In a recent interview with Kerfuffle, Sophie Lang, Director at Lang Llewellyn & Co, shared how flatfair Deposits has significantly improved their operational efficiency and provided tenants and landlords with a valuable alternative to deposits during challenging economic times.
Deposits: Life before flatfair
Prior to using flatfair Deposits, Lang Llewellyn & Co did not offer a deposit alternative and manually registered all their traditional deposits themselves. Sophie said “we used to invoice the deposits and then put it into our chosen scheme and all the paperwork which comes with that. We also have a big student portfolio, so we had about 1000 students each individually paying their part of the deposit. It was a very admin heavy task.”
The impact of flatfair Deposits
The introduction of flatfair Deposits has allowed Sophie’s team to allocate their efforts towards revenue-generating activities as we handle all their traditional deposits, completely free.
While improving efficiency was important to their team, the primary reason for adopting flatfair Deposits was to offer more choice to their tenants and landlords, with our deposit alternative. Sophie said, “The admin savings was actually a secondary decision, we didn't realise just how much we would save in admin, the main decision was to give tenants and landlords more choice.”
With flatfair Deposits, their tenants are always presented with the choice of our deposit alternative, No Deposit, alongside a traditional deposit, so they can decide what best suits their circumstances. If their tenants choose No Deposit, they pay significantly lower upfront move-in costs of just 1 week’s rent (+VAT) instead of a 5 week traditional deposit, while the landlord benefits from up to 10 weeks protection on their property in case of damages or unpaid rent.
Attracting more, higher quality tenants
The flexibility offered with flatfair’s deposit alternative has helped Lang Llewellyn & Co to attract more high quality tenants, a challenge they faced as rents and the cost of living continue to escalate. Sophie said “We've seen over the last 12 months, with rents rising as they are and the cost of living, it was a struggle for tenants to afford [the deposit], and that narrows down the landlords’ pool of tenants who can rent the property, so we weren't always getting the best tenants. "
"So being able to offer this scheme means it gives more options, more scope, and it brings a lot of bonuses for the landlord and the tenant.”
Their tenants who have used No Deposit said they were “pleasantly surprised” to have the option of paying less when moving into their new home, said Sophie.
“I would encourage all agents to have it as an option”
When Sophie was asked by Kerfuffle if she would recommend flatfair Deposits to other letting agents, the answer was a resounding yes:
“Absolutely I would recommend it, there's been so many positives, with the admin decrease, the extra options to our landlords and tenants and as an agent and a business, it's also an income stream. In the current climate we do need to look at our income streams to build revenue, this is a nice way of doing it because we are doing a nice thing for landlords and tenants.
“I would encourage all agents to have it as an option, I think with the current climate as it is and to keep going this way, tenants need the option of the no deposit scheme.”
Want to grow your revenue and offer an important choice to your customers with flatfair Deposits? Book a demo today:
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