Real estate
A managing agent's core exposure is not commercial, it is procedural: a lapsed gas safety certificate, an arrears case chased inconsistently, or a Section 21 notice served without the deposit correctly protected are the kind of failures that surface only when something goes wrong, by which point the cost is a tribunal, a fine, or a landlord who moves their portfolio elsewhere. We build property management software around the tenancy as the unit of record — every certificate, every arrears event, every works order and every notice attached to the tenancy it belongs to — so the system can enforce the sequence an agency's own compliance policy requires, rather than relying on a property manager's memory across a portfolio of several hundred tenancies.
This covers standard assured shorthold tenancy management and, where an agency runs it, block management service charge accounting, built as a connected but distinct module because the accounting and consultation rules for a managed block differ materially from an individual letting.
The workflow this replaces
Most agencies without a dedicated platform run compliance and arrears tracking through a combination of spreadsheets, calendar reminders and staff memory, distributed unevenly across the team.
Step 01
Gas safety, EICR and EPC expiry dates are recorded in a shared spreadsheet maintained by one team member, updated when a renewal happens but rarely audited against the actual property portfolio, so gaps accumulate silently as properties are added or change management agent.
Step 02
A property manager has to actively check the spreadsheet on a routine, rather than being prompted, to see which certificates are approaching expiry, which means renewal booking happens reactively, close to or after the expiry date, rather than with enough lead time to book a convenient contractor slot.
Step 03
One property manager sends a reminder text the same day; another waits a week to see if the payment arrives late before doing anything, because there is no system-enforced chase sequence, which means two tenants in an identical arrears position receive different treatment and the agency has no consistent record of what was actually done.
Step 04
When arrears reach the point of considering possession proceedings, someone has to reconstruct the payment and communication history from bank statements, email threads and whatever notes exist, a process that can take days and often reveals gaps in the record that weaken the claim.
Step 05
A maintenance issue is emailed to a contractor, and its status — quoted, accepted, scheduled, completed, invoiced — is tracked by whoever raised it remembering to follow up, with no visibility for anyone else in the team if that person is out of the office.
Step 06
Service charge income, expenditure against the budget, and reserve fund balance for a managed block are calculated in a separate spreadsheet from the standard lettings ledger, and a combined statement for a landlord with both a managed flat and other let properties has to be assembled by hand.
Each of these processes is manageable at small scale by a diligent team. They fail predictably as the portfolio grows past the point where any one person can hold the full picture in their head, which is exactly the point at which the consequences of failure — a lapsed certificate, a botched possession claim — become expensive.
What we build
Every tenancy tracked from application through move-in, renewal or Section 21/Section 8 exit, with the current state, key dates and outstanding actions visible on a single record rather than reconstructed from separate documents.
Gas safety, EICR and EPC expiry dates held against the property, with a configurable alert schedule and escalation, and a compliance status flag on the tenancy that a property manager cannot dismiss without recording the renewal date.
A configurable chase sequence triggered by a missed payment, with each reminder, notice and escalation date-stamped and stored, building the evidence trail a possession claim on a rent arrears ground requires.
Maintenance issues raised as works orders with status tracking from report through completion and invoicing, integrated with existing contractor dispatch tools where the agency already uses them.
Scheme (TDS, DPS or MyDeposits), certificate reference and prescribed information service date held against the tenancy, checked automatically before a Section 21 notice workflow is allowed to proceed.
Service charge budgets, apportionment across leaseholders, Section 20 major works consultation tracking, and reserve fund accounting, held as a distinct ledger that rolls up into a combined landlord statement alongside standard lettings income.
Standing statements covering rent received, works order costs, compliance status and, where relevant, service charge position, generated per landlord rather than assembled by a property manager before each reporting cycle.
Integrations
Management platforms
Compliance schemes
Payments and finance
Contractors and communication
Where a full replacement is not warranted, this platform is built to sit alongside an agency's existing management system, reading tenancy and ledger data through its API and writing back compliance status and arrears events so both systems stay consistent.
