Help centre
How to run your let in LetCompliance
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59 answers
Choosing LetCompliance
How it compares with other landlord software and with a letting agent, what it costs, and whether it fits your lets.
- LetCompliance or a letting agent: which costs less?LetCompliance, by a wide margin. Full management at 12% of a £1,200 monthly rent, VAT included, is £1,728 a year. LetCompliance Single for that property is £7.99 a month, £95.88 a year. What you give in return is your own time for viewings, visits and calls.
- Is LetCompliance right for 10 or more properties?Yes. Portfolio covers up to 10 properties for £19 a month, Portfolio Plus up to 20 for £29, and Professional any number for £49. From Portfolio up you get the properties table and bulk tools, and the whole portfolio comes in from one spreadsheet.
- Is LetCompliance recognised by HMRC for Making Tax Digital?Yes. LetCompliance is on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for UK property income. It sends your cumulative quarterly updates to HMRC when you press send, and can send the final declaration when UK property is the only income you need to add and you have no reliefs or charges to add.
- Can joint owners use LetCompliance for Making Tax Digital?Yes. Each joint owner sends their own quarterly updates for their share. Set your share on the property and LetCompliance counts it at that share in everything it sends for you. A co-owner who also needs Making Tax Digital sends theirs from their own LetCompliance login.
- Can I use LetCompliance if I live abroad?Yes. It runs in a web browser from anywhere, and tenants, contractors and signers use links with no account to create. Certificates and deposit deadlines run on UK dates and remind you before they lapse. For anything at the property itself, you need someone in the UK.
- Can I use LetCompliance for properties I own through a limited company?Yes, for running the let: adverts, tenancies, rent, repairs, certificates and notices work the same. Mark the property as company-owned and it leaves your personal tax figures, the SA105 pack, Making Tax Digital and Section 24, because a company is not taxed through your Self Assessment.
- Can my accountant see my figures in LetCompliance?Yes. From Settings, send your accountant a read-only link with no login: your SA105 figures for this tax year and the five before, every confirmed entry with its receipts, and which MTD updates were sent. It expires after 30, 90 or 180 days, and you can switch it off.
- Is LetCompliance suitable for a first-time landlord?Yes. It takes a first let in order: the advert and applications, referencing, the Right to Rent check, a tenancy agreement for the current law, the deposit and its prescribed information, the move-in pack, then the rent and certificate dates. Plans start at £7.99 a month for one property.
- Can I try LetCompliance before I pay?Yes. Plans start at £7.99 a month, and every new account begins with 3 days of the premium tools, with no card to enter and no limit on properties. A few tools are for paying plans from day one: Making Tax Digital, the SA105 Tax Pack, the Section 24 calculator, and the Section 8 and Section 13 notices.
- Does LetCompliance work on a phone?Yes, in your phone’s web browser, and you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app. There is no App Store or Google Play app to download. Photos for inspections, inventories, repairs, receipts and adverts can be taken straight from the camera.
- Is my data safe with LetCompliance?Your data is held by Supabase in the EU (Frankfurt), the app’s servers run in Frankfurt, and LetCompliance is registered with the ICO (ZC175264). Each account sees only its own records, actions are logged with the time, and you can download a copy of your data or delete the account yourself.
- What does Direct Debit rent collection cost in LetCompliance?LetCompliance is landlord software that takes no commission on the rent: the rent goes into your own Stripe account. Stripe charges 1% of each Direct Debit payment with a 20p minimum and a £4 cap, and £5 for a disputed payment. Direct Debit comes with every plan from Single, £7.99 a month, and the trial.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than Hammock?Yes, for one property: LetCompliance Single is £7.99 a month and Hammock Basic is £8 plus VAT, £9.60. At every size, compare what is included: Hammock keeps the books and the tax; LetCompliance does the tax and runs the whole let as well, with no VAT added.
- LetCompliance or Hammock: which is better for tenancy paperwork and notices?LetCompliance. It builds the tenancy agreement for the current law, has it signed online with an audit certificate, and prepares the deposit prescribed information and the Section 8 and Section 13 notices. Hammock is built for bookkeeping and tax, and its own site shows none of those.
- Does Hammock support Making Tax Digital?Yes. Hammock is on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for quarterly updates and the tax return, for UK and foreign property (checked 6 October 2026). It has no free plan; Basic is £8 plus VAT a month. LetCompliance is also on the list, from £7.99 a month.
- Can I move from Hammock to LetCompliance?Yes. Export your categorised transactions from Hammock as CSV, bring your properties and tenants into LetCompliance from a spreadsheet, and import this year’s bank statements. Making Tax Digital updates are cumulative, so add the tax year so far before your first update from LetCompliance.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than Landlord Studio?Than Landlord Studio Pro, yes, at 1 to 20 properties once its VAT is added: Pro is £18 a month with VAT for 3 units, against £14.99 for LetCompliance Solo. Landlord Studio’s MTD Go, £0 a month plus £5 for each Making Tax Digital submission, costs less than Single or Solo at 1 to 3 properties.
- LetCompliance or Landlord Studio: which is better for accounting?LetCompliance, for landlord tax: SA105 figures box by box, Section 24, Making Tax Digital with the tax return, and receipts read for you, beside the rest of the let. It has no Open Banking bank feed: bank statements come in as a CSV, and Finance exports a Xero-ready CSV.
