Scenario: A Co-living Arrangement with Child Leases
Sometimes one tenant takes more than one unit — an apartment plus a parking bay, say — all under a single master agreement. REDA handles this with a parent lease and one or more child leases. This scenario follows Aisha Rahman leasing Meridian Court #101 at 1,200.00 per month together with Meridian Court Parking Bay #12 at 150.00 per month, and shows in sequence where the parent drives the children automatically (stage, approval, renewal) and where each child stands on its own (its charges, its Move In ticket, its invoices). It builds on the single-unit baseline in Leasing an Apartment End to End; the object-level rules live in Child Leases.
Access you'll need. Creating and working child leases requires the REDA - Property Leasing User permission set.
The story at a glance
One tenant account, two units, one master agreement. Aisha's apartment is the parent lease; the parking bay is a child beneath it. You approve once and the approval cascades; you sign the parent's agreement once and both units turn billable; you renew the parent once and both units extend. But each unit keeps its own chargebook, its own first invoices, and — importantly — its own Move In ticket. Here is the whole arrangement in one table before we walk it.
The timeline
One tenant account (Aisha Rahman); parent = Meridian Court #101 at 1,200.00/mo; child = Meridian Court Parking Bay #12 at 150.00/mo; 12-month term; move-in 1 Aug 2026.
| Step | Actor | What they do (parent & child) | What REDA does automatically | Owning article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agent | Creates the parent lease (via conversion or new) at Application - New, adds the 1,200.00 rent charge | Marks the parent as a sync source (it has no parent of its own) | Child Leases |
| 2 | Agent | Clicks Add Child Lease(s) while the parent is still in application; the child is created for Parking Bay #12 with its own 150.00 rent charge | Enforces the guards: same Account as the parent, a different Property, and the parent not yet active | Child Leases |
| 3 | Agent | Completes, submits and approves the parent — never the children by hand | Approval cascades: the parent pushes Approval Status to the child; the Lease Agreement ticket is created for the parent only | From Application to Move-In |
| 4 | Agent | Works the parent's Lease Agreement ticket through to Contract Signed | Parent moves to Occupied - Pending Move In; the Stage cascades to the child; the ticket links both the parent's and the child's charges | From Application to Move-In |
| 5 | (automatic) | — | Each lease gets its own Move In ticket and its own first invoices — the apartment bills 1,200.00, the parking bills 150.00; portal users are provisioned per contact role | Child Leases |
| 6 | Agent | Closes the parent's Move In ticket, then the child's | Parent moves to Occupied - No Notice; the parent's Renewal ticket is armed (rule automation on) | Renewing a Lease |
| 7 | Agent | Closes the parent's Renewal ticket at term end — children don't run their own renewal cycle | The parent pushes the Renewal Agreement and Renewed Till Date to every child, extending both units together | Renewing a Lease |
Act 1 — Build the master, add the child
One tenant, one master lease, extra units billed under it — and it's a single level only: a child cannot itself have children. Create the child with Add Child Lease(s) while the parent is still in its application stage. The flow enforces three things: the child uses the same Account as the parent, but a different Property, and the parent must not yet be active. Each child needs its own chargebook — the child property's rent card resolves its rent (the parking bay bills 150.00). Full detail: Child Leases.
Act 2 — Approve once, cascade to all
Approving the parent pushes Approval Status down to every child — and approval requires charges on the children too, so a child with an empty chargebook blocks the whole approval (see the FAQ below for the exact message). Only the parent spawns a Lease Agreement ticket; children are deliberately skipped. As the parent advances, its Stage cascades to any child still sitting on the parent's prior stage, a lock-step guard that leaves an independently-moved child alone. Detail: Child Leases and From Application to Move-In.
Act 3 — Move in
When the signed agreement turns the parent billable at Occupied - Pending Move In, both the parent and each child get their own Move In ticket, and each lease switches its remaining charges on and generates its own first invoices — the apartment bills 1,200.00, the parking bay bills 150.00. The parent's Lease Agreement ticket back-links itself onto the child charges as part of signing, so the paperwork and the money stay together across both units. Detail: From Application to Move-In.
Act 4 — Renewal cascades
Children don't run their own renewal cycle. When the parent's Renewal ticket closes, REDA pushes the Renewal Agreement and Renewed Till Date to every child — so renewing the master extends the parking bay in the same stroke. You manage the renewal in one place, on the parent, and both units move together. Detail: Renewing a Lease.
What's shared, what's separate
A quick map of which behaviours cascade from the parent and which each lease keeps to itself. The full matrix is in Child Leases. The money stays separate — each unit bills its own charges — but the master is stamped onto the child's charge and invoice lines, so you can still roll the parking bay up under the apartment for a combined master-lease or whole-building view.
| Behaviour | Parent → child? |
|---|---|
| Approval Status | Cascaded from the parent |
| Stage (lock-step) | Cascaded from the parent |
| Renewal Agreement + Renewed Till Date | Cascaded from the parent |
| Primary Contact | Cascaded from the parent |
| Lease Agreement ticket | Parent only — children are skipped |
| Chargebook | Separate — each lease has its own |
| First invoices | Separate — each lease bills its own charges |
| Move In ticket | Separate — children do get their own |
Where to go next
- Child Leases — the owning article: the parent/child rules and the full behaviour matrix.
- Leasing an Apartment End to End — the single-unit baseline this scenario extends.
- From Application to Move-In — the lifecycle both leases ride on.
- Contact Roles on a Lease — how roommates share a single unit.
- Renewing a Lease — the renewal that cascades to the children.
Frequently asked questions
One tenant account across all units is enforced. Roommates are additional Contact Roles (Lessee or Occupant) on the same lease — not separate leases. Extra units, such as parking or storage, are child leases. See Child Leases and Contact Roles on a Lease.
Child leases are single-level only — a lease that already has a parent can't itself be a parent: "Parent Lease must not be associated to a Parent Opportunity".
A co-living arrangement bills to one tenant account: "Invalid Account. Account must be the same as on Parent Opportunity."
Each lease covers a distinct property: "Property cannot be same as on Parent Opportunity."
The children need charges too: "Leasing Opportunity can not be approved if Opportunity Charges are not provided. If Leasing Opportunity has child leases, then Opportunity Charges on the child leases must be provided as well."
No — the Lease Agreement ticket is parent-only. Children do get their own Move In tickets and their own first invoices. See Child Leases.
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