Tenants can update their own email, phone number, and mailing address themselves — no need to call the facility for routine contact changes. You control which of the three fields they may edit, per storefront, and you control it separately for the two moments it can happen: while they are signing up, and after they have moved in.
In this article
Before you start
The setting is per storefront, not per organisation. If you manage multiple storefronts (brands), you'll need to enable it separately for each one.
The tenant's name stays read-only either way. Tenants who need their name corrected still have to go through the facility.
Phone and mailing address can't be left blank. If either is enabled for editing, the tenant must supply a complete value — a valid phone number, or a full address including street, city, state, country, and ZIP. Email has no such requirement.
Two settings, two moments
There are two separate points at which a renter can change their own contact details, and each has its own setting on the storefront:
While signing up — from completing checkout until the lease is signed. Controlled by Post purchase flow.
After move-in — at any time, from the tenant portal. Controlled by the Updating personal details options.
They are independent, and that is the point. Some operators want renters to correct their own typos before signing and then freeze the details; others want the reverse — details captured at the counter left alone during sign-up, but editable later. Set each to match how you work.
Set it up for the tenant portal
In marketing.cubbystorage.com, open the storefront and select Settings.
Scroll to the Tenant Portal Settings section — the same section where you set the tenant portal domain and display name.
Under Updating personal details, choose one of the three options:
Don't allow tenants to update their personal details — the Manage button doesn't appear in the portal at all.
Allow tenants to update their personal details — then tick which fields they may change: Email address, Phone number, Address. At least one must be ticked.
Allow updates, except during the lien process — the same as above, but edits are refused while any of the tenant's leases is in the lien process. "Keeps the address and contact info used for lien notices from changing mid-process."
Checking the box reveals three sub-checkboxes, all ticked by default: Email address, Phone number, and Address. Untick any of the three to keep that specific field read-only for tenants while still letting them edit the others.
Click Save. The change applies immediately — tenants will see it the next time they open their portal.
Unticking the parent checkbox clears all three sub-fields at once. If you only want to turn off editing for one field, untick just that field's checkbox — leave the parent checked.
Set it up for the sign-up flow
The second setting covers the stretch between a renter completing checkout and signing their lease, where they are asked to verify their details. It sits directly above the tenant-portal setting, in the same Tenant Portal Settings section.
In marketing.cubbystorage.com, open the storefront and select Settings.
Find the Post purchase flow field.
Pick which of Email address, Phone number and Address a renter may change. Leave out anything you want kept as captured.
Three things worth knowing:
All three start editable. Existing storefronts are unchanged until you narrow the list yourself — nothing locks by default.
A locked field is still shown. The renter can read what is on file and ask you to correct it; they just cannot change it themselves.
Re-submitting an unchanged value is fine. Only a real change to a locked field is refused, so a renter who leaves a field alone and carries on is never blocked.
Tenants imported from your previous software can never edit these details while signing up, whatever you set here.
What tenants can do
Once enabled, tenants see a Manage button on the Personal details card — on their rental page if they have a single rental, or on the Account details tab if they have more than one. Clicking it opens the Manage personal details dialog:
Name — always read-only, with a note to contact the facility for corrections.
Email — editable if enabled for this storefront; otherwise shown disabled.
Phone number — editable if enabled; must be a valid, non-blank number.
Address — editable if enabled; if changed, all address fields (street, city, state, country, ZIP) are required.
The tenant clicks Save to apply the changes. If nothing on the storefront is editable, tenants don't see the Manage button at all — the Personal details card just shows a note to contact the facility instead.
Staff can still update any of these fields from the customer's profile in Cubby regardless of this setting — it only controls whether tenants can do it themselves from the portal.
The confirmation message tenants receive
When a tenant changes their own details in the portal, Cubby confirms it back to them on email and SMS. The message is titled Your account information has been updated and tells them to call the facility if they didn't make the change.