- Does Landlord Studio support Making Tax Digital?Yes. Landlord Studio is on HMRC’s list for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for quarterly updates on UK property income (checked 6 October 2026). Its free MTD Go plan charges £5 per submission. LetCompliance is also on the list, for quarterly updates and the tax return, from £7.99 a month.
- Can I move from Landlord Studio to LetCompliance?Yes. On Pro or Pro Plus, export your data from Landlord Studio as CSV; on the free MTD Go plan its export is PDF only. Bring your properties and tenants into LetCompliance from a spreadsheet, then add this tax year’s income and expenses before your first Making Tax Digital update.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than August?It depends what you let. August prices by tenancy: Growth is £8.99 for 5, Portfolio £14.99 for 20. LetCompliance prices by property, so an HMO let room by room costs less here. For Making Tax Digital on one property, LetCompliance Single is £7.99; August needs Growth.
- LetCompliance or August: which is better for HMOs?LetCompliance, for HMO landlords. Both track rent room by room, but August counts each room’s tenancy towards its plan limit, while LetCompliance prices by property. LetCompliance also tracks the HMO licence, fire risk and legionella dates, and prepares the tenancy agreements and notices per room.
- Does August support Making Tax Digital?Yes. August is on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for quarterly updates on UK property income (checked 6 October 2026), on its Growth plan at £8.99 a month and above. LetCompliance is also on the list, for quarterly updates and the tax return, from £7.99 a month.
- Can I move from August to LetCompliance?Yes. Export your rent ledger from August as CSV, bring your properties, rooms and tenants into LetCompliance from a spreadsheet, and upload your certificates in one batch. Then add this tax year’s income and expenses before your first Making Tax Digital update, because each update covers the year so far.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than Arthur Online?Yes, at every size. Arthur’s Standard plan is £82.50 a month plus VAT, £99, for up to 55 units, billed yearly, with e-signing, bank feeds and data import as paid extras. LetCompliance is £7.99 for one property, £19 for 10 and £49 for any number, with no VAT added.
- LetCompliance or Arthur Online: which is better for a self-managing landlord?LetCompliance. Arthur is built mainly for letting agencies: you book a demo, and plans start at £82.50 a month plus VAT. LetCompliance is self-serve from £7.99 a month, and includes the tenancy agreement, e-signing, Section 8 and Section 13 notices and Making Tax Digital without add-ons.
- Does Arthur Online support Making Tax Digital?No, not directly. Arthur Online is not on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (checked 6 October 2026). Its own blog points to its Xero integration, which is a paid add-on, with a Xero subscription on top. LetCompliance is on HMRC’s list itself, for UK property income.
- Can I move from Arthur Online to LetCompliance?Yes. Ask Arthur for your data: its help centre says it emails everything as CSV files, though not documents, notes or messages, and its terms allow export for 60 days after you leave. Bring the properties and tenants into LetCompliance from a spreadsheet, and download your documents separately.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than Alphaletz?From 11 to 20 properties LetCompliance is cheaper, and at any size it is the only one of the two on HMRC’s list for Making Tax Digital. Alphaletz has a free plan and Pro at £14 plus VAT, £16.80, for 10 units, but Alphaletz is not on HMRC’s list of software that sends quarterly updates.
- LetCompliance or Alphaletz: which is better for a larger portfolio?LetCompliance, for a portfolio over 20. It is £49 a month for any number of properties, with a properties table, bulk tools, a rent review board and Making Tax Digital that HMRC recognises. Alphaletz Pro Plus is £29 plus VAT for 25 units, with bank feeds and an app, and prices larger portfolios on request.
- Does Alphaletz support Making Tax Digital?Alphaletz says it is ready for Making Tax Digital, but Alphaletz is not on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (checked 6 October 2026). To send quarterly updates you need software on that list. LetCompliance is on it, for UK property income, from £7.99 a month.
- Can I move from Alphaletz to LetCompliance?Yes. Export your reports and statements from Alphaletz as a spreadsheet or PDF, bring your properties and tenants into LetCompliance from a CSV, and import this year’s bank statements. If you are in Making Tax Digital, add the tax year so far before your first update.
- Is LetCompliance cheaper than OpenRent?Yes, for the first year of a let. On OpenRent, Rent Now is £79 and Rent Collection £10 a month, £199 in the first year. LetCompliance Single is £95.88 a year with the agreement, e-signing and Direct Debit rent, plus Stripe’s fee on each payment. The advert and the applications are in the same login.
- LetCompliance or OpenRent: which is better for finding a tenant?LetCompliance, to find the tenant and sign the tenancy in one place: an advert with Apply and Request a viewing buttons, then applications, viewings, referencing and online signing in the same login. There is no Rightmove or Zoopla feed; the advert text copies out and the photos download to post elsewhere.
- Does OpenRent support Making Tax Digital?No. OpenRent’s own site shows no Making Tax Digital software, and OpenRent is not on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (checked 6 October 2026). To send quarterly updates you need software on that list. LetCompliance is on it, for UK property income.
- Can LetCompliance run a tenancy that started on OpenRent?Yes. Record the tenancy dates, the rent and the deposit with its scheme, and upload the agreement OpenRent prepared. From there LetCompliance runs the let: repairs and certificates and, on paid plans, rent by Direct Debit into your own account, the notices and Making Tax Digital.
- Where can I get a tenant credit check, and what does it cost?Through a referencing service, with the applicant’s permission, and the landlord pays. In LetCompliance a credit check is £12.99 and a full reference covering affordability, employment and a previous landlord is £24.99, paid per check on any plan. Full and guarantor references need no account.
