Deposit alternative platform Reposit has signed new deals with three big estate agencies.

SW firms Symonds & Sampson and Webbers plus Northern agency Bradley Hall all now offer their landlords and tenants the Reposit service.

The new partnerships also coincide with a 69% increase in sales for Reposit during December compared to the same period in 2022.

Surge

Reposit says this surge in demand highlights the growing recognition among agencies of the product as a valuable alternative to the conventional cash deposit.

Symonds & Sampson, which operates in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, is offering an alternative to the cash deposit for the first time in its 166-year history.

Shared

Ben Grech, CEO at Reposit (main picture), says: “These partnerships reflect a shared vision for efficiency and customer-centric solutions while offering a practical solution for agencies navigating the ever-changing rental landscape.”

Reposit’s deposit alternative fits with our goal to provide efficient, customer-focused solutions.”

Rachael James, Head of Lettings, Symonds & Sampson

Rachael James, Head of Lettings at Symonds & Sampson, says: “We are excited to partner with Reposit to enhance the rental experience for both landlords and tenants.

Since partnering with Reposit, Symonds & Sampson has provided its landlords with over £96,000 in cover, including £36,000 of additional cover to what they would receive with a cash deposit.

Tenants pay a one-week non-refundable fee instead of five weeks’ rent with the Reposit plan. And landlords receive up to eight weeks’ worth of cover against rent arrears and dilapidations.

Bradley Hall is based in the north east, and Webbers covers Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

Don’t believe the naysayers. Tenants who ‘zero deposit’ are better off in the long run

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The current mortgage price war shows little sign of abating after Metro Bank became the latest lender to offer new deals yesterday with a headline rate of 4.99% for a 2-year fixed rate switch product up to 80% LTV.

The move will delight prospective first-time buyers and homeowners looking to move as well as those looking to refinance and came hot on the heels of high street lenders NatWest and HSBC which had both announced rate cuts earlier in the week.

FIXED RATE RANGES

NatWest made cuts across its fixed rate ranges for purchases, remortgages, product transfers, buy-to-let and even green deals and was its second price change in January.

And HSBC cut its residential mortgage rates and increased its cashback incentive for first-time buyer customers at 95% LTV from £250, £350 and £500 across its 2-year fixed, 3-year fixed and 5-year fixed rates to £750, £750 and £1,000.

Sofia Jones, Penny House

And elsewhere specialist finance lender MT Finance reduced buy-to-let mortgage rates on every one of its 16 buy-to-let products by up to 1% with the lender now offering rates from 4.65% for 2-year fixed standard residential buy-to-let products.

Sofia Jones, Mortgage and Insurance Adviser at Penny House, says: “It’s great to see Metro catching up with other lenders. Product transfer rates for existing clients have dropped from 6.19% to 4.79%. This in itself will save one of my clients £35,200 over two years in interest alone. The rate cuts we’re seeing now are having a hugely positive impact on people’s finances.

FAIR CHUNK

And Gary Bush, Financial Adviser at The MortgageShop.com, adds: “To see Metro Bank reducing their rates by a fair chunk demonstrates the feelings of lenders at the moment.

Gary Bush, The MortgageShop.com

“The mortgage rate price war rages on. It’s clear from their lack of activity that Nationwide are tactically withdrawing from the market at the moment having dipped their toes in too deep in the later stages of 2023.”

He adds: “There is no point releasing rate decreases that send your processing levels into a tailspin.

“Sadly a large number of existing clients, and those who already have a mortgage offer in place, who are looking for a downward tweak, may well have to be patient for the time being in tying up those transactions.”

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Estate agents risk becoming enablers for sanction evasion by trusting long-term client relationships over critical compliance checks, new survey data from SmartSearch reveals. ­­­­­­

The findings are revealed in a comprehensive new survey of 500 decision-makers in regulated UK businesses across the property, legal, finance and accountancy sectors.

CLIENT RELATIONS

The survey found that firms in financial services (44%) are most likely to rely on client relations over sanctions and PEP (politically-exposed person) screening, closely followed by accountants (42%) and property firms including estate agents (40%).

A whopping 41% of firms said they are confident that none of their clients are listed on sanction or PEP  lists because they have worked with them for a long time. Meanwhile, more than a third of firms (35%) said it was because they trust their clients. That is almost three times as many as in the previous year’s survey (12%).

This is in spite of the UK’s growing sanction regime over the past 12 months, fuelled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Amongst the thousands of ever-changing sanctions facing Russian nationals and entities there are now almost 30 countries on the UK sanctions list. Compliance experts warn that firms who breach sanction rules could be seen as complicit in enabling sanction evasion, running the risk of eye-watering fines, reputational damage and even criminal prosecution.

DUE DILLIGENCE

More than a third of legal firms, including solicitors and conveyancers (37%) believe that long-term client relationships negate the need for due diligence. Almost the same number of legal firms (32%) said it was because they trust their clients – nearly three times as many as the 2022 findings (11%).

The findings follow warnings from authorities, including the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce, urging firms to implement robust checks to avoid becoming enablers for sanction evasion.

