Delinquency and Collections

Delinquency and Collections

Workflow purpose

Move residents through a documented aging-and-resolution pipeline with zero guesswork about what the next permissible action is, under the governing jurisdiction's rules and the operator's policy overlay. Every transition that could become a legal action opens an approval_request at the correct row in the approval matrix. The workflow never sends notices, never files, never commits to a non-standard payment plan, and never writes off without a matching approved record. It does produce drafts, the structured cases, and the sensitivity math to make human decisions fast.

This pack is deliberately load-bearing. Collections discipline is one of the highest-leverage inputs to economic_occupancy, bad_debt_rate, noi_margin, and dscr. It is also the area most prone to fair-housing risk, so every stage carries an explicit guardrail.

Trigger conditions

• Explicit: "weekly delinquency review", "delinquency by aging", "payment plan request for unit X", "what's the next step on case Y", "pre-legal case list", "bad-debt write-off candidates".
• Implicit: ledger balance transitions an aging bucket; delinquency_rate_30plus week-over-week spike above overlay materiality; resident requests a payment plan; a case approaches the jurisdiction's cure-period deadline; write-off date approaches.
• Recurring: weekly at property grain for the aging review; daily screen for cases crossing cure-period or court-deadline dates.

Inputs (required / optional)

Outputs

Required context

Asset_class, segment, form_factor, lifecycle_stage, management_mode, market, jurisdiction, role. Jurisdiction is required — the workflow refuses to propose any notice or filing action without a jurisdiction overlay. If the jurisdiction reference is missing, workflow opens a missing_docs entry and routes the case list without proposing legal-stage actions.

Process

Step 1. Pull cohorts and tag each case with stage.

Canonical stages (this is the overlay's playbook axis; stages map to the overlay's delinquency_playbook_middle_market.csv):

• current — ledger balance zero or below the delinquency_threshold_dollars; case open only to track recent payment patterns.
• 1_7 — balance above threshold, 1–7 days past due. Most cases resolve themselves here; gentle reminder only.
• 8_30 — 8–30 days past due. Formal reminder, payment offer menu, payment-plan eligibility reviewed.
• 31_60 — 31–60 days past due. Pre-legal posture. Cure period warning if jurisdiction supports. Payment plan must be in place or pre-legal pathway is considered.
• 61_90 — 61–90 days past due. Legal-notice pathway becomes active under most jurisdictions.
• 91_plus — 91+ days past due. Filing window for most jurisdictions.
• legal_notice — a legal notice has been served; case is in cure window.
• eviction_filed — filing complete; awaiting court date.
• judgment — judgment entered (favorable or adverse); next step is either payment enforcement, move-out, or post-judgment workout.
• write_off — case recognized as bad debt per overlay write-off rules; ledger entry scheduled.

Step 2. Per-case proposed next step (playbook lookup).

For each case, read the playbook row for the case's (stage, jurisdiction, lease_state, payment_plan_state) tuple. The playbook returns:

• proposed_action (e.g., send_reminder, offer_payment_plan, issue_legal_notice_draft_for_review, file_eviction_draft_for_review, continue_legal_hold, propose_write_off_draft_for_review).
• approval_gate_row (if any).
• communication_template_ref (path to the draft template).
• legal_review_required flag.

No case advances autonomously past a gated row.

Step 3. Gated transitions — open approvals.

The following transitions always open an approval_request, regardless of dollar:

• Any transition that would issue a legal notice (moving into legal_notice stage, or preparing one in 31_60 / 61_90 / 91_plus): opens approval_request row 1. The request names the jurisdiction, the cure-period deadline, the overlay playbook row, and the template reference. The workflow does not send the notice.
• Any transition that would file for eviction (moving into eviction_filed): opens approval_request row 2. Requires legal counsel sign-off in addition to PM and regional.
• Any proposed non-standard payment plan (outside the payment_plan_policy overlay: longer term, lower down, more frequent rescheduling, etc.): opens approval_request row 13.
• Any proposed write-off at or above the org overlay's threshold: opens row 6 or row 7 depending on threshold band.
• Any tenant dispute with legal exposure signal (retaliation claim, fair-housing complaint, reasonable-accommodation / reasonable-modification dispute): opens approval_request row 3; resident-facing response draft is not produced without counsel sign-off.