- Can I sign a tenancy agreement online?Yes. In England an ordinary tenancy agreement needs no witness, so it can be signed online. LetCompliance builds it, sends each tenant a link to sign on their phone and adds an audit certificate, on the 3-day trial and every plan from £7.99 a month, with no charge per signature.
- Is there an app to keep track of rent payments?Yes. LetCompliance raises a rent charge on each tenancy’s rent day and shows what is paid, part paid, late or missed across every property, with a receipt for each payment. The rent page comes with every plan from £7.99 a month, and rent paid by Direct Debit marks itself as paid.
- Can I collect rent by Direct Debit without a letting agent?Yes. You need a Direct Debit provider and each tenant’s agreement to a mandate. LetCompliance collects through Stripe into your own account with no commission, starting each collection on the rent day, from £7.99 a month, and records standing order payments alongside.
- How do I chase a tenant for late rent?Start with a polite written reminder and a statement of what is owed. LetCompliance can email the tenant a reminder every 4 days, up to 3 times by default, and works out whether arrears have reached the Ground 8 threshold. Chasing is on every plan; the Section 8 notice comes with paid plans from £7.99 a month.
- Does a landlord have to give rent receipts?No. Only where rent is paid weekly does the law require a rent book; for other tenancies a receipt is good practice, not a duty. LetCompliance makes a receipt PDF for every payment, on every plan, and can email it to the tenant as soon as you mark the rent as paid.
- Is there an app for tenants to report repairs?Yes. With LetCompliance each tenant gets a free portal link, with no app or password, where they report a repair with photos and message you. You see the repair with a response clock and can send the job to a contractor. The portal comes with every plan, and contractors and work orders with plans from £7.99 a month.
- Is there an app for doing a property inspection?Yes. LetCompliance records a mid-tenancy inspection from your phone, with dated photos and a checklist, and turns it into a report PDF. Its day planner books several visits in one go and sends each household written notice. Plans start at £7.99 a month, and inspections are on the free plan too.
- Can I do my own inventory with an app?Yes. LetCompliance builds the inventory room by room from your phone’s photos, sends it to the tenant to sign, then compares check-in with check-out and works out a fair deduction. Inventories come with every paid plan, from Single at £7.99 a month.
- What is the best way to track rental income and expenses?Record each payment and receipt against the property it belongs to as it happens, not at the year end. LetCompliance does this from £7.99 a month: rent posts itself, a photographed receipt becomes a draft expense, and a bank statement CSV is matched line by line, ready for your SA105 figures.
- Can I use Excel spreadsheets for Making Tax Digital?Yes, if the spreadsheet is digitally linked to bridging software that sends your updates to HMRC. LetCompliance is not bridging software: it replaces the spreadsheet, keeping the records and sending the quarterly updates itself, on every paid plan from £7.99 a month, for UK property income.
- Which MTD software works when a letting agent collects my rent?Software that records the full rent the agent collected and each fee as its own expense, then sends the updates in your name. LetCompliance does that for UK property income, splitting the agent’s fee from the payment on your bank statement, on every paid plan from £7.99 a month.
- If I switch MTD software mid-year, what should the new software do?Pick up where the old one stopped: see what HMRC already holds, keep your update periods, take in every record since 6 April and send a year-to-date update. LetCompliance checks HMRC for quarters sent elsewhere, uses the periods you chose and imports bank statements, on every paid plan from £7.99 a month.
- Is landlord software worth it, or is a spreadsheet enough?A spreadsheet is enough for one let paid by standing order with no Making Tax Digital. Software earns its £7.99 a month when it chases late rent, reminds you before dates lapse, gets documents signed and sends quarterly updates to HMRC. LetCompliance imports your sheet.
- How do I take over from my letting agent and manage the property myself?Collect the tenancy agreement, certificates, inventory and deposit details from the agent, move the deposit protection into your name and tell the tenant in writing where to pay. LetCompliance records a deposit taken over from an agent, imports your properties and moves rent to Direct Debit, from £7.99 a month.
- Is there software to track rent for each room in an HMO?Yes. In LetCompliance an HMO is one property with its own rooms, and each room has its own tenant, rent, rent day and arrears, paid weekly or monthly. The price is per property, not per room, so a whole house fits on Single at £7.99 a month.
- How do I keep track of my rental property's gas and electric certificates, is there an app?Yes. Add each certificate’s expiry date, or upload the file and let LetCompliance read the date, and you are emailed well before each one runs out, with one list of every renewal across your properties. It is one part of running the whole let, from £7.99 a month.
- What software do small letting agents use?Small agencies usually want one system for lettings, tenancies, landlord statements and client money. LetCompliance’s agency plans run from £24 a month for up to 5 properties to £129 a month for unlimited properties, with unlimited branches and staff on every plan, with landlord statements, commission and a per-landlord balance report. It is not a sales CRM and has no portal feed.
- What does a letting agent actually do for a landlord?On let-only, an agent advertises, shows the home, references the tenant and sets up the tenancy. Full management adds rent collection, arrears, repairs, inspections, rent reviews and notices. LetCompliance gives a self-managing landlord the tools for each of those jobs, from £7.99 a month.
- Does LetCompliance use AI, and is my data used to train it?Yes, to read dates off certificates, read receipts into draft expenses, suggest a priority for a repair report and answer advisor questions. It runs on Anthropic’s Claude, whose commercial terms say Anthropic may not train models on customer content. Most of what it produces is a suggestion you confirm.