Guy Harrison (main picture), Chief Executive of SmartSearch, says: “Complacency is all too often the enemy of compliance and, while trust is important in any client relationship, it shouldn’t trump the robust checks required by law.

“This is especially true given the UK’s current stance on sanctions and the opportunity for existing clients to suddenly come under greater scrutiny.

“Without necessary screening and real-time intelligence, it’s worryingly easy for regulated firms to be unknowingly complicit in sanction evasion.”

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Industry recruitment bluechip Deverellsmith has told The Neg that it is launching the firm’s service for estate agencies across the UK.

The company, which specialises in finding candidates for a range of sectors including estate agency but also build to rent and new homes, has until now limited its coverage to the capital.

But following its acquisition of Nicola Broomham’s eponymous recruitment firm in 2022, a 15-strong team has now been assembled to give Deverellsmith national coverage.

Nicola Broomham, Executive Search

“We have always been focused on central London and prime central London but when Andrew Deverell-Smith bought my recruitment firm the plan was always to expand, helped in part by all the data Broomham Recruitment held,” says Nicola Broomham.

“After my business was acquired it took another year or so for me move into a more of a ‘group’ role which included strengthening the estate agency team with a view to expanding with specialisms that include property management and mortgages.”

Spearhead

Broomham will now spearhead the move to national coverage working with larger estate agencies across the UK, aided by Associate Director, Tom Lambourne.

“We’ve already got relationships with national agencies that are both in London and the rest of the UK, but until now we haven’t had the bandwidth to help them outside the Capital,” she adds.

Andrew Deverell-Smith (pictured) says: “We couldn’t be more excited to confirm a national team within our estate agency division lead by the phenomenally talented Nicola and Tom.

“Ever since we launched 18 years ago estate agency has been one of our core markets on which we focus within real estate. I could not be prouder of our team and its unrivalled market knowledge.”

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Time after time I see frazzled agents trying to ‘do it all’ and ‘be all things to all people’ – they’re reluctant to hand over responsibility to their own staff, let alone an outside service.

But these are the agents who simply aren’t progressing because they’re spending every single day keeping on top of an ever-refilling to do list and they’re never getting down to the action which says ‘grow the business’.

DOWN TOOLS

I’ve been encouraging agents to down tools and take one step away so they can look objectively at their company and work out how to expand their services, portfolios and increase their revenue as a result.

And as part of that I look at which responsibilities can be given to team members and – crucially – delve into which tasks could be completely outsourced.

Whether it’s your marketing or your call handling there are a wealth of specialists out there who can take on a specific part of your business to do list leaving you free to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Outsourcing certainly isn’t a new concept. Deloitte predicted this year (2023) that the total spent on outsourcing across the globe would top $731 Billion (USD). And YouGov states the majority of businesses use a separate company for at least one of their functions with almost a quarter doing so for accounting – and that’s not including payroll.

DEALING WITH RENT

That’s absolutely an area where I believe letting agents can benefit from outsourcing, specifically when it comes to dealing with rent, deposits and any other money associated with tenancies.

Client accounting involves accuracy and regulation compliance meaning it’s not something which can be rushed or done while multi-tasking and thinking about the 100 other tasks which the agency needs to complete that day. It’s also something which is much more efficient when undertaken by a specialist.

Half of all UK businesses who outsource say they do so because they don’t have the qualified staff for the task at hand (again according to YouGov) and 30% say outsourcing delivers better results.

Both of these are huge benefits associated with client accounting – because the professionals you would outsource this function to (Client Accounting Service Provider (CASPs)) are specifically trained to handle funds in accordance with industry standards and regulations and most have amassed a huge amount of experience and knowledge which ensures efficiency and effectiveness.

CASP IS CRUCIAL

The accuracy you can rely on with a reputable CASP is even more crucial when you think about risk management – handing your client accounting to someone with little knowledge or experience could prove hazardous when it comes to compliance.

Investing in hiring and training staff specifically to deal with accounting is likely to be costly (both in terms of money and time) and, as previously mentioned, taking this task on yourself is hugely time-consuming.

So, by far the most preferable option is trusting it to an expert. There are, of course, costs associated with outsourcing – but often the time saved by having an expert undertake the tasks and the ability you now have to focus on generating increased revenue within the business means you’ll actually be saving money overall.

The accuracy a CASP can provide goes hand in hand with efficiency – you don’t have to worry about covering sickness, holidays or staff turnover because the outside firm will do that. Your landlords will be paid on time, and have the reassurance of knowing you’ve got an expert team looking after their financial transactions.

SCALE UP

And you don’t even have to worry about taking on and training more staff over time because the CASP team will be able to scale up their level of service as your business grows.

All in all, client accountancy represents a reduction in time, stress, costs and risk for you and it represents peace of mind for your landlords.

And all of that adds up to a bigger and brighter future for your agency.

Sally Lawson (main picture) is Chief Executive and Founder of Agent Rainmaker

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Two of the UK’s biggest proptech names have merged, funded by a big US private equity firm, it has been announced.

