"We have a practical approach to lettings, being landlords, which is good because we already understand all the problems that may arise and the regulations. We also understood that we should systemise things from the beginning," says Ryan Melles, Owner of The Property Shop Yorkshire.
This drive to find more efficient ways to work led the agency to Goodlord - and now it uses the Goodlord platform to manage many of the steps in its processes. "Once we've done the virtual viewing with tenants, we send them through Goodlord to fill in all the paperwork online and go through the full referencing," says Ryan. "We use the Goodlord tenancy contracts, and we switch their utility services - gas, electric, council tax - through Goodlord. Some of our tenants also choose to take the contents insurance too."
The agency also offers its landlords a Rent Protection Service, having switched to Goodlord's policy when other suppliers struggled to provide continuous cover during the pandemic. "We've used other providers in the past, but they changed the goalposts when the pandemic hit - it just went pear shaped, which is when we switched to Goodlord's policy," says Ryan.
"It was easy to switch because we already understand the policies, the excesses and so on. We just asked key questions of Goodlord to make sure it really offers no excess, to make sure the policy would pay out - it all sounded brilliant and we were happy to sign up."
The agency had always helped their landlords through the time consuming claims process, but Goodlord's policy includes a fast, online claims process, which automates many of the steps for the agent. "When we did have a claim before, we spent hours trying to sort it out for the landlord, and often for free. Now, we know that Goodlord can easily help us through, should we need to claim.
"It's been a success to switch to Goodlord. The other providers we used offered referencing too, for example, but the protection they offered had two months' excess. I can re-let the property in two months. If I can't claim it, I might as well not bother with it. So it really made other people's rent protection policies worthless."