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How to Follow a Rent Request From Submission to Payout

Who this is for: Welile Field Agents and sub-agents waiting on a submitted Rent Request.

What you will get from it: the ability to say exactly where a request has reached, who it is with, and whether it needs anything from you.

A Rent Request does not go straight from your phone to the landlord's pocket. It passes through a sequence of checks, and at most of them there is nothing for you to do except keep two phones reachable.

Where to follow it​

Open the Tenants tab and go to your submissions. Every request you have posted is there, grouped by where it has reached.

The stages below are the work; your screen shows the summary

Your submissions list groups the whole sequence into a few labels — waiting for review, approved, funded, repaying, completed, rejected. The stages below explain what happens inside those labels, so you can answer a tenant asking "what is happening with my rent?"

Do not expect a separate on-screen label for every stage.

Stage 1: Submitted​

The request has left your phone with the rent terms, the tenant's details and photo, the property and its location, the landlord, and the LC1 Chairperson.

The tenant and the landlord each receive an SMS telling them a request has been made.

What you do: tell the tenant and the landlord that Welile will phone them, and ask them to keep their phones on and charged. That single conversation prevents the most common rejection there is.

Stage 2: Service centre review — sub-agent submissions only​

If you are a sub-agent, your submission goes first to your parent agent or service centre manager. They know the area: they look at your photos, check the landlord is genuinely known locally, and check the rent figure is realistic.

Once they approve it, it moves on to head office.

If you are an independent primary agent, this stage does not apply to you. Your submission goes straight to the agent operations check.

What you do, as a sub-agent: make sure your parent agent knows a submission is waiting. A request sitting unseen at your own service centre is the easiest delay to fix.

Stage 3: Agent operations check​

Head office reviews the agent rather than the tenant: that your account is active and in good standing, that there are no duplicate flags against it, and that you have been servicing the tenants you already have.

What you do: nothing on this specific request. Keep collecting — your collection record is part of what is being looked at here.

Stage 4: The tenant verification call​

Welile telephones the tenant directly.

What you do: tell the tenant to expect a call from Welile, and that the caller will ask them to confirm their own details. Nothing more is needed from you.

Stage 5: The landlord verification call​

Welile telephones the property owner.

What you do: warn the landlord in advance. Landlords ignore unknown numbers, and an unanswered landlord call is one of the two biggest causes of rejection.

The verification calls​

Both calls exist for the same reason: before any money moves, a person at Welile speaks to a person at the other end. They are separate calls, asking different things.

The call to the tenant​

Welile confirms with the tenant:

  • their legal names and National ID details;
  • the rental address and the kind of house;
  • that they asked for this Rent Plan;
  • what they do for income and how they intend to pay;
  • that they understand the repayment amount and the pattern they chose.

The call to the landlord​

Welile confirms with the landlord:

  • that they own the property;
  • that the tenant genuinely lives there;
  • that the monthly rent matches what was submitted;
  • the Mobile Money number the rent should be paid to;
  • that they accept the Welile rent receipt arrangement.

How to prepare both parties​

  1. Tell them a call is coming, from Welile, about this rent.
  2. Agree a time window when each of them will definitely answer.
  3. Check you recorded the number each of them actually uses — not an old line, not a relative's phone.
  4. Tell them what will be asked, so it is not a surprise.
  5. Remind them that no genuine call asks for a PIN, a password or a payment. If a caller asks for any of those, they should hang up and contact support.

Stage 6: Executive approval​

A senior manager reviews the whole file — both call records, the location, the photos — and signs it off.

What you do: nothing. Wait.

Stage 7: Funding​

Welile pairs the approved Rent Plan with Supporter capital, and the rent is released into your landlord float so that you can hand it over.

What you do: watch for the request appearing as funded, and for your landlord float to rise. That is your cue to act.

Stage 8: Paying the landlord​

You visit the property and pay the landlord, then record the evidence: how you paid, your location at the property, the signed paper receipt, and the confirmation code sent to the landlord's phone.

What you do: follow pay a landlord exactly. The facilitation earning on this work depends on the landlord's confirmation being completed, so do not leave the code until tomorrow.

Stage 9: Repayment​

The landlord has been paid and the tenant's repayment schedule begins. This is the longest stage, and the one you earn most from.

What you do: collect, every day the tenant owes. See Rent Collection. Log a promise to pay when somebody misses, and chase arrears while they are small.

Stage 10: Completed, and renewal​

The tenant's balance reaches zero and the plan is marked completed. They now have a repayment record behind them, and they become eligible for a renewal.

What you do: go back to them. See renewing a tenant. A tenant who has just cleared a plan is the best tenant you will find that week.

What each state does not mean​

Keeping these apart is the difference between a calm tenant and an angry one:

  • Submitted is not approved. Anything can still be corrected or declined.
  • Approved is not funded. The decision has been made; the money has not been released.
  • Funded is not paid. The rent is with you, in landlord float, until you hand it over.
  • Paid is not repaid. The landlord has their money; the tenant's schedule is only starting.
  • Logged is not settled. A recorded rent history is not a received payment.

Never tell a tenant their rent is sorted before the landlord has actually been paid.

If a request stops moving​

  1. Check which group it sits in under your submissions.
  2. If it is waiting on a review, check whether the tenant and the landlord are answering their phones — that is the usual reason.
  3. Call both of them and agree a time they will pick up.
  4. If it has been declined, read the note and see when a Rent Request is rejected.
  5. If it is genuinely stuck with nothing outstanding from you, contact support with the tenant's name and the date you submitted.

There is no way to push a request up the queue, and nobody who offers to do that for a fee can.

Still need help?​

Contact Welile Support on WhatsApp, call +256 777 607640, or email info@welile.com.

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