With one eye on the horizon the NRLA is always looking for ways to streamline the lettings process, making it quicker and easier for landlords and tenants. Here James Kent, the NRLA’s Chief Innovation Officer, and founder of digital compliance platform Safe2, looks forward to the association’s 2024 conference which will include a session on digital solutions for landlords. 

Innovation is at the heart of the NRLA offer, with the association always on the lookout for new ways to improve its digital offer to members and creative solutions to common problems. 

Portfolio, the association’s very own property management platform, offers landlords a user-friendly and affordable way to self-manage their properties. Already 5,000 landlords are managing 30,000 tenancies using Portfolio, which fully integrate into your NRLA account  and is free to all members. 

 This, alongside services including our Safe2 compliance platform, which allows landlords to arrange inspections and organise essential safety certificates at the click of a button make it even easier for landlords to run their property businesses, saving time and money. 

One of the highlights of this year’s NRLA conference, which will be held at Birmingham’s NEC on 6 November, will be a session on proptech and how it can help you streamline your business. 

The ‘Digital Landlords: Innovating the PRS’ panel discussion will see me joined on stage by Anna Moore, Co-Founder & CEO of retrofit strategists Hestia, Manoj Varsani, founder and CEO of Hammock, an accounting platform for landlords and Hannah Chappatte, founder of Hybr, which helps match students with suitable landlords and properties. 

They will share details of their experiences and the impact that adopting a tech-first approach can have on you and your business. 

Digital database 

The Government too, is approaching regulation of the private rented sector through online systems. The new government’s Digital Database is expected to be a variant of the Property Portal proposed by the previous administration. 

Although, at the time of writing the details had yet to be made public it is likely it will require landlords to register their properties and demonstrate compliance with safety regulations by uploading copies of documents such as Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and gas and safety certificates. 

This could potentially replace the requirement to serve these compulsory compliance documents to tenants in person at the start of a tenancy. 

Although it is very early days ultimately it would be great if we could link Portfolio to the new database, meaning landlords would only need to fill in their details and upload their documents once.  

The ongoing rollout of the Making Tax Digital scheme will also require landlords to ditch paper records in favour of online systems. 

The led by HMRC aims to fully digitise UK tax, requiring individuals and businesses, including landlords to keep their tax records and make submissions to HMRC digitally through MTD-compatible software. 

The writing is on the wall. We live in a digital world, with more and more interactions going on digitally. Becoming tech savvy and adopting online support tools can save you time, money and make you more attractive to tenants increasingly used to managing their lives online. 

Why not join us at the NEC on6 November to find out more, and here from a range of expert speakers on everything from legislation change to investment news. Presented by TV favourite Nick Knowles, with former Dragon’s Den star and investor James Caanas the keynote speaker, it’s an event not to be missed. 

For more information and to buy your tickets click here.   

More information 

To find out more about Portfolio and set up your own account, go onto the NRLA website and click on ‘My Portfolio’ in the top right-hand corner. This will allow you to log in the portal and start adding your properties. 

Part of the NRLA family, Safe2 is a digital platform providing of all forms of property safety certification. A one-stop-shop for all things compliance, it sends alerts when documents are due to expire, organises inspections and repairs and issues certificates. For more information click here. 

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