Three things are worth knowing about it:
It's on by default, on both channels, at every facility. You don't have to enable anything.
A copy goes to the old address or number as well as the new one. If a tenant changes their email, the confirmation is sent to both the address they just replaced and the one they just entered — so if someone else changed it, the real tenant still finds out.
It sends at any hour. This is a security notice, so it's exempt from tenant quiet hours and isn't held overnight like an invoice would be. See When automated messages reach tenants.
Only a tenant's own edit in the portal triggers it. When you or your team update a customer's details from inside Cubby, no confirmation is sent — the tenant didn't make the change, so there's nothing to confirm back to them.
Turning it off for a facility
Go to System Messages → Automation. Each facility has its own email and SMS switch for this message; the email one reads Email tenant when they update their contact details in the Tenant Portal, with the matching SMS switch beside it. In the grid view the pair sits under the Send when tenant updates their contact details column.
The wording is editable like any other system message — the template is called Contact information updated. See Creating Communication Templates.
A tenant marked do not disturb, or who has opted out of SMS, is excluded from this message on that channel like any other automated message.
Locking details during the lien process
A lien notice is addressed to whatever contact details are on record. If a tenant changes their email or mailing address partway through the process, a statutory notice can end up going somewhere it shouldn't. Allow updates, except during the lien process prevents that.
With it selected, tenants edit their details normally — until one of their leases enters the lien process. From that point Cubby refuses changes to the name, company name, primary email, primary phone and mailing address, and the tenant sees: "You can't update your contact details while a unit is in the lien process. Contact the facility to make changes." Their input stays in the dialog so nothing is lost.
Worth knowing:
It's all-or-nothing across those fields — you can't lock the address but allow the phone number.
Alternative emails and phones stay editable. A lien notice goes to the primary contact details, so the alternative lists aren't restricted.
Only real changes are refused. A tenant who re-saves the same details without altering anything still succeeds.
It's contact-scoped. A lien on one unit locks that tenant's details everywhere, not just on the unit in question.
Staff are unaffected. Your team can still update the details from the customer's profile in Cubby throughout.
Tenants with no lease in the lien process carry on editing as usual — the restriction only applies to the accounts it needs to. For the lien process itself, see How to conduct liens and auctions in Cubby.
How it shows up in the Activity feed
Every field a tenant changes from the portal writes its own entry to the customer's Activity tab: Customer [name] updated their [field] from [old value] to [new value], with the time, the tenant's name, and — if available — their IP address in the entry's details.
This is a different presentation from the existing "Changed [name]'s [field] from A to B" entry you'll see when a staff member updates the same fields from the customer's profile — that version is attributed to the staff member and never shows an IP address. Both entry types coexist in the same feed; the IP address is the quickest way to tell the two apart.
FAQ
Can I let tenants edit their phone number but not their email or address?
Yes. Tick the parent checkbox, then untick whichever of the three sub-fields you want to keep read-only.
Can tenants clear their phone number or address to leave it blank?
No. Phone and mailing address are required whenever they're editable — the tenant's save is rejected if either is left incomplete. Email has no such requirement.
Can tenants change their name or date of birth from the portal?
No. Name and date of birth are always read-only in the tenant portal. They still need to contact the facility for those changes.
Does this apply to every rental a tenant has?
Personal details belong to the tenant's contact record, not to an individual rental — so a change applies across all of their rentals at this organisation, not just one.
How do I tell a tenant-made change apart from a staff-made one in the Activity feed?
Tenant-made changes are attributed to the customer and, when available, show the IP address the change came from. Staff-made changes are attributed to the staff member and never show an IP address. See How it shows up in the Activity feed above.
What happens if I disable this after tenants have already used it?
Nothing retroactive — past changes and their Activity feed entries stay as-is. Tenants simply lose access to the Manage button and see the read-only card again the next time they open the portal.
Related: Customize your tenant portal for the rest of the Tenant Portal Settings section (domain and display name).