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Overview

Auto-pay lets you collect rent automatically each month via Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD). Once a tenant authorizes a one-time mandate through Stripe, rent is debited from their bank account on the day it's due — no cheques, no e-transfers, no chasing.

Key facts at a glance:

• Plan availability — Growth ($45/mo) and Business ($99/mo)
• Geography — Canada only, in CAD
• Payment rail — Stripe ACSS Debit (Pre-Authorized Debit, governed by Canadian Payments Association Rule H1)
• Platform fee — Flat $1.99 CAD per successful payment, paid by the landlord, deducted from the payout
• Settlement — Approximately 5 business days from charge to landlord's bank account
• Failed charges — Not auto-retried by Stripe (PAD limitation). You'll be emailed and can re-attempt manually
• Dispute window — Personal-account tenants have 90 days under Rule H1 to dispute with no questions asked
• Bank details — Stripe holds the mandate and banking credentials; TenantSee never sees raw account numbers, only the bank name and last 4 digits

Setting Up Online Rent Collection

Before you can invite tenants, you need to connect your company to Stripe Connect — Stripe's onboarding flow that verifies your business and links a payout bank account.

1. Go to Settings > Online Payments
2. Click Get started
3. Acknowledge the dispute disclosure (the 90-day PAD dispute window — see below)
4. Complete Stripe's onboarding flow in a new tab. Stripe will ask for:
   • Business details (name, address, tax ID)
   • Personal details for representatives, owners, or directors (Stripe is required to collect these by Canadian financial regulations)
   • A bank account where payouts will be deposited
5. When Stripe redirects you back, the Online Payments page will show one of these states:
   • Onboarding incomplete — Resume onboarding from where you left off
   • Complete your Stripe setup — Stripe needs more information before you can collect rent
   • Account requires remediation — Stripe has flagged something and you need to resolve it in the Stripe Dashboard
   • Online rent collection is active — You're ready to invite tenants

Inviting a Tenant to Auto-Pay

Once your account is active, invite each tenant individually:

1. Go to Settings > Online Payments (or the Auto-pay badge on a lease)
2. Click Invite a tenant
3. Pick the lease — only leases without active auto-pay show up
4. Confirm and send

The tenant receives an email with a unique link (valid for 7 days) that walks them through:

1. Confirming the email address you sent the invite to
2. A redirect to a secure Stripe Checkout page
3. Selecting their bank and authorizing the PAD mandate

After the tenant completes the flow, one of two things happens:

• Instant verification — The mandate is verified immediately and the tenant is set up.
• Micro-deposit verification — Stripe sends two small deposits (typically arriving in 1–2 business days) and emails the tenant a verification link. They have 10 days to verify. If they don't, the mandate fails and you'll need to send a new invitation.

You'll see the tenant's auto-pay state on their lease card, with one of these statuses:

How Charges Work

Once auto-pay is active for a tenant:

• A charge is created on the day rent is due (we run a daily job at 06:00 UTC)
• The charge is submitted to the tenant's bank as a Pre-Authorized Debit
• Status starts as Pending and typically takes ~5 business days to settle
• When the bank confirms, status flips to Settled and the funds enter Stripe's payout queue
• A payout to your connected bank account follows, typically 1–2 business days later

Every charge appears on the Payments page (with source Online (Stripe)) and is also visible on the rent invoice and the Online Payments settings page.

Fees & What Comes Out of Your Payout

For each successful auto-pay charge:

The platform fee is reversed automatically when:

• A charge fails (no fee is ever charged on a failed attempt)
• A refund is issued (proportional reversal — partial refund means partial fee reversal)
• A dispute succeeds and funds are clawed back

The platform fee is never charged on manual payments — only on auto-pay charges that successfully settle.

Failed Payments

Pre-Authorized Debit charges can fail for several reasons:

• Insufficient funds (NSF) — Tenant's bank account didn't have enough balance
• Mandate revoked — Tenant cancelled the auto-pay authorization with their bank
• Account closed — Tenant's bank account no longer exists
• Bank rejection — Other reasons specific to the tenant's bank

Important: Stripe does not automatically retry failed PAD charges. This is a Canadian banking rule, not a TenantSee choice. When a charge fails:

1. Both you and the tenant receive an email immediately
2. The rent invoice stays unpaid
3. The payment record shows status Failed
4. You decide what to do next:
   • Manually retry the charge from the rent invoice (after the tenant tells you the underlying issue is fixed)
   • Accept payment another way (cash, e-transfer, cheque) and record it as a manual payment
   • Cancel and re-invite if the mandate has been revoked

No platform fee is charged on a failed attempt.

