Setting Up Your Units

Why Units Matter

Units are the foundation of your HOA's financial structure in Nestingbird. Each unit represents an individual ownership interest in your association — with a unit number, an ownership percentage that determines its share of monthly assessments, and an assigned owner. Until your units are set up, key features like online collections, invoicing, and 22.1 resale disclosures can't function properly.

Option 1: Upload Your Declaration

The fastest way to populate your units is to upload your association's declaration of condominium (CC&Rs). Navigate to Units from the Dashboard and click Upload Declaration. Upload the PDF and Nestingbird will automatically extract:

Unit numbers — every unit identified in the declaration.
Ownership percentages — the common interest percentage assigned to each unit.

Once processing is complete, you'll see a summary showing each unit that was created or updated along with its ownership percentage. Review the results and make any corrections as needed. You'll then assign current owners to their units separately — since declarations list the original owners, the current ownership is usually different.

You can also email your declaration directly to your account's Document Mailbox and Nestingbird will import and process it the same way — handy if you have the document in your inbox already.

Option 2: Add Units Manually

If you don't have a declaration handy or prefer to enter units one at a time, navigate to Units and click New Unit. For each unit, you'll enter:

Unit number — the identifier for the unit (e.g., "101", "2A").
Ownership percentage — the unit's share of common interest. All units in your building should sum to 100%.
Owner — select from your existing members or pending invitations to assign ownership.
Occupancy status — whether the unit is owner-occupied, tenant-occupied, or vacant.

Updating Ownership Percentages

Ownership percentages are defined by your association's declaration and typically don't change often. When they do — for example, after an amendment to the declaration — upload the updated declaration using the same process described above. Nestingbird will match units it can identify from the document and update their ownership percentages accordingly. Units that aren't found in the new document remain unchanged.

You can also edit any unit's ownership percentage manually by clicking into the unit and updating the field directly.

Assigning Members to Units

Assigning a member to a unit establishes ownership — that person becomes the unit's owner of record in Nestingbird. This determines who receives invoices, who can generate 22.1 disclosures for the unit, and who gets notifications about their unit's account status.

Members can be assigned during unit creation or from the Members tab on the Dashboard where you can bulk-invite members with unit assignments in a single step.

Units and 22.1 Disclosures

Accurate unit data is essential for generating compliant 22.1 resale disclosures. The disclosure requires reporting on individual unit vacancy statuses, occupancy breakdowns, and other unit-level details. Without units set up and their occupancy statuses current, the association-wide disclosure questionnaire will have gaps. Keep unit information — especially occupancy status — up to date so disclosures are accurate when an owner needs one.

Units and Collections

Setting up your units is a prerequisite for enabling online assessment collection. Each unit's monthly fee is calculated from its ownership percentage and your association's total monthly assessment. Once units are in place with assigned owners, you can activate collections and Nestingbird will handle invoicing, payment processing, and overdue reminders automatically.

Plan Requirement

Unit management is available on all plans, including Basics. Online assessment collection requires the Good Standing plan or above.