HomeLet has launched a product to help combat tenancy fraud, which it claims has seen a 36 per cent rise since 2021.

It says its product checks tenancy applications against over 500m data points and checks, including financial sanctions, with an  artificial intelligence system integrated into the process adding additional security. 

“The system checks every document HomeLet receive, whether a PDF, image or scanned copy, and continues to get smarter as it learns from every document it checks. The multi-layered document analysis technology inspects the metadata and structure of documents to highlight uncommon changes and identify any changes in pixilation to detect forged images” claims HomeLet.

Head of customer operations Rebecca Baker says: “Just last week, we stopped a case in Mayfair from getting through where the monthly rent was over £5,000. The fraudster had edited their documents to make it look like they were earning income from a legitimate source, but the source and transaction had been forged.

“We’ve already saved landlords £1,564,429.98 in annual rents so far in 2023, this is a run rate of more than £19 million of annual rents, through our innovative fraud detection, and helping our partner agents protect their customers remains our priority.”

Plentific also has a new product – a void management platform featuring a real-time dashboard which can carry an inspections timetable and subsequent programme of works, and serves as a source of finding and vetting contractors. 

“The introduction of our Voids Management Solution directly addresses a pressing challenge in the sector and enables us to improve the lives of tenants as they occupy their homes earlier than previously possible” says Plentific chief executive Cem Savas.