake, checklists and approval before a resident becomes a tenant. What was sent to whom, and whether it was delivered. What residents can do for themselves.