Any action without a matching approved record refuses to execute. This is a hard guardrail.

Step 4. Stage-by-stage playbook (canonical).

The workflow references the overlay's playbook; this section describes the canonical skeleton that overlays customize. Overlays may tighten (faster escalation, more conservative write-off) but may not loosen below the floor described here.

current. No action required. If a resident shows repeated late-in-cycle payments (late in-month but never over 1–7 days), the workflow notes a pattern flag for the PM, informational only.

1_7. Informational reminder draft. Template draft_for_review. No approval gate. No fair-housing scan beyond routine. The goal is self-cure.

8_30.

• Formal reminder draft (portal + email).
• Payment-offer menu: full pay, split pay (inside policy), ledger-hold for short window (inside policy).
• Payment-plan eligibility evaluation: if request is inside payment_plan_policy, no approval gate; the workflow draft-produces the plan for PM confirmation. If request is outside policy, opens approval_request row 13.
• Auto-payment prompt if failed auto-pay is the cause.
• Fair-housing guardrail: sort by category (unit type, building, resident tenure) and compare action distributions to baseline. Statistically meaningful disparity opens a human-review flag (not autonomous action).

31_60.

• Pre-legal posture. The draft communication now includes overlay-approved escalation language and the cure-period heads-up if jurisdiction requires. Template carries legal_review_required banner.
• If payment plan is in place and in compliance, keep on plan; no escalation.
• If no payment plan or plan in default, proposed action is to prepare a legal-notice draft; that proposal opens approval_request row 1.
• Fair-housing guardrail: same disparity scan. Any statistically meaningful disparity routes to regional_manager before any legal-stage draft is opened.

61_90.

• Legal-notice pathway active under most jurisdictions. The workflow prepares the legal notice draft per the overlay's template. Every legal notice has a legal_review_required banner. The notice is never sent; it opens approval_request row 1 with the cure-period deadline attached.
• If jurisdiction requires a specific form (e.g., pay-or-quit, cure-or-quit), the overlay's template library is consulted; if the overlay does not cover the jurisdiction, the workflow refuses the legal draft and opens a missing_docs ticket. It still produces the informational memo for the PM.
• Payment plan, if any, is reassessed: missed installments move the plan to default, which triggers the 31_60 -> 61_90 path above.

91_plus.

• Filing pathway active. The workflow prepares an eviction-filing draft per the jurisdiction overlay and opens approval_request row 2. Requires legal counsel sign-off.
• Alternative path: if a qualifying workout or payment plan is now in play (overlay allows this to suspend filing), filing preparation is held but row 2 approval is still opened in parallel with a hold note.
• Any resident who raises a legal defense (retaliation, habitability, fair housing, reasonable accommodation) triggers approval_request row 3; filing holds pending legal direction.

legal_notice.

• Case is in cure window. The workflow tracks the cure deadline from the jurisdiction overlay and prepares a cure-verification action for the deadline date.
• Payments received during cure window are applied per overlay rules (full cure vs. partial cure vs. payment-plan-initiated cure).

eviction_filed.

• Case is in court process. The workflow maintains the case record, tracks hearing dates, and prepares a post-judgment decision brief with scenarios (judgment + payment, judgment + move-out, vacated / dismissed).
• No resident-facing communication is produced without legal direction.

judgment.

• Post-judgment branch:
  • Favorable, payment plan proposed: the workflow prepares a proposed plan per the overlay's post-judgment policy; opens row 13 if the plan is outside overlay.
  • Favorable, move-out ordered: hands off to workflows/move_out_administration and updates the rent roll; opens the turn project via workflows/unit_turn_make_ready.
  • Adverse / vacated / dismissed: closes the legal stage; case may return to earlier stages for non-legal workout or may move to write_off per overlay.

write_off.

• Recognizes the balance as bad debt per overlay write-off rules. Opens approval_request row 6 or row 7 depending on threshold band. Produces the GL journal draft draft_for_review.

Step 5. Fair-housing guardrails at every stage.