- Do my tenants have to pay anything to use LetCompliance?No. The tenant portal, receipts, repair reporting and signing documents online cost tenants nothing, with no account or app to set up. Paying rent by Direct Debit or by card costs them nothing extra: Stripe’s fee is the landlord’s. Referencing is paid by the landlord, and in England a tenant cannot be charged for it.
- What software do landlords with 3 to 10 properties use?Landlord software that keeps each tenancy’s rent, the tenants, repairs and the tax figures in one account, priced for a small portfolio. LetCompliance is £14.99 a month for up to 3 properties and £19 for up to 10, Making Tax Digital included and no VAT added.
- Is there a landlord app to track rent and repairs?Yes. LetCompliance tracks each tenancy’s rent and every repair from your phone: what is paid, late or missed, and each repair from the tenant’s photos to the job done. It runs in the phone’s browser from your home screen; there is no App Store or Google Play app yet. Plans from £7.99 a month.
4 answers
Getting started
Signing up, bringing your portfolio across, and what the trial does when it ends.
- Do I have to add a property before I can use LetCompliance?No. You can finish signing up without entering a property, and add one later from Properties. The setup wizard asks for a first property because the dashboard, the rent and the reminders are all kept per property, but every step after your name can be left for another day.
- What is Landlord chat, and who can read what I post?A board inside LetCompliance where landlords using it ask each other questions and share what worked. Every signed-in landlord can read what you write, so keep tenant names, addresses and phone numbers out of it. Open Help and choose Landlords.
- How do I import my properties from a spreadsheet?Open Properties, choose Import, and upload a CSV. The import reads your column headings rather than their order, so you do not have to rearrange anything. It needs an address, a town and a postcode; everything else is optional.
- What happens when my trial ends?Nothing is deleted. For 3 days, with no card and no limit on properties, the premium tools are open; six stay on paid plans even then. When it ends you move to the free plan: one property stays open, with its rent records, tenant portal and reminders, and any others are kept, locked, until you choose a plan.
27 answers
Properties and tenants
Adding properties, HMOs let by the room, and giving a tenant their own login-free portal.
- Can I tag and group my properties?Yes, from the Portfolio plan up. Put your own tags on properties, such as a town or For sale, then filter and group the properties table by tag, legal owner, property type or let status, and save a view you use often. The tenants page can be grouped and filtered by tag too.
- How do I set up an HMO that is let by the room?Set the property type to HMO. That unlocks rooms with their own labels and rents, and lets several tenancies run at once against the same address, while Gas Safety, EICR and EPC stay at property level where they belong.
- How do I give my tenant access to their documents?Open Tenants and share the portal link for that tenancy. The tenant portal needs no password and no account: the link itself is the key, and it shows them their own documents, requests and rent position.
- Joint landlords: how do I add a second landlord to a property?Open the property and, on the Overview tab, find the Landlords card. Choose Add a landlord and enter their full name, address for notices, email and phone. A property can have four landlords in all, and everyone on the card is named as a landlord on that property’s documents.
- How do I add a guarantor to a tenancy?Open the property, go to the tenancy and choose Guarantors. Add each guarantor’s name, relationship, email and phone, and tick Signed guarantor deed on file once it is signed. A guarantor is recorded against the tenancy, not one tenant, and a tenancy can have more than one.
- How do I record a deposit and protect it in time?Record the deposit on the property, with the scheme you protected it in and the date. The law gives you 30 days from receipt to protect it and to give the tenant the prescribed information, and the deadline is recorded so it cannot quietly pass.
- Where do I record who supplies the utilities and who pays?On the property, open Utilities and add electricity, gas, water, broadband, council tax or anything else, with who pays each one and the supplier. The supplier and who pays show in the tenant portal and the move-in email; account numbers and notes stay private.
- What has to go in the move-in pack?Gas Safety, EICR, EPC and the tenancy agreement before or at the start of the tenancy, and the deposit prescribed information within 30 days of receiving the deposit. The pack emails them to every current tenant, logs each document as its own row, and records documents you hand over on paper as given by hand.
- How do I do a Right to Rent check?Record the check against the tenant, including a Home Office share code where they have one, and the date it needs doing again. A follow-up check is only required where the tenant has time-limited permission to be in the UK.
- How do I end a tenancy properly?Use End tenancy on the Tenants page or on the tenant’s card in the property’s Tenancy tab, on or after the day they leave. Unpaid rent charges after that date are removed, the Direct Debit and portal link are switched off, and the deposit, documents and history stay with the property.
- What is the handover pack, and why would I fill one in?It is the note that lets somebody else keep your let running if you suddenly cannot: where the rent goes, who the tenants are, which certificates are due and who to ring. It asks only for what nobody else could know, because everything already in your account is pulled in automatically.
- Can I email all my tenants at once?Yes. Message all tenants sends one email to every current tenant. You cannot send it until you have seen the recipient list, because an email to everyone is not something you can take back.
- How do I download a list of my tenants’ contact details?On Tenants, choose Contact list. You get a spreadsheet of every current tenancy: property, room, tenant, email, phone, tenancy dates, rent and guarantor. It holds personal data, so the file says so, and every download is written to your activity log.
- How do I ask my tenant for a meter reading or a document?On Tenants, press Ask on the tenant’s row and choose a meter reading, a document, details to confirm or something else. They get an email, the request sits at the top of their portal until they answer, and their reply shows on the same row.
