For property managers
Merge a duplicate tenant record
Two records for one person is easy to do and used to be hard to undo. It is now a merge.
Avoiding it in the first place
When you type an email on the New tenant form that another record already uses, the form says so before you save, lists the records, and links to them. Open the existing record instead if it is the same person. If it really is somebody else sharing one inbox, tick the box and carry on.
Why duplicates matter
Only one tenant record per email can use the tenant portal. If the second record is the one holding the tenancy, inviting them is refused with "Another tenant record in this account already uses that email for portal access", and the tenant cannot pay rent or report maintenance online.
Merge them
- Open the record you want to retire (the duplicate).
- Find the Possible duplicate panel. It appears only when another record shares this one's email.
- Select Merge this record into it beside the record you want to keep.
- Confirm.
Everything moves to the record you keep: tenancies (including ones they co-signed), documents, screening records, notices, message threads, and portal access if only the duplicate had it. Details the kept record is missing, like a phone number, are filled in from the duplicate. Details it already has are never overwritten. Notes from both are kept.
The emptied record is archived, not deleted, so you can still see it under Archived items.
What a merge will not do
- It will not merge two records that each have their own portal sign-in. Only one sign-in can hold a tenancy, and choosing which person keeps access is your call, not ours. Remove portal access from one of them first.
- It does not change any money. Rent, charges, payments and your general ledger belong to the tenancy, not to the contact record, so no amount moves and nothing is re-posted. The tenancy simply names the right person afterwards.
This is tooling, not legal advice.
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