At every stage the workflow:

• Never records, infers, or uses a protected-class attribute in any recommendation. The Fair Housing Act superset is the governing set; the guardrail treats source-of-income, age, marital status, lawful occupation, military status, and the full jurisdiction-specific set as protected.
• Produces no communication with protected-class language; copy is scanned against the term list before any draft is finalized.
• Runs a disparity scan on proposed actions by (aging bucket, unit cluster, tenure). Statistically meaningful disparity is an informational flag — never an autonomous action. Flagged cases route to regional_manager.
• Refuses to propose differential enforcement (e.g., faster escalation for one set of cases than another) without an explicit, documented policy justification that is traceable to the overlay.
• Escalates any reasonable-accommodation or reasonable-modification request immediately to human handling; does not route it through this playbook.

Step 6. Communication drafts and banners.

Every resident-facing draft is draft_for_review. Drafts that could constitute notice under the jurisdiction carry legal_review_required. Drafts never assert sample data as fact; if a ledger balance or amount owed is cited, the confidence banner surfaces the ledger's as_of timestamp and source.

Step 7. Weekly roll-up and portfolio view.

At the weekly cadence, the workflow produces:

• Aging distribution (count + dollars) by bucket.
• Week-over-week transitions (cases into and out of each bucket).
• delinquency_rate_30plus, collections_rate, bad_debt_rate vs. bands and benchmarks.
• Pattern flags: clusters by building / unit type / lease vintage.
• Fair-housing disparity scan summary.
• Gated-action queue: pending approvals, open cases, deadlines by date.
• Anchors to economic_occupancy, notice_exposure, and noi_margin impact.

Step 8. Confidence banner.

Surface: jurisdiction overlay as_of_date, playbook as_of_date and status, ledger snapshot timestamp, and fair-housing baseline as_of_date. If any required reference is sample-tagged, the output says so.

Metrics used

delinquency_rate_30plus, collections_rate, bad_debt_rate, economic_occupancy, notice_exposure. Supporting but not primary: turnover_rate (post-judgment move-outs), average_days_vacant (collections-related turns).

Reference files used

• reference/normalized/collections_benchmarks__{region}_mf.csv
• reference/normalized/delinquency_playbook_middle_market.csv
• reference/normalized/approval_threshold_defaults.csv
• reference/derived/role_kpi_targets.csv
• reference/normalized/jurisdiction_legal_notice_rules__{jurisdiction}.yaml
• reference/normalized/payment_plan_policy__{org}.yaml
• reference/normalized/resident_comm_templates__{jurisdiction}/*.md (via reference; every template scoped to jurisdiction)

Escalation points

• Any proposed transition into legal_notice or eviction_filed -> approval_request row 1 or 2.
• Any proposed non-standard payment plan -> approval_request row 13.
• Any write-off above threshold -> approval_request row 6 or 7.
• Any dispute with legal exposure -> approval_request row 3.
• Any missing jurisdiction overlay -> missing_docs ticket; workflow refuses to draft legal-stage actions.

Required approvals

• legal_notice (row 1).
• eviction_filing (row 2).
• Non-standard payment plan (row 13).
• Write-off at/above threshold (row 6 or 7).
• Tenant dispute with legal exposure (row 3).

Failure modes

1. Drafting a legal notice for a jurisdiction without an overlay. Fix: overlay missing -> refuse the draft; open missing_docs.
2. Treating "delinquency" as a single rate. Fix: always report delinquency_rate_30plus plus aging distribution; bad debt separately.
3. Proposing differential enforcement by resident attribute. Fix: the fair-housing scan is mandatory every run; statistically meaningful disparity routes to regional before any enforcement escalation.
4. Sending a template that could constitute notice without legal review. Fix: legal_review_required banner is automatic for any stage 31_60 and beyond.
5. Processing a reasonable-accommodation / reasonable-modification request through this playbook. Fix: automatic handoff out of this workflow; humans only.
6. Applying a payment plan without ledger check. Fix: ledger snapshot timestamp must be within overlay freshness threshold; stale ledger refuses.
7. Silent write-off. Fix: every write-off opens an approval; GL journal is a draft until approved.
8. Using sample references as operating fact. Fix: confidence banner surfaces status tags; sample rows never authoritative.

