Industries: property management
Property management software UK: built around tenants, blocks and deadlines
Your lettings package holds the rent and the accounts. We build the layer it leaves out: inventories on a phone, compliance dates that chase themselves, repairs with a trail, and a portal that keeps landlords and leaseholders off the phone.
A lettings office runs on keys, certificates and notice periods
The property management software UK agents already use does one job well: rent collection, client accounts, statements. What it leaves out is the day around it. The check-in inventory typed up at night from forty photos. The gas safety record nobody chased until the week it expired. The tenant reporting a leak by text, the plumber asking who has the key, the landlord asking for the third time when the repair is booked.
This page shows what we would build for a letting agent, a property manager or a block management company in England, need by need and by size, with the rules that come with it: the Renters' Rights Act, deposit protection, Right to Rent, gas and electrical safety, redress and client money protection, and section 20 for blocks. Everything you see is an example with made-up names and addresses.
Lost hours in a lettings week
An agency rarely loses time on the management itself. It leaks in the back and forth between tenants, landlords, contractors and leaseholders.
| Moment | How it often goes | With your own app next to the package |
|---|---|---|
| Check-in inventory | Notes on paper, photos on a personal phone, the report typed up later | A record per room on the phone, photos on the file, the tenant signs on the spot |
| Gas safety and EICR | A spreadsheet of dates, reminders in someone's inbox | Every property shows what is due, booked and sent to the tenant |
| A repair | Tenant texts, agent emails the contractor, nobody knows who has the key | The report arrives with photos, the contractor gets address, access notes and contact |
| Rent review | A section 13 notice drafted by hand, the date counted on a calendar | The notice and the earliest date ready, the agent checks and sends |
| Check-out and deposit | Comparing two reports, deductions agreed by email | Check-in and check-out side by side, deductions listed with photos |
| Overnight messages | A full inbox at nine, the urgent one somewhere in it | A list sorted by urgency with a draft reply |
None of this replaces your lettings or block accounting package. We build next to it and connect where it allows, so rent, client money and statements stay where they are. How that works is on API integration services.
A Right to Rent check, a check-in and a gas safety visit on one phone
- Deadlines run in the backgroundDeposit protection within 30 days, the gas safety record within 28 days, the EICR every five years: each property shows what is due and who has it.
- Right to Rent is on the fileThe check, the date and a copy go to the tenancy file for every adult, before the tenancy starts.
- Block work and lettings on one listThe block inspection and the gas check sit in the same day as the check-in, with the address and access notes.
An example of what we can build, with made-up addresses and names. You choose what the record shows.
Compliance dates that chase themselves
A letting agent manages the dates of other people's properties: the gas safety record every year, the EICR every five years, the deposit protected within 30 days, the prescribed information, the Right to Rent check before the tenancy starts. Each one has a fine or a lost possession claim behind it. In most offices they live in a spreadsheet and in the memory of one person.
A small app ties each date to a property and a person. It books the engineer, sends the record to the tenant and shows a manager in one screen what is overdue across the portfolio. It works like a work order app for a trade, only built around properties and tenancies. If your bookings still live in spreadsheets, our guide on Excel scheduling or planning software shows where the line sits.
Section 20 roof works in five stages, with the estimate against the invoices
Leaseholders follow the stages, photos and costs in the portal. Observations from the consultation stay on the file.
An example of what we can build, with a made-up block and amounts.
Blocks and leaseholders who can see the file
Block management runs on consultation. Works above the threshold need a notice of intention, estimates and a statement before a contract is signed, and leaseholders ask the same questions at every stage: what does it cost me, when does it start, where are the estimates. A client portal answers them before anyone picks up the phone.
Per block, the file holds the lease summary, the service charge budget, the section 20 stages, the minutes of the AGM and the contractor's valuations. Leaseholders see what concerns them, directors of the residents' management company see more, a contractor sees only the job. Access is set per role, with two-factor authentication for anyone who signs off. If you also manage Belgian co-ownerships, the deeper side of that is on syndic software.
The board sees an EICR booked outside the tenant's access window
The board spotted a problem
On Thursday Priya is booked for the EICR at Flat 5, Redland Mews at 10am, but the tenant's access note says weekdays after 2pm only.
