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FeaturesDepositClearUpdated March 11, 2026

Blog: Start Negotiations Without Leaving Your Inbox

Start Negotiations Without Leaving Your Inbox

Release v0.1.91 · UI/UX Improvement

The problem we fixed

The Negotiation Inbox is where agents and landlords track every active deposit dispute conversation. But until this release, it had a subtle and frustrating gap: once you had at least one thread, you had no way to start a new one from inside the inbox.

The empty-state screen helpfully told you to open a tenancy and begin a thread — but the moment threads appeared, that guidance vanished. The sort/filter header row showed up, the thread list filled in, and the New Thread action simply didn't exist anywhere on the page.

The only workaround was to leave the inbox, navigate to the relevant Tenancy page, and start the conversation from there. For agents managing multiple properties simultaneously, this added unnecessary friction every single time they needed to open a fresh negotiation.

What we shipped

We've added a New Thread button to the thread list header row — right alongside the sort dropdown where you'd naturally expect a creation action to live.

Here's how it works:

  1. Open the Negotiation Inbox. The New Thread button is visible in the header row whenever the thread list is populated.
  2. Click New Thread (or "Start Negotiation"). A modal opens inline — no page navigation required.
  3. Select a tenancy and enter a subject. The modal lets you pick the tenancy the negotiation relates to and give the thread a subject line.
  4. Confirm. You're taken directly to the new thread, ready to write your first message.

The empty-state screen is unchanged — first-time users still see the same onboarding guidance they always have.

Why this matters

Small UX gaps compound quickly in high-volume workflows. An agent managing end-of-tenancy deductions across a dozen properties doesn't want to hunt through a Tenancies list every time they need to open a negotiation. Keeping the creation action inside the inbox means fewer context switches, faster response times, and a workflow that stays focused on resolution rather than navigation.

This change is part of our ongoing commitment to making the platform's everyday flows as frictionless as possible — so that the hard work of reaching a fair outcome gets our users' full attention, not the interface around it.

Affected component

src/app/dashboard/negotiation/negotiation-inbox.tsx