Edge cases

• First-of-month edge: auto-pay failures cluster on the 1st–3rd; the 1_7 stage shows a transient spike. Workflow notes the seasonality so the weekly review does not overreact.
• Resident in bankruptcy: the workflow refuses to advance the case through any legal-stage transition; opens a bankruptcy_review flag and routes to legal counsel immediately. Communication drafts are held.
• Military deployment (SCRA-protected resident): the workflow checks for an SCRA flag in the lease record; if present, legal-stage transitions are blocked and counsel is routed.
• Reasonable accommodation pending: any open accommodation request suspends collections-stage transitions past 31_60 until resolved; counsel notified.
• Partial cure during cure window: jurisdiction overlay governs; if overlay treats partial cure as non-cure, case advances. Workflow does not override overlay.
• Resident disputes balance in writing: all communications default to draft_for_review; PM verifies ledger before any escalation.
• TPM-managed property: the workflow drafts the owner-oversight view and the TPM-facing request; does not bypass the TPM.
• Multiple residents on lease, one facing workout: ledger is joint; communications address the lease, not individual residents; fair-housing scan is conservative.

Example invocations

1. "Run this week's delinquency review for Ashford Park. Include fair-housing scan and list every case that should open an approval this week."
2. "Unit 305 at Willow Creek is 45 days past due. What's the next step and what approvals do I need?"
3. "Build the month-end write-off candidate list for the South End portfolio. Route each to the right approval row based on balance size."

Example outputs

Output — Weekly delinquency review (abridged, Ashford Park, week ending 2026-04-12)

Aging distribution. Counts and dollars by stage (current, 1_7, 8_30, 31_60, 61_90, 91_plus, legal_notice, eviction_filed, judgment, write_off). Week-over-week movement into/out of each bucket. delinquency_rate_30plus within band; collections_rate within band; bad_debt_rate within band.

Case actions this week.

• 3 cases in 8_30. Two on in-policy payment plan (no gate). One auto-pay failure; reminder drafted draft_for_review.
• 2 cases in 31_60. One on compliant plan; hold. One plan in default; pre-legal draft prepared per overlay; approval_request row 1 opened with Charlotte jurisdiction overlay cure-period deadline attached.
• 1 case in 61_90. Legal notice draft per overlay template; legal_review_required banner; approval_request row 1 opened.
• 0 cases in 91_plus.
• 1 case in legal_notice (prior week). Cure-window tracker shows deadline in 6 days; cure-verification action queued.
• 0 cases in eviction_filed, judgment.
• 2 candidate write-offs below threshold: no gate; GL journal draft prepared.

Fair-housing scan. No term-list hits. Disparity scan across aging buckets vs. trailing 90-day baseline within tolerance. All ApprovalOutcome rows cite policy_ref.

Approvals opened this week. Row 1 x 2. Row 13 x 0. Row 6 x 2 (write-off below threshold; informational queue).

Metric impact. Pro-forma economic_occupancy improvement if all cases cure (dollar range), downside if all escalate (dollar range). Reported as sensitivity, not forecast.

Confidence banner. delinquency_playbook_middle_market@2026-03-31, status=starter. jurisdiction_legal_notice_rules__charlotte@2026-02-15, status=sample (operator overlay override pending). Ledger snapshot 2026-04-12 08:00 local. Fair-housing baseline T90.

Output — Single-case action brief (abridged, Unit 305, Willow Creek)

Case state. Stage 31_60. Balance above threshold for 44 days. No active payment plan. Resident contacted 7 days ago, no response.

Proposed next step. Open approval_request row 1 for jurisdiction pre-legal notice draft per overlay template. Notice not sent until approved. Cure-period deadline computed from jurisdiction overlay.

Alternative paths.

• If resident responds with in-policy payment plan, hold the notice preparation; PM confirms plan.
• If resident responds with off-policy request, open approval_request row 13 in parallel.
• If resident raises a legal defense (retaliation, habitability, fair housing), stop the escalation and open approval_request row 3.

Fair-housing guardrail. Proposed action consistent with baseline; no disparity signal. No term-list hits in case notes.

Confidence banner. Ledger snapshot current; jurisdiction overlay sample-tagged; playbook starter-tagged.