How rent payments work

Who is who

• The landlord owns the property and receives the rent. They are BrickMind's customer.
• The tenant rents the property and pays the rent.
• BrickMind is the software in between. Money never passes through BrickMind or any account it controls.

What is being paid

Residential rent under an Australian residential tenancy agreement, at the amount and frequency written into that agreement. Nothing else is charged through BrickMind.

How rent is paid today

The tenant transfers rent to the landlord's own bank account, using the BSB and account number shown in their tenant portal. Where the landlord has set a payment reference, the portal shows that too.

The landlord confirms the payment has arrived. BrickMind then records it against the lease and issues a receipt, which the tenant can download from their portal or have emailed to them.

The money goes directly from the tenant's bank to the landlord's bank. BrickMind does not sit in the middle of it.

What we are building

We are building direct debit, so rent can be collected automatically instead of transferred by hand.

When it launches, the tenant will authorise a direct debit — PayTo or BECS — in their own banking app, for a set amount on a set schedule. Each rent payment will be debited from the tenant's bank account and paid into the landlord's own Stripe account. BrickMind will not hold the funds at any point.

The tenant will be able to cancel that authorisation in their banking app at any time. Direct debit will always be optional: paying by bank transfer stays available, free, and Queensland law requires it to.

We are also building automatic receipts. Today a receipt is created as soon as a payment is confirmed, and the tenant fetches it from their portal. We are making it arrive by email at that moment instead, so the tenant does not have to ask for it. This does not depend on direct debit.

What it costs

BrickMind is free during the private beta and takes no percentage of rent, no letting fee and no renewal fee. It takes no cut of any payment.

When direct debit launches, Stripe charges A$3.50 including GST per debit, paid from the landlord's Stripe balance. If a payment fails or is disputed, Stripe charges the landlord's balance too: A$25 for a disputed PayTo payment, A$2.50 for a failed or disputed BECS payment. These are Stripe's fees. BrickMind does not add to them and does not receive any part of them.

If a payment is reversed

If a landlord reverses a payment they had confirmed — because it was recorded in error, or because the transfer did not clear — the rent goes back to unpaid on the ledger and the tenant is told. The receipt is voided rather than deleted, and stays on the record.

When direct debit launches, a failed debit will leave the rent unpaid and tell the tenant what their bank said and how to pay by transfer instead. If a tenant's bank reverses a payment, the receipt will be voided and the rent will go back to unpaid. The landlord and tenant see the same record either way.

The two direct debit rails will not carry the same risk, and the difference falls on the landlord. A BECS debit can be reversed by the tenant through their bank for up to seven years after it is taken, with no merits review, and the reversal comes off the landlord's Stripe balance first. BECS also settles up to three business days after the debit, rather than immediately. That seven-year right is specific to BECS: Stripe has told us PayTo disputes are final, and we will not state a PayTo reversal window of our own until Stripe documents one.

Questions about a payment

Tenants: if you have a question about rent you have paid or a receipt you have received, email kel@brickmind.com.au. If your question is about the tenancy itself — the rent amount, repairs, or your agreement — that is between you and your landlord, and we will say so rather than answer for them.

Landlords: email kel@brickmind.com.au.