Another online lettings agency launches in March with a claim that it “will streamline and automate the majority of admin tasks for landlords” and create transparency, accountability, convenience and an increased response speed to help drastically improve the renting experience.”
The agency, to be called Accommodation, has what it describes as a “nationwide network of highly experienced lettings managers” who will work with landlords to help them manage their portfolios.
These managers will be self-employed, following the Purplebricks Local Property Experts model.
Meanwhile for tenants it will also have “community managers…on hand to offer advice and support throughout the rental period.”
The agency is expected to launch in the east of England first but to be nationwide by the end of this year. It has what it calls ‘partnerships’ with portals - on the website these are Rightmove, Zoopla, SpareRoom and OnTheMarket, although there is no reference to OTM in the press statement from the agency.
Perhaps most innovative of all, it says that for landlords it will contact any prospective tenant’s previous landlord to get a review of their past tenancy; meanwhile tenants themselves will be able to display their own credit check information, revealing their own credit score “and any adverse financial background including County Court judgements and bankruptcies."
The site also pledges: “We’ll contact the tenant’s current employer to verify their salary and to confirm they'll be in employment throughout the tenancy.”
Accommodation says it will offer full management - which “will allow landlords to put their feet up with the support of Local Lettings Experts and Community Managers for only £30pm per lettable room” or a part-managed service which “will offer flexibility to landlords, enabling them to take control of their portfolio while being supported by Accommodation’s technology and their lettings experts to streamline the renting process for £20pm per lettable room.”
The site says tenants will ”onboard themselves by doing a credit check, providing references, paying their deposit, signing their tenancy agreement and setting up their direct debit for future rental payments.”
Tenants can report any maintenance issues during their stay by sending a description and photo via the Accommodation app or website. This can be automatically sent to the relevant contractor, while the tenant has easy access to see all progress, the agency claims.
You can see the agency’s website here.
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Nothing new here.
We have in preparation for the loss of fees been asking all tenant enquiring to provide an Experian report. And have forvever sought current LL reference.
I also look forward to the day we can archive £30 per letting room as the National average are 3 bed units.
What we need is an open and transparent public register of tenants who are serial non payers, cause thousands of pounds worth of damage and walk away without the slightest recourse toward another unsuspecting landlord claiming “oh, we’ve never rented before, we’ve been staying with parents”
Will never happen..too many goodie goodies at the human rights department and data protection, but it seems to be ok to publish bad agencies details! way too soft in this country
Nothing new with this “LL checking initiative”, that’s what an agents job is supposed to be. All hype!
Nothing new here. As a business providing Tenant Referencing we already provide all of these services to our clients.
We also have our own default tenant database informing our customers of tenants who may have had problems paying rent in the past.
but your database is solely for your own company use and not natioanlly and leave these tenants to prey on unsuspecting landlord. Alaister is right. we need a national data open to the public to catch these fraudster. it is not just a civil matter anymore if they go around knowingly and intentionally committing fraud onto unsuspecting landlord. surely this is a crime worth looking into by the politicians as its costing us millions in rental arrears and also utility bills which affect every resident in uk
I think the idea has merit, just going to show though that this new "disruptor" is doing nothing new, and there are companies out there that can provide some more insight to previous tenancies.
except those companies have no obligation to share the details to those who are not their clients
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