Keeping Part of a Deposit
The category, reason, evidence photos, and acknowledgement fields that appear when you keep some or all of an amenity deposit, and what the resident is told.
Last updated
Setting Amount to keep above $0 in the Manage deposit popup (see "Managing an amenity deposit") tells URBI you're retaining some or all of the deposit, for example to cover cleaning, damage, or a rule violation. This article covers the fields that appear once you do, whether you're keeping part of the deposit or the whole thing.
Who can do this: Any staff member, property manager, or board member with the Process refunds permission on the property.
Steps
Open the deposit's Manage deposit popup (see "Managing an amenity deposit" for how to get there).
Set Amount to keep to any value above $0, up to the full charged amount. The live summary updates to show the resulting refund: "Keep $X, refund $Y to [resident]." If you set it to the full charged amount, the refund shows as $0 and the refund step is skipped entirely.
Choose a category for why you're keeping the deposit. The options are: Cleaning beyond normal, Property damage, Lost key or fob, Rule violation, Late return or overtime, and Other.
Enter a reason, minimum 20 characters. This is required and is visible to the resident in their notification, so write it as you would want them to read it, for example "Carpet stain in the lounge area, photos attached below" rather than a short internal shorthand.
Optionally attach evidence photos. Use the + Add control to upload supporting images, up to 10 photos, each up to 10MB, in JPEG, PNG, or WebP format.
Confirm the acknowledgement toggle: "I understand this action is audited and notifies the [resident]." You must turn this on before you can submit.
Click the submit button. Its label reflects the outcome, for example "Keep $350.00, refund $150.00" for a split, or "Keep deposit" when the refund is $0.
What to expect
The resident is notified, by push notification and email, including the amount kept, the amount refunded (if any), and the category and evidence you attached.
The kept amount is booked as revenue, and if you're keeping less than the full deposit, the refunded difference posts as an automatic refund at the same time, in a single action. See "How deposit money moves" for the accounting detail.
If you keep less than the full deposit, the booking's invoice picks up a credit line reflecting the refunded amount, and the invoice total updates.
The action is reversible. A kept amount stays refundable back to the resident as long as the property's connected account has sufficient balance. See "Reversing a deposit you kept."
Notes
Validation: if the reason is under 20 characters, or the keep amount exceeds the deposit's remaining charged amount, you'll see an inline error and the submit button won't proceed until it's corrected.
A full keep still requires the same fields. Setting the keep amount to the entire charged deposit does not skip the category, reason, or acknowledgement requirements, it only skips the refund step, since there's nothing left to refund.
Evidence is optional but recommended. There's no requirement to attach a photo, but a documented reason and photo make any later dispute far easier to resolve, and they're what the resident sees if they push back.
Mobile works the same way. The category, reason, evidence, and acknowledgement fields appear identically on the mobile full-screen version of the popup.