- How do I handle a repair request from a tenant?Requests land in the tenant inbox from the tenant portal, dated on arrival. You reply, assign a contractor from your own register, and the whole exchange stays against the property instead of scattering across texts and voicemails.
- How do I do a check-in and check-out inventory?Build the check-in at the start of the tenancy, room by room with photos, and the check-out at the end. The two are compared automatically, so what changed is a list rather than an argument between two sets of photographs.
- How do I keep track of keys?The Keys register records every set for every property: how many exist, who holds each one, and when it changed hands. It is a small feature that answers a question landlords are otherwise guessing at.
- Where do I plan maintenance and keep a repair history?Planned maintenance holds the jobs you know are coming, a boiler service, gutters, decorating, so they are budgeted rather than a surprise. The repairs and warranty log holds what has been done, by whom, what it cost and what is still under warranty.
- How do I log one job that covered several properties?Log the repair on one property and answer Did the same job cover other properties? Tick the others, then say whether it was one invoice for the lot or that price per property. Each property gets its own record and its share of the cost, worked out to the penny.
- Can one insurance policy cover several properties?Yes. Add the policy on one property under Insurance, then answer Does this policy also cover other properties? and tick them. It is recorded once, every covered property shows it, and you get one renewal reminder instead of one for each.
- What should an inventory for a rental property include, room by room?Every room and item with its condition, cleanliness and a dated photo, plus meter readings, keys handed over and alarms tested, checked by the tenant at move-in. The free checklist below goes room by room. LetCompliance builds the same list on your phone, on every paid plan from £7.99 a month.
- Who pays for repairs in a rented property, the landlord or the tenant?Usually the landlord. The law makes landlords repair the structure and exterior, drains, heating, hot water and the water, gas and electricity installations. The tenant pays to put right damage they, their household or visitors cause, and the tenancy agreement settles smaller items such as appliances.
- How long does a landlord have to fix a repair?Private lets in England have no general repair deadline in days yet. GOV.UK tells tenants to report faults that could damage health straight away, and says the landlord should tell them when to expect repairs. A fair guide: emergencies made safe within 24 hours, urgent jobs within 7 days, routine ones within 14 days.
- Can I check a company tenant on Companies House?Yes. On the Tenancy tab, a current tenant recorded as a company with its company number can be checked on the Companies House register, and is checked again each day. If it goes into administration or liquidation, or is struck off or dissolved, it shows in the bell and the account owner is emailed.
- Can I check my insurer on the FCA register?Yes. Add the firm’s FRN to a policy under Insurance, on the property’s Compliance tab, and its name and status on the FCA register show with the day they were read. It is asked again every month, and a change of status shows in the bell. Every plan, in your own account and in an agency workspace.
- How do I check planning restrictions on a rental property?On the property’s Overview, Planning records at this address shows what the national planning data and the National Heritage List for England record at its postcode point: an Article 4 direction for small HMOs, a conservation area, listed buildings nearby and tree preservation orders. England only, every plan.
- Am I responsible for my tenant’s energy bills?No, not while your tenant holds the account with the supplier. You pay on an all-inclusive let, on any account in your name and, by law, for electricity in an empty home with no contract. A duty to tell suppliers when tenants move, with liability if nobody does, was only proposed on 28 October 2026.
7 answers
Finding a tenant
Advertising, applications, viewings, referencing and holding deposits.
- How do I advertise a property to let?Create an advert from Adverts. You get a shareable listing page with an Apply button, the material information checklist that agents are required to complete, and a live compliance badge drawn from the property’s real certificate dates.
- How do I handle applications and viewings?Applications and viewing requests arrive from your advert as structured records rather than emails. From each one you can invite them to view, request a holding deposit, order a reference and make them the tenant, and Vacancies shows every empty property and how far its letting has got.
- How do I reference a tenant or a guarantor?Order a reference from Referencing. It is a credit-backed check run through a regulated UK credit reference agency, covering the tenant or a guarantor, and the result comes back into the tenancy record rather than as a loose PDF.
- Can I take a holding deposit, and how much?Yes, and it is capped at one week’s rent. Record it against the applicant so the amount, the date and what happens to it are documented, because the rules on when it must be repaid are strict and the deadline is short.
- Can my property appear publicly, or is the advert just a link?Both. Every advert gives you a shareable link you control. You can also opt an advert in to the public listings on LetCompliance, which is off by default and reversible at any time.
- Can a private landlord advertise on Rightmove or Zoopla?No. Rightmove and Zoopla take listings only from letting and estate agents, so a private landlord reaches them through an agent, such as an online agent’s paid portal listing. LetCompliance does not feed either portal, but it runs everything after the enquiry, from viewings to referencing and the agreement.
- Can tenants book a viewing online without phoning me?Yes, for the most part. An applicant asks to view from your advert or listing link, you propose a time, and they confirm it or say when they are free on a web page, with a calendar file and an email reminder on the day. LetCompliance has no public diary of open slots, so you still choose the time.
11 answers
Documents and notices
The tenancy agreement, Section 8, Section 13, and proving what you served and when.
- Which tenancy agreement will I get, an AST or a periodic one?The builder picks it from the tenancy dates rather than asking you to know. For a tenancy starting on or after 1 May 2026 in England you get an assured periodic tenancy, because the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 ended new fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies from that date.
- How do I draft and serve a Section 8 notice?Open Section 8 notice under Compliance, pick the property and the grounds, and the notice is drafted on Form 3A with the statutory wording for each ground reproduced in full. You then serve it and the send is recorded with a timestamp.