Reapit and PayProp are joining forces and the move is being funded by a ‘substantial’ investment from Accel-KKR, which has already sunk millions into Reapit. It in turn bought PayProp earlier this year but has only now decided to merge the two businesses. The Neg also understands that the two firs will be integrated over time.

The announcement means customers of both firms will get access to the merged entities’ wider capabilities and have a single provider that delivers across sales, lettings, property management, client account management, and secure, automated payments.

PayProp reported annual revenues of £9.6 million earlier this year, while Reapit’s most recent accounts show a turnover of £19.3 million. Despite their different turnovers, both firms reported similar pre-tax profits of approximately £3 million.

Mark Armstrong, CEO of Reapit (pictured), says: “Our two companies are both highly oriented around service and customer success. Our combined path is clear: to lead and drive digital transformation of the property sector, which is a huge asset class.

“PayProp has a loyal customer base that benefits from efficient and secure payment, reconciliation and settlement.

“Many PayProp customers, I am sure, will be keen to discover the end-to-end functionality and support that Reapit offers.”

Inefficiencies

Johannes van Eeden, CEO, PayProp put the emphasis on growth opportunities. “Both of our companies have an excellent reputation for eliminating back-office inefficiencies and lowering administrative costs. Together, we will provide a premium end-to-end service with the goal of enabling our customers to do business more efficiently, remain compliant with the latest regulations, and grow profitably.”

The merger means the two brands will have customers in the UK but also eight other countries including the US, Canada, UAE, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Ireland and South Africa.

Park Durrett, MD at Accel-KKR (pictured) and a board member of both Reapit and PayProp, adds: “Reapit and PayProp coming together creates a major force in the PropTech sector and provides a springboard for further growth of the combined entity, which already has a significant footprint in four continents with considerably more than a million properties under management.”

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The number of house sales hit by a ‘cyber incident’ at conveyancing tech firm CTS are in the thousands with one leading lender reporting 600 property purchases stuck in limbo following the attack last week.

CTS remains tight lipped about what the problems are or how many vendors are affected, but comments by the Nationwide to the BBC on Friday would suggest that several thousand are involved, with 90 conveyancing firms involved.

The firm’s clients list includes O’Neil Patient, which uses the CTS platform to process 88,000 home sales every year.

Last week CTS released a statement saying it had experienced an outage caused by a ‘cyber incident’ and that “we continue to work around the clock with the assistance of third-party experts.

“Whilst we are confident that we will be able to restore services, we are unable to give a precise timeline for full restoration. We will continue to communicate directly with those of our clients which are impacted by the service outage, providing regular updates on the status of our work to restore services and our investigations into the incident.”

Reinstate

The software firm has revealed that its client services are up and running again but that ‘client environments’, which are the various network connections it operates, are taking longer than expected to reinstate during the final and ‘complex’ process to restore its service fully.

This cyber attack has been crippling for many conveyancers because, without the CTS platform working correctly, they are unable to process key documents that lenders require to release funds in order for sales to complete, leaving many vendors and buyers in limbo.

The BBC’s Money Box programme spoke to one vendor who had been forced to move into temporary rented accommodation after selling her home but being unable to complete on her next one, reporting that she had received no communication from CTS on the status of its system reboot.

The property market was hit by a similar attack in August 2022, albeit on a big council’s property search IT platform, which took more than eight months to fix.

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Estate agents are still struggling to finalise the sales of apartments in towers over five storeys or 11 metres after ongoing concerns created through changes to the Building Safety Act (BSA) earlier this year.

The Neg revealed in May how having been introduced to parliament in July 2021, the Building Safety Act 2022 introduced new duties for the management of fire and building safety in high-rise residential buildings (main picture) from 1st April 2023.

RENEW POLICIES

Late autumn is the main time throughout the year in which professional indemnity insurance (PII) providers choose to renew policies for conveyancing firms and this year The Neg can reveal that more questions are being asked around how many leasehold properties a firm is transacting, how many fit BSA criteria and how many they plan to do in 2024.

Chris Barry, Thomas Legal

Chris Barry, director of business development at London-based Thomas Legal, tells The Neg: “As a result of this mass renewal, firms are finding it difficult to obtain insurance if they continue to transact BSA work, or, in some cases, their annual renewal premium is double the prior year meaning they will most likely take the tough decision that completing on BSA transactions is not financially viable for the firm.

“Clients are contacting me to explain they instructed a firm up to as long as six months ago and are now ready to exchange contracts.”

INSURANCE RESTRICTIONS

But he says: “The firms are sadly communicating that they can no longer complete the matter due to insurance restrictions and they will have to find another firm to take over the matter for completion.”

Barry believes time will help the situation as more landlords and management companies deal with qualifying buildings and qualifying leases – timescales will reduce and remedial works should start to be scheduled where needed making the process easier.

He adds: “Clearly a firm’s appetite to risk is their decision but that is no help for clients who have been led down the garden path.

“My best advice to anyone thinking about buying or sell a leasehold property in the near future is to ask a law firm they obtain a quote from if they have experience in the BSA before deciding who to instruct. If the person on the phone can’t answer the question, that’s normally a sign to avoid.”

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