Never Lose a Deposit Release to Inbox Silence: Introducing Stale Escalation

Release v0.1.198

One of the most common reasons deposit releases drag on isn't a disagreement — it's silence. A proposal goes out, someone misses the email, and suddenly two weeks have passed with no one knowing it's stalled. The landlord is waiting. The tenant is waiting. The agent doesn't know there's a problem.

With v0.1.198, we've introduced automatic stale escalation for deposit release proposals to make sure that silence can no longer hold up a fair outcome.

The Problem: Proposals That Go Quiet

When a deposit release is proposed, every named party needs to acknowledge it before it can be finalised. That's by design — it protects everyone. But the system only works if people actually respond.

Until now, if a party didn't acknowledge a proposal, it simply sat there. No nudge. No alert. No way for an organisation admin to know something needed chasing.

The Fix: A Daily Escalation Sweep

Every morning at 08:00 UTC, the platform now runs an automated sweep across all open deposit release proposals. Any proposal that:

Has been in proposed status for 14 days or more, and
Still has at least one pending acknowledgement

…triggers an escalation.

What happens when a proposal is escalated?

Organisation admins receive an escalation notification so they know something needs attention and can take action.

Every party who hasn't yet acknowledged receives a reminder email with their unique token link — a direct, one-click path to reviewing and actioning the proposal. No login required. No hunting through inboxes. Just a clear prompt to move things forward.

Why 14 Days?

Fourteen days is a reasonable window that accounts for delays in communication, short holidays, and busy schedules — without letting a proposal drift indefinitely. It's long enough to be fair, short enough to keep things moving.

Once the 14-day threshold is crossed, the reminder fires every day until the proposal is resolved.

What This Means in Practice

Landlords and agents get visibility when a release is stalling, without having to manually chase.
Tenants and other parties get a clear, low-friction reminder with everything they need to respond.
Disputes are less likely to arise simply because of a communication gap.

This is a small workflow addition — but it closes one of the most frustrating gaps in the end-of-tenancy process.

Released in v0.1.198. See the changelog and feature documentation for full technical details.