The board moves the EICR to 2pm, Priya's first free slot after that, and texts the tenant with more than 24 hours' notice.
Fixed: EICR moved to 2pm
An example of what we can build, with made-up names and buildings. You choose what the board checks.
Contractors, inspections and access on one board
An agency has no crew of its own but plans everyone else's week: the Gas Safe engineer, the electrician doing the EICR, the inventory clerk, the roofers on a block. A shared calendar knows the appointments, not the rules behind them. That tenants need at least 24 hours' notice. That Flat 5 is only home after two. That a quote above an agreed limit needs the landlord's yes first.
A custom board keeps those rules and warns before a contractor stands at a locked door. The same screen can plan your own team's rotas, which is what staff scheduling software covers.
Redress and client money are yours, the paper trail can be software
In England a letting agent or property manager must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, and an agent who holds client money must be in an approved client money protection scheme. Software can keep certificates, renewal dates and complaint logs in one place. Membership itself stays with you.
Seven overnight messages, with what the team does first
An example of what we can build, with made-up messages. The AI sorts and drafts, a person decides.
Tenant and leaseholder messages, sorted before nine
An agency with three hundred tenancies and a handful of blocks starts every day with a pile of messages: a broken boiler, a question about the deposit, a tenant giving notice, a leaseholder disputing a service charge line. AI reads them, puts the urgent ones first and drafts a reply from what is already on the file: the check-out date, the section 13 notice, the 28 days the landlord has to answer a pet request. The agent reads, edits and sends.
Nothing goes out on its own. Tenant data stays inside your own systems, under UK GDPR; our guide on UK GDPR versus EU GDPR covers the difference if you also work with EU landlords. How such an assistant works is on AI customer service.
A landlord in Horfield looking for a letting agent
New landlord enquiry
Two flats in Bishopston, wants full management from January
Mark, Horfield, yesterday 21:10
- A page per service with your fees shown
- A Google profile with hours, out-of-hours number and reviews
- A valuation form that asks for the property and the tenancy status
Example with made-up agencies and reviews.
Found by landlords and residents' companies
New instructions come from a landlord searching for letting agents in their town, or from the directors of a block who are unhappy with their managing agent. Both read reviews, look for your fees and your redress scheme, and ask two or three agencies for a proposal. Letting agents must publish their fees on their website, so a clear fees page is a legal duty and a sales page at once.
We build a page per service, a Google profile with hours and an out-of-hours number, and a valuation form that asks for what you need: the property, the tenancy status, the number of flats. How to set up that profile is in our guide to creating a Google Business Profile. The site itself is on property management website design, and sales agents find their side on real estate marketing.
Hiring a property manager without a recruiter
An example of what we can build, with made-up names. You choose which questions the form asks.
Property management software UK agencies need at each size
A self-managing landlord with twelve flats needs something else than an agency with forty staff and two thousand units. An ERP is the start for neither.
| Size | What you need | What you do not need yet |
|---|---|---|
| Sole agent or portfolio landlord | Inventories on a phone, a compliance date per property, a simple site with a valuation form | A portal of your own, a board for many contractors |
| Team of five | A shared board, repair reports with photos, a portal for landlords and leaseholders | A custom link to every package, rights down to each document |
| Agency of 20 to 50 | Roles per branch and per block, a link to your lettings and block accounting package, a dashboard per portfolio | Replacing the package that does client accounts well |
| Larger group or franchise | Several branches, an audit log, APIs to bank and insurer, AI on the shared inbox | A two-year ERP project for what a layer on top solves |
If every block lives in its own spreadsheet, the first step is the same at any size: one source instead of five. That is what our guide on replacing Excel with software is about.