- How do I raise the rent on a periodic tenancy?Use the Section 13 notice builder. For a private assured tenancy it produces Form 4A with the current rent from the tenancy, sets the earliest date the increase can take effect, and can bill the new rent from that date. Rent can be raised once in any 52-week period.
- How do I prove I sent a document to my tenant?Send it from inside the product and a row is written to the activity log for each attachment, with the time, the recipient and the document type. You can export the whole log as a dated PDF or CSV at any point.
- A tenant has asked to keep a pet. What do I have to do?Respond in writing within 28 days. The request and your response are recorded with dates, and the clock is tracked, because the consequence of simply not replying is not neutral.
- What is the Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet and do I still need to serve it?It is a statutory document that had to go to tenants who were already in place, with a catch-up deadline of 31 May 2026. If you missed it, serve it now and record the proof: the penalty for the breach reaches £7,000.
- Do I need to give my tenant a privacy notice?Yes. Taking a tenant’s identity documents, referencing them and holding their data makes you a data controller under UK GDPR, and a privacy notice is how you meet the duty to tell them what you hold and why.
- I have served notice. How do I keep track of the case?The Possession page holds the case: the grounds, the day and way the notice was served, the earliest date you can go to court and the date a claim must be issued by. A Section 8 notice emailed from the builder, or recorded there as served by hand or post, opens its case itself.
- How do I fill in court Forms N5 and N119 for a possession claim?On a Section 8 case on the Possession page, press Court claim forms. It gives your answers for Forms N5 and N119, box by box, filled in from your notice, rent ledger and tenancy, for you to copy into the court’s own forms. Nothing is ticked, signed or sent for you.
- A tenant is causing trouble. What are my options?Antisocial behaviour has its own possession grounds, and unlike rent arrears they can be used straight away: notice and proceedings on the same day. Record every incident with its date first, because these grounds are decided on the evidence far more than on the notice.
- Do I need a new tenancy agreement every year, or to put the rent up?No. Since 1 May 2026 tenancies in England roll on as assured periodic tenancies, so there is nothing to renew each year. A rent rise goes through a Section 13 notice on Form 4A, even when the tenant agrees to it. A new agreement is only for a new tenancy, such as a new tenant moving in.
14 answers
Rent and money
Collecting rent, reading the ledger, and what happens when a payment is missed.
- How do I collect rent through LetCompliance?Rent is collected by Direct Debit, set up per tenant with their agreement. It runs on its own payment rail, entirely separate from your subscription billing, and the money goes to your bank account rather than through a LetCompliance account.
- What happens when a tenant misses a rent payment?The arrears position updates the day a payment is missed and keeps a running total. Every reminder and contact is logged against the tenancy, and if arrears reach the level where Ground 8 applies, the figures are already there to support the notice.
- How do I send a letter before claim to a former tenant who owes rent?On the Rent page, under Former tenants with a balance, press Letter before claim. It draws a letter following the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims from your rent ledger, with a statement of account, the protocol’s Information Sheet and Reply Form, and a Financial Statement. You post it.
- Can I record rent I collect myself, outside the app?Yes. Direct Debit is optional, not compulsory. Record each payment against the tenancy as it arrives and the ledger, the arrears position and the rent receipts all work exactly the same way.
- Can I connect Xero or my bank?Yes for Xero, on a paid landlord plan: connect your own Xero organisation under Settings, Integrations, and each rent charge goes to it as a sales invoice. Your bank, not with a live connection: import a statement CSV on Bank statements. Direct Debit rent collection, under Payouts, pays into your own bank account.
- How do I import a bank statement?Download your transactions as a CSV file and drop it on Bank statements. Match each line to rent, add it to Finance or set it aside, and save rules for the payees that come round every month. Nothing is added twice.
- How do I reconcile rent payments with my bank statement?Match each payment on your bank statement to the rent charge it pays, by amount and date, and record anything short as a part payment so the arrears stay right. In LetCompliance you import the statement as a CSV, a line that fits a rent charge is offered as that rent, and nothing is recorded until you confirm it.
- Where do I record income and expenses?On Finance, against the property they belong to. Every expense you record flows through to your SA105 preparation and your Section 24 figure, so recording it once during the year replaces the January reconstruction entirely.
- What does Insights tell me that the dashboard does not?Insights reads across the whole portfolio rather than one property: yield, where your money is going, and how the properties compare. Valuation sits alongside it so the return is measured against what the property is worth now, not what you paid.
- Rent arrears letter to a tenant: what should it say, from the first reminder to the final letter?The amount owed, each unpaid rent date, any part payment, how to pay and who to contact, kept factual and calm. Send a friendly reminder first, then a formal letter with a rent statement, then a final letter before Section 8 or a money claim. LetCompliance can email the reminder and the overdue chase for you.
- Do I need a separate bank account for my rental income?No, if you let in your own name: HMRC asks for records, not a particular account. Most landlords open one, because it keeps the tax figures and Making Tax Digital records clean. A limited company needs its own. LetCompliance never holds rent: Direct Debit rent goes to your own Stripe account and out to your bank.
- My letting agent has gone bust or disappeared: what happens to my rent and the deposit?The tenancy carries on, and the deposit is your legal responsibility. Check it is protected with one of the three schemes, tell the tenant in writing where to pay from now on, then claim the rent the agent kept through its client money protection scheme or the liquidator.
