PropTech pledge to agents - this platform is the alternative to a bank

LettsPay, an automated service aiming to simplify the reconciling of tenant rental payments, has won investment from the nurtur.group - the owner of Fine & Country and the Guild of Property Professionals.

It’s the first beneficiary of nurtur.group’s so-called Accelerator programme, which aims to give investment help to tech groups which benefit agents.

Since April 2019, any lettings or management business that handles clients’ money must be part of the Client Money Protection Scheme in order to trade. Letts Pay will help landlords and letting agents save valuable time while ensuring they remain compliant with CMP and Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

Founder Garrett Foxon says: “We are very excited to have been selected as the first applicant to work with the Accelerator team. The partnership offers us access to a large network of property professionals, as well as the opportunity to increase our brand awareness with the sector. 

“Working with the team of industry experts within nurtur.group will help us to propel our business forward, while providing the network with a proptech product that will assist agents in the lettings sector.”

Paul Offley, compliance officer at nurtur.group, says: “This will really offer … an alternative banking solution, yet at the same time keep [agents] fully in control of their client’s money. 

"All too often I come across cases where banks are writing to an increasing number of members with a warning that they wish to close undesignated client accounts, and for an agent with over three hundred landlords the logistics of having to operate 300 individual designated accounts, or change banks, is quite daunting. 

“Working with LettsPay takes away the issue completely. Through the portal each firm would have an automated designated client account for each of their landlords with the added bonus of no bank charges, no hassle from the bank and a fully automated system, which is backed by CMP and has a full reconciliation and audit trail, all under the name of the agent.”

Foxon adds that the platform uses the latest finance technology to create the separate accounts for landlords, with their own sort code and account number. 

“The tenant is notified automatically by the platform to pay their account. When payment is received, LettsPay auto allocates the funds, which means all the letting agent would need to do is create and approve the payout to the landlord. The system will communicate to the tenant that the payment has been received and it will produce an automatic statement for the landlord. The automation of the process will save agents time and will make it far easier to manage a larger portfolio of clients. The platform is also able to manage payments to contractors, deposit accounts and HMRC” he says.

Iain McKenzie, chief executive of The Guild of Property Professionals, adds: “Innovative technology such as the LettsPay will ensure the group is at the forefront of development, driving progression within the sector and providing agents with a wider array of PropTech products that will save money, make money, and help them remain compliant.”