Bilt Livly Migration: What to Confirm

In its September 15, 2026 announcement, Bilt says the Livly migration should preserve existing capabilities but gives no timetable, pricing or integration requirements. Apartment operators should obtain a property-specific transition plan before changing resident instructions or retiring a system.

What the acquisition and partnership cover

Bilt announced its acquisition of Livly’s technology platform, highlighting access control, package management and smart-home capabilities. A separate partnership with Collective Residential is intended to bring the resident experience at its communities onto Bilt. Livly originated at FLATS, now part of Collective. Acquisition and partnership release.

Keep three milestones distinct: the acquisition announcement, the proposed transition and an accepted migration at an individual property. Acceptance should depend on evidence that residents and staff can complete essential tasks, with someone accountable for resolving exceptions. Operators outside Collective should request their own scope and schedule rather than assume Collective’s arrangements apply.

What remains open for Livly customers

The continuity language covers Livly communities and Bilt Alliance partners, but the published announcement does not assign customer-support responsibilities or report completed property migrations.

Those omissions do not establish that service will be interrupted. They identify questions for the customer’s implementation plan: Which properties and functions will move together? Who authorizes the switch? What happens if a required test fails? Who supports residents during the handoff?

Commercial terms need the same specificity. Request a written breakdown of migration work, ongoing charges and optional additions, including any proposed hardware, payment-processing or training costs. Ask whether existing contract terms continue and which changes require acceptance. Have procurement and counsel review proposed contract changes before agreeing to them.

Confirm each property’s integrations

Livly announced an AppFolio partnership on June 26, 2024. That establishes a relationship predating this acquisition; it does not certify a customer’s configuration after migration. Livly’s AppFolio announcement.

Begin the property technology evaluation with an inventory of systems your buildings actually use: the property-management system, access hardware, payment connections and separately contracted services. Confirm which connections continue, which require reconfiguration and who performs that work. A familiar vendor name alone does not show that a connection works.

Trace a resident through move-in, a unit transfer, renewal and move-out. At each step, identify which system controls the resident’s identity, lease status and permissions. Then test whether a change reaches every connected system that needs it. Include removal of permissions as well as creation: a successful new login does not answer whether an old credential has been withdrawn.

Assign responsibility for each resident workflow

Use these checks as proposed acceptance criteria, tailored to the services installed at each property. For every row, name one lead who coordinates resolution across providers and identifies when the onsite team must act.

For connected entry systems, include a practical demonstration of resident access when connected systems fail. Agree on the fallback method and staff responsibilities before residents need them. An app demonstration does not prove that every installed door or device has passed testing.

Test payments that cross the transition date

Consider a hypothetical acceptance test: a resident initiates rent payment before the switch, but settlement occurs afterward. The operator should be able to trace that payment across both environments, identify who resolves an exception and determine what the resident sees while it is pending.

Ask separately whether existing autopay instructions continue, require renewed authorization or need replacement. Obtain explicit instructions before telling residents to change anything. A missing entry in a new screen should trigger reconciliation of the original transaction before anyone recommends another payment.

Make approval depend on evidence

The scope of the transition affects what teams must verify. Bundling new features with migration may reduce repeated onboarding, but it also expands what teams must test and explain. Ask the provider whether continuity work and optional feature adoption can be scheduled separately.

Request a dated implementation plan containing the property list, responsible contacts, test results, unresolved exceptions, resident communications and conditions for postponing the switch. Include access to historical records and a recovery procedure if acceptance checks fail. Review that package with the people responsible for property-management operations, technology and accounting.

Keep any proposed retention or net operating income benefit as a separate business-case assumption until supported by property-level evidence. The immediate approval decision should rest on whether essential workflows work, records reconcile and each unresolved issue has an owner.