Why setup is the worst week in the pipeline #
Everything else in an agency can slip by a day. Tenancy setup cannot, because a move in date has been promised to two parties and one of them has given notice somewhere else.
From the moment an offer is accepted, the work is a countdown, and the countdown is made of items that depend on other people: a referencing provider, an employer, a previous landlord, a guarantor, a gas engineer, an electrician and a landlord who is on holiday.
That dependency is what makes it expensive. The agent is not doing the work, the agent is chasing the work, and chasing is the most interruptible activity there is.
What actually has to land, and by when #
| Item | Timing |
|---|---|
| Right to rent check on every adult occupier | Before the tenancy starts. Where someone has time limited permission to be in the UK, GOV.UK says the check is done in the 28 days before the start of the tenancy |
| Deposit protected in an approved scheme | Within 30 days of receiving it |
| Prescribed information given to the tenant | Within the same 30 days |
| Copy of the current gas safety record | Provided to the tenant before they move in |
| Copy of the electrical installation condition report | Supplied to a new tenant before they occupy the premises |
| Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms checked | In proper working order on the day the tenancy begins, for a new tenancy |
| Rent in advance | Cannot be required before the tenancy begins; up to one month once the agreement is signed |
Those are the landlord's and the agent's legal duties, and they stay that way. Nothing on this page suggests that organising the reminders discharges them.
Referencing is a chase, not a decision #
The referencing decision itself takes minutes. What takes days is getting the inputs: identity documents that are legible, an employer who answers a reference request, a previous landlord who confirms the tenancy dates, a guarantor who signs, and bank details that match the name on the application. In a small agency this is done by a person sending the same three emails on a loop, then sending them again.
Split it and the pattern is obvious.
Runs on rules
- Requesting a document
- Noticing it has not arrived
- Sending a reminder
- Filing it in the right place when it does
- Telling the next person in the chain that it landed
Needs a person
- Reading a set of references and deciding whether to recommend the applicant
- Explaining a weak reference to a landlord without losing either party
The re-keying tax #
The same applicant details get typed into a referencing portal, a tenancy agreement, a deposit scheme, an inventory booking and an accounts record.
61%
Of lettings professionals say staff transfer, re-enter or duplicate information between systems during a tenancy
Property Industry Eye, 3 September 2026
17%
Use a single main system
Property Industry Eye, 3 September 2026
Each re-entry is a chance for a name to be spelled two ways, which is how a deposit ends up registered against a tenant who does not match the agreement.
Where setup usually goes wrong #
- A certificate is assumed to be current and turns out to have expired two weeks before move in. See chasing safety certificates.
- The deposit is taken by the landlord directly and nobody starts the 30 day clock. See deposit protection deadlines.
- A second adult moves in who was never referenced and never checked for right to rent.
- The file is complete but scattered across a mailbox, a drive and a CRM, so producing it later takes an hour.
The audit question we would ask is narrow: for the last ten tenancies you set up, how many separate places did the same tenant's name get typed, and how many reminder emails did one member of staff send? That number, not the software, tells you what setup costs. The free tools are a quicker first pass.