Refunds

You can refund any settled auto-pay charge:

1. Open the rent invoice for the charge
2. Click Issue Refund
3. Choose Full or Partial and confirm

The refund is sent through Stripe back to the tenant's bank account. The platform fee is reversed proportionally. The payment status flips to Refunded when Stripe confirms (typically within a few business days).

Disputes

Tenants on personal bank accounts have a 90-day window under Canadian Payments Association Rule H1 to dispute a PAD debit with their bank — no questions asked. If a dispute is filed:

1. The payment status flips to Disputed
2. Stripe places the funds on hold
3. You receive an urgent email with:
   • The dispute reason
   • The amount under dispute
   • The evidence deadline (typically 7 days for the merchant to respond)
   • A link to your Stripe Dashboard
4. Submit your evidence (lease agreement, mandate authorization, communications, payment history) directly in the Stripe Dashboard. We store all auto-pay mandate and charge records on your behalf — you can export them from the Online Payments page if you need them.

If you win the dispute, the payment returns to Settled. If the dispute succeeds, the funds and the platform fee are reversed and the status remains Refunded.

Cancelling Auto-Pay

Either side can cancel a mandate:

• The tenant can cancel at any time through their bank — that's a Canadian Payments Association rule we can't override. When they do, Stripe notifies us and the status flips to Auto-pay cancelled.
• You (the landlord) can cancel an active mandate from the lease's auto-pay panel.

When a mandate is cancelled, no future charges will run. To re-enable auto-pay for that lease, you need to send a new invitation — the tenant will go through Stripe Checkout again to authorize a new mandate.

Disconnecting Your Stripe Account

If you want to stop offering online rent collection entirely:

1. Cancel any active mandates from each affected lease
2. Go to Settings > Online Payments
3. Click Disconnect
4. Confirm

What Tenants See

When you invite a tenant to auto-pay, here's what they experience:

1. Invitation email — A single link that expires in 7 days
2. Email confirmation step — Tenant confirms the email the invite was sent to (security check)
3. Stripe Checkout — Tenant selects their bank, signs in with their bank credentials (handled entirely by Stripe), and authorizes the PAD mandate
4. Verification — Either instant, or 1–2 business days of micro-deposit verification followed by a Stripe-emailed link
5. Confirmation email — Tenant receives a "you're all set" email with the bank name and last 4 digits on file
6. Monthly debit — Rent is debited automatically. Tenant sees the charge on their bank statement

TenantSee never sees raw bank account numbers. Stripe collects, verifies, and stores all banking credentials directly. We only see the bank name and the last 4 digits.

If a tenant has questions about cancelling, disputing, or the mandate itself, point them at the Tenant Guide.

Troubleshooting

"My tenant didn't receive the invitation email." Check that the email address on file is correct, then resend the invitation from the lease's auto-pay panel. Invitation links expire after 7 days.

"The tenant clicked the link but it says 'expired' or 'already used'." Send a new invitation — invitation tokens are single-use and expire in 7 days.

"Charges aren't running on the day rent is due." Confirm the lease's rent due date and that the mandate status is Auto-pay active (not pending or verifying). Charges run once per due rent invoice — if a previous attempt is still pending or has already settled, a new charge won't run.

"A charge keeps failing." There's no auto-retry. The tenant needs to address the underlying issue (top up the account, reauthorize a new mandate, etc.) before you re-attempt the charge manually.

"Stripe is asking for more information." Open the Stripe Dashboard and complete whatever Stripe is requesting. The Online Payments settings page in TenantSee will surface the requirement and link you directly to Stripe.

Related Articles

• Managing Payments — Recording manual payments, payment statuses, exports
• Billing & Subscription Plans — Plan tiers and the auto-pay platform fee
• Company Settings — General company configuration
• Tenant Guide — What tenants experience on the platform