Dexters is the estate agency that bought the huge landlord portfolio from failed online property management firm Rentify, we can reveal.

The demise of Rentify left thousands of its landlords high and dry after its unsustainable model collapsed after nearly a decade.

Several commentators have told The Neg that Rentify was always likely to fail because it guaranteed rents to landlords in a difficult and volatile private rental sector.

And following our story yesterday, several former Rentify landlords have been in touch to reveal how badly the firm let them down.

One who was prepared to go on the record, Caspar Moran, told The Neg that things began to go wrong as early as June 2021 when rents began to be paid late, and he only found out in December that Dexters had taken over the portfolio.

Stopped communicating

“After Christmas last year Dexters informed me that Rentify had stopped communicating with them and therefore they were unable to retrieve the money owed,” he says.

“Some landlords apparently had the misfortune for Rentify taking payments for January too.”

Moran says he has spoken to other landlords, who feel generally let down by both Rentify, The Property Ombudsman – which Rentify was a member of – and in Moran’s case Dexters too, which was unable to retrieve his rent following the handover.

Dexters comment

A spokesperson says the company wants to be as transparent as possible about the difficult situation.

“We acquired the trade and assets of Rentify, the online letting business which has since gone into administration,” it says.

“The Rentify business model was to guarantee rents for landlords however Dexters were unable to offer any rent guarantee to the landlords as this was not commercially viable.

“Since Dexters acquired only the assets without the liabilities, the contractual obligation remains with Rentify Limited.

“We have stepped in to try and help Rentify landlords [and] in addition the Rentify administrators are doing what they can to assist.”

TPO statement

TPO has also released a statement, which says TPO is not aware of Dexters’ arrangements so it would therefore be inappropriate for it to comment.

“In regards to Rentify, TPO will continue to consider complaints, but will of course manage expectations as to the likelihood of any awards ultimately being paid by the administrator.”