Modifying Lien Stages

In the event that an auction is cancelled due to error, or there has been a mistake with the lien letters, it is often necessary to set the lien stages back so that the process is restarted. We should never pull an auction without first notifying your DVP, Zach Baldwin & Jessica Kimball so that one of us can review the situation and confirm that restarting is, in fact, our only option. 

It's important to understand that we cannot "push" the lien stages forward - we can only "pull" them backward. So it's very important that we don't modify any lien stages unless it's necessary, and also that we don't take the lien stages back too far. (For example, if you take the lien stages all the way back to "Overlock" then the new lien letters and subsequent lien stages will not become active until the mandated amount of time between those lien stages has lapsed. This means if we take the lien stages back too far we will unnecessarily schedule the unit for an auction further in the future than is required by law.)

First you need to determine which stage we need to revert back to. 

• If the tenant's contact information is correct and was not the reason we're restarting, we only need to go back to the lien letter which contains the auction dates. In TX & TN, there is only one lien letter, and it contains the auction dates. In CA & MA, there are two lien letters and only the second one contains auction dates. We only need to back the tenant up to the lien letter that contains auction dates. If you need further clarification on this, please reach out to the Corporate Trainer for confirmation before going further.

• If the tenant's contact information was incorrect or failed during prior attempts to send the letters, we'll need to resend all lien letters and most likely ensure that a Missing Lease Letter was sent out by the site manager. Again, if you're unsure on which letter to back up to please reach out to the Corporate Trainer to confirm before going further.

To Modify the Lien Stages & Resend the Lien Letter(s)

1. In StorAlly, click the "Customers" icon on the left side. 

2. Select the option for Past Due at the top to only see the delinquent tenants.

3. Locate the tenant that needs to be restarted and open their account. 

4. Click "Rental" tab at the top, making sure that you're on the appropriate unit if the tenant has multiple units. 

5. Select the icon for "Modify Rental" on the right side.

6. Select the button for "Lien Stages" on the right side.

7. A new screen will open and you can see the Current Lien Stage, along with a dropdown that allows you to set the New Lien Stage. Click that dropdown and select the Lien Letter/Lien Stage that the tenant needs to be backed up to. (Again - if in doubt, reach out to the Corporate Trainer for confirmation on which lien stage you need.)

8. Once you've selected the New Lien Stage, enter a note and click "Save" at the bottom right.

9. Check the box at the top and click Process All. 

10. Click Next, and then click OK on the prompt that comes up. (No need to select Email or anything like that - we'll push the email out another way.)

11. You will be able to see in the tenant's Docs tab at the bottom that the lien letter was generated again automatically.  You can click on it to preview the letter.

12. The mailed version of this letter will go out automatically at the end of the day - however, you need to manually push out the RPost letter. Do not forget this step!

13. Click "Batch Process" icon on the left side. 

14. Click "Reprint".

15. Select the tab for "Letters & Notices" at the top. 

16. Change the Date Range to today only and click Apply. 

17. Click "Search" on the right side and you will see any lien letters that you just generated.

18. For all tenants that are being restarted, check the box next to their lien letter. 

19. Once all tenants being restarted have been selected, click "Email" at the bottom. This may take a moment to run, but just let it go. You'll see a green update at the top right once they have successfully processed. (You may receive a green update and a red update, which should only happen if there was a tenant on the list that doesn't have email.)

20. That will push out the RPost emails and the store should start receiving RPost receipts. Again, the mailed letter will go out automatically at EOD so there's nothing more to do here.