Preview Before You Send: Catching Notification Errors Before They Reach Tenants
Preview Before You Send: Catching Notification Errors Before They Reach Tenants
Release: v0.1.189
Sending a deduction notice or deposit release notification to a tenant is one of the most consequential actions an agent can take at the end of a tenancy. Get the amounts wrong, reference the wrong property, or misstate a deduction — and what should be a clean end to a tenancy becomes the start of a dispute.
From v0.1.189, the Tenant Deduction Notification Panel and Deposit Release Panel now include a mandatory Preview → Send step so agents can verify exactly what the tenant will see before anything is dispatched.
How it works
1. Build your notification as normal
Complete the deduction items, amounts, and deposit return figure in the notification panel. Nothing about this flow has changed.
2. Expand the "Preview notification" section
Before the Send button, a collapsible "Preview notification" section is now available. Click to expand it and see a rendered preview of the email the tenant will receive. The preview includes:
- Property address
- Itemised deductions — each line item and its individual amount
- Total deducted — the sum of all deduction items
- Amount to be returned — the net deposit return figure
The preview is generated entirely from data already entered in the form — no round-trip to the server is needed, so it renders instantly.
3. Confirm with "Looks good — Send"
Once you are satisfied the content is accurate, click the "Looks good — Send" button below the preview. This replaces the previous single-step Send action and makes the confirmation intent explicit.
If you spot an error, close the preview, correct the relevant field, and re-open the preview to verify before proceeding.
Why this step exists
Deduction and deposit release notifications are legally consequential communications governed by the Renters' Rights Act. An error that reaches a tenant — a wrong amount, the wrong address, a misattributed deduction — can:
- Trigger a formal dispute that takes weeks to resolve
- Undermine an agent's compliance record
- Damage trust with the tenant at an already sensitive moment
A one-step confirmation is not a bureaucratic overhead. It is the difference between catching a typo internally and having it become evidence in a dispute.
Where this pattern appears
The Preview → Send pattern is consistent with the FinaliseDialog step already used in the report builder, where agents confirm a report's contents before it is locked and shared. The same principle now applies to outbound tenant notifications.
Affected panels
| Panel | File |
|---|---|
| Tenant Deduction Notification Panel | src/app/dashboard/deposit-release/tenant-deduction-notification-panel.tsx |
| Deposit Release Panel | src/app/dashboard/deposit-release/deposit-release-panel.tsx |
Summary
- ✅ Preview renders client-side — no extra API call
- ✅ Shows property address, deduction items, totals, and return amount
- ✅ "Looks good — Send" makes confirmation intent explicit
- ✅ Consistent with existing FinaliseDialog pattern in the report builder
- ✅ No change to underlying notification logic or delivery