If you log in to Property Hawk, you have seen the notice:
> "We will be shutting down Property Manager at the end of July 2026. You should move to another platform."
That date has now passed. Confusingly, their marketing pages still describe the software as free to use forever, so quite what state your account is in on any given day is hard to say from the outside.
Which is exactly why the first job is not choosing a replacement. It is getting your records out. Software you can swap in an afternoon. Four years of rent history you cannot.
Why the records matter more than the software
Landlord record-keeping is not admin for its own sake. Each of these has a moment where somebody asks for it, and the moment is never convenient.
None of that is reconstructable from memory. All of it is sitting in an account you have been told to leave.
The export list
Work through this before you do anything else. Where there is no export button, screenshots with the date visible are worth more than nothing.
1. The rent ledger. Every payment, with dates and amounts, per tenancy. Take it as a spreadsheet if you are offered one, because a PDF of a rent statement is evidence but it is not data you can carry into a new system.
2. Tenancy agreements. The signed documents themselves, not a summary. Also note the start date, the term, the rent and the rent day for each one, because those are the fields you will be asked for when you set the tenancy up again elsewhere.
3. Deposit records. Amount, date received, scheme, scheme reference, the date it was protected, and the prescribed information you served with the date you served it.
4. Certificates. Gas safety records, EICRs, EPCs, and any fire risk assessment. Download the PDFs and, separately, write down the expiry dates. You will want the dates in a list, because that is what you re-enter.
5. Tenant and guarantor details. Names, contact details, and the reference or guarantor paperwork if it is stored there.
6. Correspondence that matters. Anything that evidences a repair reported, a notice served, or an agreement reached. Not the whole inbox, just the parts you would produce if challenged.
7. Expenses and receipts. If you have been logging costs there, they are your SA105 figures. Losing them costs you money directly, in a way none of the others do.
8. Inventories and check-in records. With the photographs, at full resolution if you can. A deposit deduction argued without the check-in evidence is an argument you lose.
The format trap
The mistake people make is exporting everything as PDF and feeling finished.
A PDF is a record. It is not portable data. If your rent history comes out as sixty monthly statements, you have preserved the evidence and thrown away the ability to load it anywhere, and you will end up typing it in.
Where you get the choice, take CSV or a spreadsheet for anything that is a list (payments, expenses, tenancies, contacts) and PDF for anything that is a document (agreements, certificates, notices, prescribed information). If you only get PDFs, that is still worth having. Keep them in one dated folder rather than in a downloads pile, because the next person to need them is you in eighteen months.
One more thing: do the export before you cancel anything. Access disappearing is a well-established way to discover which records you had not taken.
What to check in whatever you move to
Since you are moving anyway, this is the cheapest moment you will ever have to change your mind about what you need. A few questions worth asking of any platform, ours included:
There are several reasonable options. OpenRent is strong on the letting itself, Landlord Studio and Landlord Vision are established on the accounting side, and Arthur is built for larger portfolios at a price that reflects it. Which is right depends on whether your problem is finding tenants, the books, or the paperwork after they move in.
Where we fit, honestly
LetCompliance is the third of those: everything after the advert. Adverts, applications and viewings, referencing, the signed tenancy, the deposit, rent and arrears, inspections and check-out, and your SA105 figures at the end of it, with certificate dates tracked alongside rather than as the point.
It is free for one property with no card, which is the tier most Property Hawk users are replacing, and the whole thing is on a 14-day trial if you have more than one. You can export everything you put in, which after this week probably reads differently than it used to.
Common questions
Has Property Hawk actually closed? Their login page told users it is shutting down Property Manager at the end of July 2026 and that they should move to another platform. That date has passed. Their marketing pages still describe the software as free to use forever, so the two contradict each other. Treat the notice as the reliable one and get your records out.
What is the single most important thing to export? The rent payment history, because it is the one thing you cannot reconstruct and the one thing a possession claim runs on.
Can I just take PDFs? You can, and it is much better than nothing, but PDFs are records rather than data. Take spreadsheets for anything that is a list and PDFs for anything that is a document.
Do I need to re-protect the deposits when I move? No. The deposit stays with the scheme. What you are moving is your record of the protection date, the scheme reference and the prescribed information, which is the part that matters if it is ever challenged.
Will I lose my compliance dates? Only if you do not write them down. Export the certificate PDFs and, separately, list the expiry dates, because the dates are what you re-enter in a new system.
2026 UK Landlord Compliance Cheat Sheet
Every Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, deposit and Right to Rent deadline on one printable A4 page. Updated for the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
- Every UK statutory deadline by document type
- Maximum penalty per breach (HSE, MEES, RtR, deposit)
- What blocks a Section 8 / Form 6A possession claim
- Print-friendly A4 with checkboxes
Frequently asked questions
Is Property Hawk closing?
Property Hawk’s login page tells users: "We will be shutting down Property Manager at the end of July 2026. You should move to another platform." That date has now passed. Their marketing pages still describe the software as free to use forever, so the two contradict each other. The safe reading is the notice shown to logged-in users: export your records and choose a replacement.
What should I export from Property Hawk before I lose access?
Eight things, in this order: the rent payment ledger per tenancy with dates and amounts; the signed tenancy agreements; deposit records including the scheme, reference, date received and date protected, plus the prescribed information you served; gas safety records, EICRs, EPCs and any fire risk assessment, together with a separate written list of their expiry dates; tenant and guarantor details; correspondence evidencing repairs reported and notices served; expenses and receipts, because those are your SA105 figures; and inventories with the check-in photographs at full resolution.
What is the single most important record to save?
The rent payment history. A Ground 8 arrears claim is arithmetic performed on a payment record: you have to show the arrears threshold was met both when the notice was served and at the hearing. It is also the one record you cannot reconstruct from memory or from a bank statement alone, because a bank statement does not know which tenancy or which month a payment was for.
Is exporting everything as PDF good enough?
It is much better than nothing, but a PDF is a record rather than portable data. Sixty monthly rent statements as PDFs preserve the evidence and lose the ability to load the history anywhere, so you end up retyping it. Where you are given the choice, take CSV or a spreadsheet for anything that is a list (payments, expenses, tenancies, contacts) and PDF for anything that is a document (agreements, certificates, notices, prescribed information).
Do I have to re-protect my tenants’ deposits if I change software?
No. The deposit stays where it is, with the scheme. What moves is your record of it: the scheme name and reference, the date the deposit was received, the date it was protected, and the prescribed information with the date it was served. Those dates are what matter if protection is ever challenged, and they are what you re-enter in a new system.
What should I look for in a replacement?
Five questions. Can you export your data again later, which you have just learned the value of. Does it act on certificate dates or merely store the files. Does it draft the notices, or stop at record-keeping. Does it produce your tax figures, or leave you exporting to a spreadsheet in January. And what does it cost when you add a second property, since free tiers usually end at one.