The Deposit Problem Nobody Talks About

Security deposits are one of the most legally exposed, operationally burdensome, and resident-satisfaction-critical processes in property management — and most operators are running them on autopilot with tools that don’t actually work. At Happy Summit 2026, Joe Di Re of Qira and Stephanie Gubiotti of the Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate joined HappyCo on stage to challenge the status quo and share a better way.

This guide distills their conversation into a practical playbook for operators who want to eliminate administrative burden, stay ahead of fast-changing regulations, and finally deliver a move-out experience residents actually appreciate.

Is Your Deposit Solution Actually Working? 

When the moderator asked for a show of hands on how many operators had a deposit solution in place, nearly every hand in the room went up. That’s the good news. The bad news followed almost immediately.

“It’s not so much having a solution set up—it’s about what’s supporting it and the benefits that it actually provides you as an owner-operator. On paper, a cash-backed solution and an insurance-backed solution might look like the exact same thing. The way in which that process is handled is significant.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

Anyone who has filed a claim with an insurance company knows the experience isn’t always seamless. The same friction shows up in deposit alternatives. The mechanism exists, but the execution — the claim handling, the resident communication, and the speed of refund — is where operators and residents actually feel the difference.

The Reality Operators Don’t Talk About

Stephanie Dubiati came to Qira as an operator as someone who had used Rhino, Jetty, and various other PMS platforms across her own portfolio. She described what most operators quietly deal with every single month:

• Security deposits are “touched” at month-end by accounting teams, property operations, and on-site staff — often creating redundant work and discrepancies.
• Merge field errors in lease management platforms were generating records showing deposits that weren’t actually held, leading to false refunds at move-out.

The cost of those discrepancies isn’t just financial — it creates downstream compliance risk and damages resident trust.

“You had leases showing that you had deposits that you didn’t actually have on hand, which were leading to people needing to give false refunds at move-out. That was the pain point as an operator.” — Stephanie Gubiotti | Advisor, Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate 

Key Insight: Ask about the fee structure first

Joe’s advice to anyone evaluating a deposit program: “If you’re using a company to provide a service to you, they should also be providing service.” Start by demanding full transparency on fees — what’s charged, to whom, and what the resident actually experiences on the back end.

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The Regulatory Landscape Is Moving Fast & Most Operators Are Behind

The regulatory environment around security deposits has shifted dramatically in recent years, with California’s AB 2801 as the most visible example. But it’s far from the only one.

The specific variables operators need to track — across every state they operate in — include timelines for issuing refunds, rules around how funds can be held, whether interest accrues, who receives that interest, and what documentation is required to support a deposit claim.

“Every single state operates differently and there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. Being able to be nimble, flexible, and have a team strictly focused on managing this across all 50 states is an incredibly valuable resource when you’re trying to solve this.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

Where California Goes, Others Follow

Joe and the moderator made a point that operators in lower-regulation states should pay close attention to: California has historically set the template for deposit legislation nationwide. Colorado, New York, and others have already followed. The operators best positioned for the next wave of regulation aren’t the ones scrambling to catch up, they’re the ones who build flexibility into their deposit process now.

Organizations have been staffing entire internal teams just to track regulatory changes in this space. Qira’s compliance team does this proactively, anticipating legislation before it’s enacted and adjusting workflows accordingly — so operators don’t have to.

“We’re already planning ahead to address regulatory changes on a regular basis — regardless of what state. A client sent me a new California law the other day asking how we’re set up to handle it. It’s a very easy discussion because we’re already there.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

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The Financial Infrastructure Nobody Else Has

Most deposit solutions are built on top of someone else’s infrastructure. They’re passing costs through multiple layers of vendors and taking a cut along the way. Qira’s differentiation starts at the foundation.

Because Qira has its own payment processing infrastructure, rather than relying on third-party vendors, they avoid the layered fees that inflate costs for operators and residents alike. That’s what makes the economics of their model work.

“We have the ability to open up escrow accounts and interest-bearing accounts — managing those funds, transacting those dollars on your behalf. We don’t have to do that for you, but it is a unique component of our solution that helps expedite the process and take off a lot of the administrative burden.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

Features That Actually Solve Real Problems

Beyond the financial model, Qira’s product includes features that address operational headaches operators have lived with for years — simply because no one else bothered to solve them.
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Split Deposit Refunds for Multiple Parties

Roommate situations. Divorced tenants. Co-signers. These are common scenarios that create genuine operational pain at move-out — who gets the deposit back, in what amounts, and how do you handle disputes without just defaulting to the primary leaseholder?

“We have the ability to split that up — refund deposits back to the appropriate parties so that you’re not just tied to the main leaseholder. To my knowledge, there’s nobody else that can do that.” — Stephanie Gubiotti | Advisor, Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate 

Flexible Repayment Plans

As rental markets shift — rents declining in some markets, vacancies rising — the ability to offer flexible deposit payment and repayment options becomes a real competitive advantage. Qira works with residents on repayment arrangements at move-in and move-out, reducing friction and keeping more residents in homes they might otherwise leave.
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The HappyCo Integration: Closing the Loop

The integration between Qira and HappyCo turns what were previously two disconnected processes — inspection data and deposit management — into a single evidence chain. Move-in inspection data, unit condition documentation, and move-out inspection records flow directly into Qira, providing the evidentiary support needed to make or dispute a deposit claim.

“There is an opportunity to close the loop. As states have changed laws around what you’re allowed to charge from a security deposit standpoint—and the proof points you have to provide to make a claim—there’s a natural progression to go from data in HappyCo into Qira to provide that evidentiary support.” — Ben Nowacky | President, HappyCo

Integration Value

This is particularly critical as state regulations increasingly require detailed, timestamped documentation to support any deposit deduction. The HappyCo–Qira integration transforms inspection photos and condition reports from a nice-to-have into a legally defensible audit trail.

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The Move-Out Experience is Your Most Important Review

Here’s the insight that reframes the entire deposit conversation: the move-out experience generates your most lasting online reviews — not the move-in. 

“A lot of people focus on red-carpeting their residents in. There’s a lot less focus on red-carpeting them out. I’ve dug into a lot of review data and oftentimes the impact is at the end — whether there was a challenge with a deposit, a timeline delay, how that information was communicated.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

HappyCo’s President, Ben Nowacky, reinforced this with a principle that applies far beyond deposits: treat people better on the way out than you did on the way in. The person leaving your property is the most likely to leave a review, tell friends about their experience, or choose whether or not to recommend your community to peers.  

“We want that resident to understand that at the end of 12, 18, 21 months, the way they’re leaving that property is going to be taken into account with the exact same care as everything they’ve done up until that point.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

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Don’t Be Sold on Promises, Demand Proof

The session closed with direct, unfiltered advice from both Joe and Stephanie highlighting the importance of not settling and insisting on proof. 

“You do not have to settle for status quo. How things used to be. It sounds too good to be true until you sit down with us and we show you exactly how this works. This is a win-win solution for the owner-operator — a free service that provides insulated revenue — and a technology designed to help residents and your teams.” — Joe Di Re | CRO, Qira

“I would encourage you not to be sold on promises or what could be. Ask about actual use cases. Get proof points. Educate yourself that way. There are others in this space raising money right now trying to build what we actually have fully built and done.” — Stephanie Gubiotti | Advisor, Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate 

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The Closing Thought

“Treat people better on the way out than you did on the way in. That’s how you deliver a great resident experience — and it starts with getting security deposits right.”
— Ben Nowacky | President, HappyCo