Proptech platform launches offering £8-a-tenancy referencing
Checkboard says it's also the first to offer landlord and tenants as well as vendor and buyer KYC checking in one place.
An app-based tenant referencing and KYC platform has launched which, its founder claims, will save landlords, sales agents and lettings agents significant amounts of time and cut costs.
Checkboard is the brainchild of former Barclays and RBS banker James Owusu, who says his platform is the first to roll all the key referencing checks into one service including landlord, tenant, vendor and buyer checks.
“That includes anti-money laundering, land registry and Open Banking checks,” he says.
“Building a referencing platform like ours is not easy so at the moment there isn’t that much choice out there – either agents do it manually or outsource the different aspects of tenant, landlord, vendor and buyer checks to different companies.”
Owusu says the world of sales and lettings referencing is changing fast as fraud in both sectors increases, and many agents have realised that doing a simple credit check on a tenant will no longer suffice.
“So we realised there was an opportunity to offer a service that consolidates all of these different checking services into one place,” he adds.
“We are the only platform offering this at the moment for both lettings and sales.”
Checkboard is initially gaining traction by setting up integration agreements with the industry’s key property software CRMs including EstatesIT and DezRez and, by mid-September, will have another 15 signed up.
“The biggest pain point for estate agents is plugging in the same information time after time for each tenancy or sale – so by linking the CRM providers with our platform, we eliminate that,” says Business Development Director Yazad Bajina.
Checkboard, which is also looking for independent estate agents to pilot its service, charges £8 per tenancy regardless how many tenants are involved including the check on the landlord as well.
The service rates tenants as bronze, silver and gold on affordability and passes them on to a guarantor provider if necessary or offers rent guarantee.
Read more about tenant referencing proptech.
Great example of Prop-Fin-Tech, and an awesome platform !