- My tenant already owed rent before I started using LetCompliance: how do I add it?Record the months the tenancy has already run, in one go. On the tenancy choose Log payment, then Several months, and save the months that were paid as Paid. Do it again for the months still owed, as Late or Missed. The arrears, the rent statement and your income figures then start from the right place.
- How do I forward bills to LetCompliance by email?Make your private bills address on Finance, under Receipts, then forward a bill to it with its PDF or photo attached. It is read and waits as a draft until you confirm it, so nothing counts in your figures before you do.
20 answers
Compliance and tax
The 0 to 100 score, certificate deadlines, and preparing your SA105 figures.
- Why is my compliance score not 100?The score is calculated from the dates on your certificates, not from whether you have ticked something off. An expired Gas Safety record scores zero for that item on the day it expires, whether or not anything else has changed.
- Can I get reminders by text message?Yes, on a paid plan. Add a UK mobile in Settings and choose SMS or Both. Reminders then arrive as a text, and if a text cannot be sent it comes by email instead. On the free plan reminders come by email, plus one welcome text if you give a mobile when you sign up.
- How do I get my figures for my tax return?The Tax page prepares your SA105 figures from your records, with the Section 24 restriction and a CSV for your accountant, for a Self Assessment return you or your accountant submit. Under Making Tax Digital, quarterly updates are sent from the MTD page instead.
- Does my property need a council licence?It depends on the property and the council. Larger HMOs need a mandatory licence anywhere in England, and many councils run additional or selective schemes that catch ordinary single lets in particular streets. The property record links you to your own council’s scheme.
- Where can I see every certificate renewal across my properties?Certificate renewals lists every gas safety, EICR and EPC certificate, every fire risk and legionella risk assessment, and every property licence, across your properties, soonest first, including any with no date on file. Filter by type and by how far ahead to look, and download it as a CSV for an engineer.
- Where do I record smoke alarms, CO alarms and appliance testing?On the property, in the safety panel. These are the cheap duties that are expensive to have missed, and they sit alongside the certificates rather than in a separate list you forget exists.
- How do I record that the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms were checked?Open the property’s Compliance tab and find Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Check. Each current tenancy is listed with its start date filled in; press Record the check. The law asks for the check on the day each new tenancy begins.
- Why does my property licence show on the Compliance tab?The licence recorded on the property is now a compliance record too, so an expired or missing licence counts in the score. It follows the licence type and dates on Edit property; change them there. A property with no licence recorded as required shows it as not applicable.
- Do I need to register on the PRS Database?Yes, if you let a home in England on an assured or regulated tenancy. The service opens on 15 December 2026 and each region has its own deadline between 14 March and 14 November 2027. It costs £65 a property a year. The PRS Database page shows each property’s deadline.
- How do I record a property inspection?Create an inspection against the property, with photos and notes room by room. It becomes a dated record of the condition on that day, which is what any later argument about damage or disrepair actually turns on.
- A deposit dispute has been raised. What do I send the scheme?Build the dispute pack from Reports and packs. It assembles the check-in, the check-out, the comparison, the tenancy documents and the dated record of what was sent and when, into one file with the property and tenancy identified on every page.
- How does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax work here?Your income and expenses are recorded through the year and totalled cumulatively across the quarters, which is the shape MTD expects. Connect your HMRC account once and send each quarterly update from the MTD page. LetCompliance is recognised by HMRC for UK property income, and MTD is on every paid plan from £7.99.
- Why won’t HMRC let me connect for Making Tax Digital?Usually because the Government Gateway account you signed in with is not yet signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Sign up once on GOV.UK, with the same Government Gateway ID you use for Self Assessment, then press Connect again. A failed attempt changes nothing on your HMRC account.
- How do I send my tax return through Making Tax Digital?After the tax year ends, open the MTD page, answer the four questions about your other income, year-end claims, reliefs and charges, then run the final declaration by 31 January. HMRC works out the Income Tax and National Insurance due; you read it and confirm. It can be amended afterwards.
- My EPC is band D. Do I have a problem?Not today. A property let in England and Wales has to meet band E now, and the direction of travel is band C for the rented sector. The Energy page holds your ratings and expiry dates so you can plan improvements rather than react to a deadline.
- Should I buy a buy-to-let in a limited company or in my own name?It depends on your tax rate and what you will do with the profit. Owned personally, the profit is taxed as income and mortgage interest earns only a tax reduction of up to 20% of it. A company deducts the interest and pays Corporation Tax, but money you take out is taxed again, and it pays the higher stamp duty rates.
- Should I rent out my house or sell it when I move?Let it only if the rent covers the mortgage, insurance, repairs, empty months and tax with room to spare. You need your mortgage lender’s permission first. Since 1 May 2026 a tenant cannot be asked to leave so you can sell or move back in the first 12 months, and selling later can bring Capital Gains Tax.
- Do I get flood and weather warnings for my properties?Yes. When an Environment Agency flood warning in England, or a Met Office Weather Warning anywhere in the UK, covers a property’s postcode point, it shows in the bell and comes by email, on every plan. The match is on the postcode point, not the building.
- How do I fill in an HMO or selective licence application?Open the property’s Compliance tab and choose Licence application pack, under the Licensing card. It lists what an application in England must include, in the order the law lists it, with the answer from your records beside each item and questions for the rest, ready to copy into the council’s form.
- How do I check the flood risk for a rental property?On the property’s Overview, under About this address, Flood risk for the area gives the Environment Agency’s flood zone and its risk bands for rivers, the sea and surface water at the postcode’s central point, each with its data date. Every plan, in your own account and in an agency workspace, for England.
