On 1 May 2026, the ground rules of lettings changed.
Section 21 is gone. Every possession now stands or falls on evidenced Section 8 grounds — and the Renters' Rights Act polices the process itself, not just the outcome. The agencies that come through this are the ones whose records were built during tenancy setup, not assembled at dispute time.
Civil penalties for process failures
Misusing a possession ground is now a criminal offence for agents, with civil penalties up to £40k.
Written Statement fines
Failing to prove service of the written statement of terms carries £7k fines — £40k if it continues.
Move-in payment order
Rent taken before the agreement is executed is a prohibited payment — it must be returned.
Renters' Rights Act 2025 · figures per Propertymark guidance
The process, enforced — and recorded as it runs.
Application lands
Forwarded from your portal or inbox; details parsed and filed.
Checks run in order
Affordability, right to rent, credit, references — the same maths every time, not judgement calls.
A person approves every decision
Decisions, sends and exceptions wait for your team, and the log records who.
Move-in, sequenced
Deposit, signatures, keys — enforced order, every step on the record.
Every check runs. Nothing decides without you.
Affordability maths, right to rent, credit, references — run in order, automatically, the moment an application lands.
The numbers are code, not guesswork,and the decision is never the machine's: the pipeline stops and waits for your negotiator to approve it.
Keys never move before money and contracts.
Deposit protected, agreement countersigned, then keys — in that order, every time, whoever is on shift.
Try to skip a step and the engine refuses — and writes the refusal into the record. When a decision is questioned in three years, the answer is one click, not a shoebox of emails.
An audit trail a tribunal can read.
Every check, every decision, every refusal — logged as it happens, with who acted and why.
Under the Renters' Rights Act, showing your working is the job. The evidence log assembles itself from the audit trail and exports to a document you can hand over.
Drafted for you. Sent by you.
Reference requests, chase-ups, decline letters — drafted in your agency's tone and waiting in the outbox.
Nothing sends itself. A person reads, edits if they like, and clicks send — and the log records who. This is a tool that works for your team, not a replacement for it.
Your whole desk, triaged.
Most tools show you everything; this one sorts it. Needs you, running, done — the morning's priorities in one glance.
Automation never jumps the queue. Anything waiting on a human sits at the top until a human deals with it.
No rip-and-replace. Your inbox, your phones, your spreadsheet — one evidence trail.
Your inbox stays your inbox
Portal leads and referencing results already arrive as email. A forwarding rule files them; BCC an address and your own correspondence lands on the record too.
Calls become written evidence
Log a phone call in one line, under your name. One click drafts the written confirmation — approved by you before it sends, dated on the record.
Spreadsheets in, spreadsheets out
Your lettings book imports from CSV with a preview and a human confirm. Everything exports back out in one click — your data leaves as easily as it arrives.
Paper joins the trail
Photograph a payslip or a signed page against the application. It's stored with a fingerprint logged at upload — provably the document captured that day.
Straight answers.
What is Tenancy Engine?
Tenancy-setup workflow software for UK lettings agencies. It runs every application from offer to move-in — affordability, right to rent, credit and references, then deposit, signatures and keys in the enforced order — with a person approving every decision and every step logged. Built for Renters' Rights Act 2025 compliance.
How do we evidence right-to-rent and referencing checks for a tribunal?
Every check is logged the moment it runs — what ran, what it found, who approved — and the evidence log assembles itself from that audit trail. It exports as a document you can hand to a tribunal, built during the tenancy, never reconstructed after the dispute.
Can rent be taken before a tenancy agreement is signed under the Renters' Rights Act?
No. Rent taken before the agreement is entered into is a prohibited payment and must be returned; after signing, at most one month's rent can be taken in advance. Tenancy Engine enforces the full move-in sequence — deposit, signatures, then rent — refuses out-of-order steps, and logs each refusal as evidence of process.
Does it replace our referencing provider or property-management software?
No. It sits alongside them — your referencing provider (Goodlord, Vouch, HomeLet or manual) is wired in during the build, and your property-management software stays. Tenancy Engine is the workflow and evidence layer around them, not a rip-and-replace.
Does anything get decided or sent without a person?
No. Checks run automatically, but every decision, every email and every exception waits for someone on your team — and the log records who acted. Nothing sends itself.
How does it connect to our inbox, phones and spreadsheets?
Through what you already use. Portal leads and referencing results arrive by email, so a forwarding rule in your existing inbox is the integration — no IT project. Phone calls and paper documents are logged in one line, under a named member of staff. Your lettings book imports from a spreadsheet, and everything exports back out — no lock-in.
The demo in your inbox is real.
Your brand, your current listings — built from your public website and nothing else. Every applicant in it is synthetic and obviously named that way. Click anything; it's yours to break.
Jealous we haven't emailed you yet? Send a one-liner with your agency's website — we'll build yours.
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