Proptech: Innovative referencing service for pets launches
Natasha Home-Earley, who has a background in property and tech, says her platform enables landlords and letting agents to accept pets.
A service which solves the conundrum of letting properties to tenants with pets has officially launched.
The brainchild of tech figure Natasha Homer-Earley (pictured), her scoring-based platform has been in development since last year and has been preparing for launch in recent months.
It enables pet owners to build up a profile for their pet so that landlords and letting agents are able to understand the medical treatments history, past behaviour, pet insurance details, previous references and pet temperament.
The service is free for tenants and their pets to use but charges agents a small fee or subscription to see each dog or cat’s reference.
Its tech has already been road tested by several letting agents including ethical firm My Landlord Cares in Sheffield and also rental platform InventoryBase, but is now free for all to try out.
Impasse solved
Home-Earley says her platform is the ideal solution to the impasse between landlords who won’t take tenants with pets, and the estimated 7.6 million tenants in the UK who want to live with their cats or dogs.
Her service will also offer tenants whose pets do not pass referencing to be offered insurance against any damage caused by their pet.
As well as traditional lets, the service will be applicable to those using Airbnb and other short-lets platforms.
Homer-Earley also says she has global plans for Petscore once her UK business is established, as renting homes with a pet a common problem across the world.
Read about other efforts to solve the ‘lets with pets’ challenge.
Having dealt with the aftermath of pets, normally unauthorised, I am not sure how much the pet damage insurance will cover.
Most leasehold flats specifically ban pets in the lease.
The Government has promised to “do something”, but until the tenant deposit legislation is amended to allow a specific pet deposits, the answer is still no pets.