The rules your software has to know, checked in October 2026
Software keeps dates, it does not give legal advice. We checked the rules below against GOV.UK and the legislation on 31 October 2026. They apply to private renting and block management in England.
| Situation | What the rule asks | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| Renters' Rights Act, from 1 May 2026 | Section 21 is gone and tenancies are assured periodic; rent goes up once a year through a section 13 notice with at least two months' notice; no more than one month's rent in advance; no rental bidding | The notice and its earliest date ready, advance rent capped on the offer |
| Pets and information | A pet request answered within 28 days; existing tenants had the government information sheet by 31 May 2026 | The request, the deadline and the reply on the tenancy file |
| Deposit protection | Protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days, with the prescribed information | The receipt date, the scheme certificate and the 30-day deadline |
| Right to Rent | Check every adult before a new tenancy; a follow-up check for time-limited permission | The check, the date, a copy and the follow-up date |
| Gas safety | A Gas Safe registered engineer checks every appliance each year; the record to the tenant within 28 days, to a new tenant before move-in | Due dates per property, the engineer booked, the record sent |
| Electrical safety (EICR) | An inspection at least every five years under the 2020 regulations | The next date per property and the report on the file |
| Redress and client money | Membership of an approved redress scheme, fines up to £5,000; client money protection for agents holding client money | Certificates and renewal dates |
| Section 20 consultation | Consult leaseholders when works cost any one of them more than £250 | The stages, notices and observations per block |
| PRS database | Registration of landlords and properties expected from late 2026; the Landlord Ombudsman later | A field ready per property and landlord |
The last row is not in force yet; its date follows the government roadmap.
A worked example in hours per year
Take an agency with three property managers, 280 managed tenancies and 8 blocks with 190 leaseholders. Assumptions: 90 inventories a year (check-in and check-out), compliance dates for 280 properties, 35 messages a working day, 400 repairs and 280 rent reviews.
| Task | Now | With your own app | Hours back per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing up inventories | 135 hours | 45 hours | 90 hours |
| Chasing gas, EICR and deposit dates | 140 hours | 47 hours | 93 hours |
| Reading and sorting messages | 320 hours | 120 hours | 200 hours |
| Following up repairs | 200 hours | 133 hours | 67 hours |
| Section 13 rent reviews | 70 hours | 23 hours | 47 hours |
| Total | 865 hours | 368 hours | 497 hours |
Around five hundred hours is more than thirteen weeks of one full-time property manager. Even at half that in your office, the question is less whether it pays than what comes first. What such a project costs is in our guide on custom software development cost.
First a conversation, then a fixed price per project
- You tell us where the office gets stuckInventories, compliance, repairs, the inbox: we look at where the hours go and which package you use now.
- We draw the first versionScreens for the phone and the office, with your properties and your dates as the example, before any code.
- You get a fixed pricePer project, after the conversation. A website starts from EUR 1,500; software is priced once the first version is agreed.
- We build and connectTo your lettings or block package where it allows, with a trial on a few properties before the rest follows.
We have no UK letting agent as a client yet, but the management platform we built for Business Centrum also keeps client files and documents, encrypted, with two-factor sign-in and a portal where clients follow along. Next to this page sit payroll bureaus, for agencies that also run staff, and architects, for those who design buildings rather than manage them. The wider offer is on custom software.
Letting agents ask us these first
Does this replace my lettings or block management package?
No. Rent, client accounts and statements stay in your package. We build what is missing around it and connect where the package allows.
Can a tenant sign the inventory on a phone?
Yes. The report, the photos and the signature are stored together on the tenancy file, and both sides get a copy straight away.
Does it keep up with the Renters' Rights Act?
The rules sit in the app as dates and checks: the section 13 notice, the one-month advance rent cap, the 28 days for a pet request. A later phase, such as the PRS database, fits in the same screens.
Can leaseholders see the section 20 file without seeing everything?
Yes. Access is set per role: a leaseholder sees their flat and the block documents, directors see more, a contractor only the job.
Where is the data stored?
In an environment set up for your agency, under UK GDPR, with encryption, two-factor sign-in and a processing agreement for every service that reads along.
How long does a first part take?
A first piece, such as inventories on a phone or a portal for a few blocks, is often ready in a few weeks. A full board with integrations takes longer. After the conversation you get a plan and a fixed price.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
An office where the phone is quiet at nine?
Tell us which task costs you the most time. We draw the first version with your own properties and then give you a fixed price.
Rather get in touch right away?