Data and compliance
Architecture note
The tenancy is the primary unit of record, with compliance certificates, arrears events, works orders and deposit protection all held as linked entities against it, so a single tenancy view answers most compliance and status questions without a cross-system lookup.
Certificate and arrears alerting run as a scheduled service independent of anyone opening the record, so an approaching expiry or an overdue chase step fires whether or not a property manager happens to check that day.
Block management accounting runs as a separate ledger module with its own chart of accounts and apportionment logic, connected to the standard lettings ledger through the shared landlord and property records rather than sharing a single accounting model that would not fit either use case well.
Integration with an incumbent management platform is built as an adapter against that platform's API or export format, so tenancy and ledger data stays authoritative in one place while compliance and arrears tracking run as an extension rather than a competing source of truth.
Timeline
Weeks 1-3
Mapping of the current management platform, compliance tracking process and arrears policy, and a phased build plan separating compliance-critical modules from later reporting features.
Weeks 4-7
Tenancy, property and landlord data model, and integration with the existing management platform or migration plan for a full replacement.
Weeks 8-11
Certificate expiry tracking, alert configuration, and deposit protection checks tied to the Section 21 workflow.
Weeks 12-16
Arrears chase sequence configuration, evidence trail storage, and works order management with contractor dispatch integration.
Weeks 17-21
Where in scope: service charge budgeting, Section 20 consultation tracking, and reserve fund accounting.
Weeks 22-25
Data migration, parallel running where a legacy platform is being replaced, staff training and phased rollout by branch or portfolio segment.
Indicative cost
Bands assume a UK managing agent portfolio in the low thousands of tenancies. A larger multi-branch portfolio or a substantial block management book sits toward the upper end and is typically phased over a longer programme.
Where this sits
Questions
Yes, for agencies whose volume, service model or block management complexity has outgrown what an off-the-shelf platform will flex to accommodate. Most engagements we take on, though, are agencies keeping their core lettings ledger and having us build a compliance tracking, works order or block management layer that the incumbent platform handles thinly or not at all, integrated through its API or database access. We size this in discovery.
Every certificate — gas safety, EICR, EPC — is stored against the property with its issue and expiry date, and the system runs a standing alert schedule that fires to the responsible property manager at configurable intervals before expiry, typically at 60, 30 and 7 days, escalating to a manager if the renewal has not been actioned. The tenancy record itself is flagged non-compliant if any certificate lapses, which is a stronger control than a reminder email that can be missed.
The system tracks the chase sequence an agency defines — reminder, formal notice, escalation — and records the date and content of each communication, which builds the evidence trail a Section 8 possession claim under a rent arrears ground requires. It does not serve legal notices or give legal advice; notice drafting and service remain a decision for the agency or its solicitor, informed by the arrears history the system has kept accurately. Confirm current arrears threshold and notice period requirements with your legal adviser, as these are subject to change.
Yes, as a distinct module. Service charge budgets, apportionment across leaseholders, Section 20 consultation tracking for qualifying works, and reserve fund accounting are held separately from the assured shorthold tenancy ledger, because the accounting rules and reporting obligations differ, while still rolling up to a combined statement for a landlord who owns a flat in a managed block and also lets other properties through the same agency.
We integrate with existing contractor dispatch and scheduling tools so a works order raised in the property management system appears in the contractor's own job list without double entry, and status updates flow back automatically. Where an agency has no dispatch tooling in place, we build a lightweight works order and contractor communication module as part of the platform.
A compliance and works order module built against an existing management platform typically runs £250,000 to £400,000 over four to five months. A full platform covering tenancy lifecycle, compliance, arrears and block management typically runs £400,000 to £850,000 delivered in phases over six to nine months, so compliance-critical tracking is live well before the full programme completes.
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