1 answer
Done-for-you services
The jobs you can hand over rather than do: photography, floor plans and referencing.
16 answers
Letting agents
Landlord clients, branches, staff, statements and your Client Money Protection report.
- Can I use this as a letting agent rather than a landlord?Yes. There is a full agency mode: landlord clients each with their own properties, branches, staff accounts with their own logins, and the whole letting workflow underneath. Agency plans are a monthly fee priced by portfolio size, never per property, with every seat and branch included.
- How do landlord statements and the client money report work?Statements show each landlord client what came in, what went out and what is owed, per property and per period. The client money report pulls the client money position into the shape a Client Money Protection scheme asks for.
- How do I send my terms of business to a landlord client to sign?Open the client under Landlord clients and press Prepare terms on the Terms of business card. The terms are built from the client record and your agency details, signed for the agency when sent, and emailed to the landlord from your agency with a link to sign them online.
- How do I give a landlord client a portal link?On the client’s page, press Make portal link on the Landlord portal card, then Send portal link to email it from your agency. The link opens a private, read-only page about the landlord’s properties, with no password, and nothing on it can be changed.
- How do the repair limit and landlord approvals work?Each landlord client has a repair limit on their page. A quote above it, or every quote when no limit is set, is asked of the landlord from the repair: they get an email from your agency with a link to approve, decline or ask for a call, and their answer is kept.
- How do I send an inspection report, a finished repair or a notice to the landlord?Press Send to landlord on a finished inspection or a completed repair, or Tell the landlord on a tenant’s notice. It is emailed from your agency to the landlord client the property is linked to, and listed on their page under Reports and notices sent.
- How does a contractor send their invoice from the job link?In an agency workspace, once the contractor marks the job complete, their job link asks for the final amount and the invoice file. The amount becomes a draft expense on the property, and it reaches a landlord statement only after you confirm it on the repair.
- How is the left menu laid out in an agency workspace?In five parts, in the order the work arrives: Landlord clients, Lettings, Management, Client money and Office. Each member sees only the rows their role can use, so a viewer’s menu is shorter than an owner’s.
- What can owners, admins, managers and viewers do in an agency workspace?Owners and admins run the team and the Office pages. Managers run the properties, landlord clients and client money day to day. Viewers can look and export PDFs but change nothing. A member pinned to a branch sees only that branch’s properties.
- How do I require two-step sign-in for everyone in my agency?The agency owner opens Security from Settings and presses Require two-step sign-in. Everyone working in the agency then signs in with a code from an authenticator app as well as their password, and anyone without an app is asked to set one up first.
- How do I pay landlords from the Payments page?Payments, under Client money, lists what each landlord is owed from their issued statements. Download a payment file for your bank, pay from your own bank, then mark the statements paid. Nothing on the page moves money.
- How do I reconcile my agency’s client account?Open Reconcile client account under Client money, choose the day and press Check. The page sets the bank balance, the cash book and each landlord’s ledger side by side to the penny, lists every difference with what explains it, and keeps the month when you save it.
- What is the client money report, and how is it different from reconciling?The client money report adds up the client money ledger for any dates and shows the balance held for each landlord, with a PDF for your scheme. It does not check the bank: Reconcile client account does that, and keeps a copy of the report with each month it saves.
- What does the Agency compliance page hold?The agency’s own duties, not a landlord’s: redress, client money protection, ICO and professional indemnity renewal dates, the client money protection certificate, the written client money procedures, and the data protection log with its exports. Owners and admins only.
- How do I keep a complaints register for my letting agency?Open Complaints under Office and press Add a complaint on the day it arrives, spoken or written. Each complaint shows the day it reaches 8 weeks and, once your redress scheme is recorded, that scheme’s own steps, with letters to prepare and files to keep.
- How do I see what each member of my agency team did?Open Team activity under Office. It lists the most recent 200 actions in the workspace, each with the member who took it, the property where there is one, and the time. Owners and admins can open it, and no entry can be edited or deleted through the app.
5 answers
Account and billing
Plans, invoices, cancelling and your data.
- What do I get on the free plan?One property, with no card: rent tracked on the tenancy with receipts, the tenant portal with repairs, your documents, certificate reminders by email, the 0 to 100 compliance score and one new tenancy agreement a month. Direct Debit, adverts, e-signing, notices, Making Tax Digital and the tax pack need a paid plan.
- Which plan do I need?Count your properties. One is Single at £7.99 a month, with Making Tax Digital, or free, with rent tracking and the tenant portal. Solo is £14.99 for up to 3, Portfolio £19 for up to 10, Portfolio Plus £29 for up to 20 and Professional £49 for any number. Agencies with staff or client money use an agency plan, from £24 for up to 5 properties.
- Can my partner or accountant get copies of my emails?Yes. In Settings, under Copies to someone else, add up to three addresses and choose which kinds of email each one gets. Each person confirms from a link before anything is sent to them, and can stop the copies at any time. They get emails only, not a login.
- How do I cancel my subscription?Open Billing, choose Manage subscription and stop the plan in Stripe’s billing portal, or email hello@letcompliance.com. No reason is needed. Within 14 days of buying a landlord plan, you pay only for the time used and the rest is refunded. After that, it runs to the end of the month or year paid for, with no refund.
- How does Refer and earn work?Share your referral link. When somebody signs up through it and becomes a paying customer, you both get rewarded. The reward is issued once per referred account and it is tracked automatically.
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