Five tenants in Matero
Landlords answering tenants directly
You already answer tenants on WhatsApp. This keeps that channel and adds the reminders, matching and records you were doing by hand.
Notes for Zambian landlords
No. 03 · Running your rentals over WhatsApp
Updated September 2026
No. 03 · WhatsApp
Run your rentals over WhatsApp
Most Zambian landlords already run their properties out of WhatsApp: rent proof, a repair complaint, a tenant asking for a receipt, all in one thread that grows longer and harder to search every month. Tezeka does not ask anyone to move to a new app. It works over WhatsApp, where your tenants already are, and turns those messages into records.
In short
- Reminders, receipts and confirmations arrive as WhatsApp messages
- Tenants ask what they owe and get an answer, with no login
- Every action an agent takes is logged against the property
- Tenants without WhatsApp can get the same messages by SMS
02 · Side by side
The same conversation, two ways
In the chat
- Rent proof sits between voice notes and stickers
- Finding March means scrolling for minutes
- A receipt is whatever you remember to send
- An agent’s word is the only record
In Tezeka
- Each screenshot becomes a payment against a tenant and a month
- March is one tap away, with the date and the proof
- A receipt goes out when you confirm the payment
- Every reminder and confirmation is logged, with a time
The record of what happened is a scroll, not a record
“Did she pay in March?” means opening WhatsApp and scrolling past stickers, voice notes and a photo of somebody’s new fridge to find a screenshot from months ago. Nothing is tied to a rent month you can search, and when two tenants send the same round MoMo amount on the same day, you are guessing which one is which.
With one or two tenants this is survivable. With a growing portfolio, or an agent running several owners’ properties from one phone, it becomes the real bottleneck: not collecting the money, but knowing what has already been collected.
04 · How it works
One message, from WhatsApp to the record
Nothing changes about how a tenant pays or where they send proof. What changes is what happens next.
- 3 Mar, 08:14
Natasha sends her MoMo screenshot on WhatsApp, as she always does.
- 3 Mar, 08:15
Tezeka reads the amount and reference and matches them to Flat 4 for March.
- 3 Mar, 08:20
You get a WhatsApp message with the match and tap Confirm or Not paid.
- 3 Mar, 08:21
Her receipt goes back on WhatsApp, with a receipt number.
- Any night
She asks what she owes and gets a straight answer, without you.
For agents: a different job, and a different worry
A landlord’s worry is whether the rent came in. An agent’s worry is whether the owner will take their word for what happened three weeks ago. An agent forwards confirmations, chases tenants and logs repairs for someone who is not in the room, sometimes not in the country, and when a dispute surfaces later, “I told them” is not evidence.
Every reminder sent, payment confirmed and repair update logged through Tezeka carries a time and sits against the property and the tenant, limited to what that agent was assigned. It is a record an owner can check, and it lets a good agent’s work speak for itself.
06 · Who this is for
Four people we had in mind
An agent with three owners
Agents managing for an owner
You need a record an owner cannot dispute, without writing them a report every week.
Living in Johannesburg
Owners with someone on the ground
You are not in the WhatsApp thread. The record shows what your agent actually did, not just what they told you.
Eight units in Kitwe
Landlords outgrowing memory
Three or four tenants you can remember. Eight is where “who paid?” needs scrolling to answer.
07 · What changes
What you stop doing by hand
- i
Scrolling threads to find who paid and when
- ii
Answering “what do I owe?” at eleven at night
- iii
Defending an agent’s work with screenshots
- iv
Remembering which reminder you forgot to send
No. 0001
- Date
- Today
- Received from
- You
- For
- 1 unit
- Amount
- K99 a month
Counterfoil. Keep for your records
Start here
Start with the property you have
Solo is K99 a month for 1 unit. Your tenants keep paying you directly by MoMo, Airtel Money or bank transfer. Tezeka never touches your rent.
Does the tenant need to install anything?
No. They keep using the WhatsApp they already have. Nothing changes on their side.
Does this replace WhatsApp, or work alongside it?
It works alongside it, through a WhatsApp Business number. There is no separate tenant app to get people to adopt.
Can an agent see all of a landlord’s messages?
No. Agent access is limited to the properties and tenants they are assigned, not a landlord’s whole portfolio, billing or unrelated conversations.
What if a tenant does not use WhatsApp?
Reminders and confirmations can go by SMS instead, so a tenant without WhatsApp still gets the message.
Does Tezeka read my personal WhatsApp chats?
No. Tezeka connects to a WhatsApp Business number through the official WhatsApp Cloud API. It has no access to a personal account or to chats outside that number.
How is it different for an agent and a landlord?
The mechanism is the same: reminders, matching and confirmations. An agent’s view is limited to assigned properties, and every action they take is logged for the owner they work for.