Help your landlords recover rent with PayProp’s effective arrears management tools

11 September 2023 4190 Views

In the face of stretched incomes, rising interest rates and escalating consumer prices, an increasing number of tenants are at risk of falling behind on their rent.

It’s a problem of considerable significance, given the large percentage of Britons in rented accommodation (19% in England according to the latest English Housing Survey) and the growing difficulty of getting onto the housing ladder.

Tenant affordability risks create significant income risks for landlords too, especially those relying on rental income as a pension or to pay a mortgage. Many of them will look to expert letting agents equipped to recover their rent and protect their investments.

Robust arrears management is a make-or-break service for agencies and their clients, so it’s crucial to have the right processes in place as well as the tools to automate the error-prone and sensitive task of managing arrears.

Streamlining rent arrears management

PayProp offers an innovative solution through its proactive rent arrears management features, empowering letting agents to spot the early warning signs of potential delinquencies and take prompt action to address the issue, all without cumbersome manual processes.

Embracing electronic payment

Protecting your landlords from arrears starts with the systems you have in place. Making rental payments as easy as possible for tenants won’t solve deliberate non-payment, but it will help make incoming payments more regular, predictable and easy to process.

PayProp enables your team to take rental payments, online, 24/7. Further encouraging tenants to opt for instant bank transfers or to set up a Direct Debit can safeguard landlords against non- or late payments. These seamless electronic payment processes ensure that rent reaches your client account promptly, without any room for disputes, making it an invaluable tool in the rent management arsenal.

Automated payment reminders for timely settlements

Letting agents can further leverage the power of PayProp to authorise automated text or e-mail payment reminders to tenants with overdue payments. These reminders include up-to-date information on the outstanding amounts, pulled directly from PayProp’s bank-integrated platform. The longer arrears persist, the less likely you are to ever recover them, so having an automated system ready to go is a huge advantage. After switching to PayProp in 2020, Essex letting agency Griffin Residential recovered £60,000 in arrears for their landlords.

Keeping landlords informed about the status of rent payments is also easy with PayProp. The free PayProp Owner app gives landlords real-time visibility of their tenants' payments. To add an extra layer of protection, PayProp promptly alerts landlords whenever a tenant makes or misses a payment. Armed with this information, landlords can proactively communicate with their letting agents and work with them on any necessary recovery procedures.

A transparent audit trail

PayProp's system maintains a comprehensive and uneditable digital log of all actions taken by users. Every transaction, rent invoice, late or missed payment, reminder, and demand letter is meticulously recorded, creating an indisputable record for agents and landlords. This level of transparency fosters trust and provides a solid foundation for managing rent arrears effectively.

Furthermore, that full audit trail is invaluable for proving a tenant’s pattern of missed or incomplete payments during an eviction hearing or when seeking a County Court Judgement. With Section 21 evictions likely to be scrapped in the near future, being able to prove that a tenant is at fault will be critical when seeking eviction.

The proactive approach to avoiding evictions

Evictions are stressful for all parties involved – letting agents, landlords, and tenants alike – and with the Renters (Reform) Bill incoming, removing non-paying tenants could become more costly depending on the detail of the new legislation. Avoiding such situations through proactive rent arrears management is always the preferred path. When agents leverage PayProp's cutting-edge tools for rent arrears management, landlords can rest assured that their investments are in safe hands.

Embrace PayProp's modern rent arrears management solutions today and create a smoother, stress-free rental experience for yourselves and your clients.