New PropTech service allowing direct contact with tenants

A new PropTech platform says it allows easy digital contact between tenants, landlords and third party suppliers avoiding the need to use a lettings agent.

RentOnCloud claims to be “the UK’s first, secure, digital platform to connect landlords, renters and tradespeople via a centralised service” and states that it is “set to disrupt the property rental and management market by fully enabling the digital transformation of activities.”

It claims that landlords can use the platform for end-to-end property management including property listings; marketing; sourcing and referencing tenants; direct messaging to manage viewings; tailored property maintenance requests; rent collection direct via a payment gateway; inventory reporting; document management and accounting.

Meanwhile tenants can use it to search and apply for homes to let, to screen landlords, pay their rent and deposits, and report maintenance tasks for landlord approval.

Tradespeople can apparently showcase their services; receive or bid for tasks directly either from landlords or renters; and receive payment via a secure platform.

Rajiv Singh, founder of RentOnCloud, says: “The majority of UK rental properties are currently marketed and managed, and tenants sourced, via commercial lettings agents, due to a lack of confidence in the commercial viability of non-fee paying websites. 

“Many potential tenants are reluctant to deal with private landlords direct, as the majority of ‘free to use’ public websites do not allow the vetting of landlords, which can result in rental fraud and rogue landlords.

“However, using a lettings agent can be costly both from a tenant and landlord perspective, incurring fees for tenant sourcing/references/inventory check-in/out, plus ongoing costs for maintenance services provided by agency sourced tradespeople. Landlords are then liable for additional costs such as accounting and tax reporting.”

He says it’s clear that there should be “a more cost effective, secure, unified service to meet the needs of landlords, tenants and maintenance service providers.”  

The service is described as being free to single-property landlords and tenants - but landlords must pay for some services that require third party agency involvement such as tenant referencing.

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