Written by
Emma Collins
Published on
Jan 29, 2026
You win a new landlord with five properties. Great news for the business. Then reality hits: your team is already stretched, and now they need to set up five new properties while keeping everything else running.
This is the growth paradox every letting agency faces. You want more properties — that's how you grow. But each new property creates more work, and without the right systems, growth becomes chaos.
The agencies that scale successfully have figured out how to onboard new properties systematically. Here's what that looks like.
What "onboarding a property" actually involves
Taking on a new managed property isn't just adding a row to a spreadsheet. It's a series of tasks that need to happen in the right order, with nothing missed.
Pre-takeover:
Gather landlord information and preferences
Collect property details (address, type, age, specifications)
Review existing tenancy (if applicable)
Check compliance status — gas safety, EICR, EPC, licensing
Understand any outstanding maintenance issues
Coordinate handover from previous agent (if applicable)
Documentation:
Sign management agreement
Set up property in your management system
Notify tenant of management change
Update contractor records if needed
Set up rent collection
Compliance verification:
Confirm gas safety certificate is valid (or arrange inspection)
Confirm EICR is valid (or arrange inspection)
Confirm EPC rating meets minimum standards
Check smoke and CO alarm compliance
Verify any licensing requirements (HMO, selective licensing)
Property setup:
Obtain or create inventory
Arrange key handover and secure storage
Record access details and alarm codes
Take property photos if needed
Note meter locations and readings
Tenant introduction:
Send welcome letter explaining the change
Provide your contact details and reporting process
Explain how to report maintenance issues
Confirm emergency contacts
Set up rent payment method
Landlord setup:
Confirm reporting preferences and frequency
Agree approval thresholds for repairs
Record preferred contractors (if any)
Set up payment method for landlord disbursements
Schedule first property inspection
That's a lot. And if any of it gets missed, you're dealing with problems down the line.
The two approaches: chaos vs system
The chaos approach:
Each property manager handles onboarding their own way. There's no standard checklist — people rely on memory and experience. Information ends up scattered across emails, notes, and mental to-do lists.
New properties take weeks to fully set up. Things get missed: a gas certificate that's actually expired, a tenant who was never told about the management change, a landlord preference that wasn't recorded.
The team feels overwhelmed. Existing work suffers while they deal with the new properties. And then you win another landlord, and it starts again.
The systematic approach:
Every property goes through the same onboarding process. There's a standard checklist that covers everything — nothing relies on memory.
Information is captured in one place from day one. Handoffs between team members are clean because everyone knows what's been done and what's still pending.
New properties are fully operational within a defined timeframe. The team knows what to expect, and the workload is predictable.
Building your onboarding checklist
A good onboarding checklist is:
Comprehensive — covers everything, assumes nothing
Sequential — tasks in logical order, dependencies clear
Assignable — clear who's responsible for each step
Trackable — easy to see what's done and what's outstanding
Here's a framework you can adapt:
Week 1: Information gathering
Landlord details captured (contact info, address, bank details)
Landlord preferences recorded (reporting frequency, approval thresholds)
Property details captured (address, type, bedrooms, specifications)
Existing tenancy details obtained (tenant names, rent amount, tenancy dates)
Compliance certificates obtained and checked:
Gas safety certificate (valid? expiry date?)
EICR (valid? expiry date?)
EPC (rating? expiry date?)
Outstanding maintenance issues documented
Handover from previous agent completed (if applicable)
Keys obtained and logged
Week 2: System setup
Property created in management software
Tenant record created
Landlord record created
Rent collection set up (standing order/direct debit)
Compliance diary dates entered (certificate renewals)
Contractor access details recorded
Property photos uploaded
Inventory uploaded or inspection scheduled
Week 3: Communications
Tenant welcome letter sent
Maintenance reporting process explained
Emergency contact details provided
Rent payment details confirmed with tenant
Landlord confirmation of setup sent
First inspection scheduled
Week 4: Confirmation
All checklist items verified complete
Any outstanding issues flagged and assigned
Landlord sent "onboarding complete" confirmation
Property moved to "active management" status
Compliance: the non-negotiable foundation
Never take on a property without verifying compliance status first. This isn't just good practice — it's protecting yourself legally.
From the moment you take on management, compliance becomes your responsibility. If the gas safety certificate expired two months ago and you didn't check, that's on you.
Build compliance verification into the first stage of onboarding, not as an afterthought. Specifically:
Gas safety: Certificate must be valid. If it expires within 8 weeks, schedule renewal immediately. No certificate? Don't complete onboarding until inspection is booked.
EICR: Must be less than 5 years old. Check the report for any remedial actions required.
EPC: Must be rated E or above (C or above for new tenancies from 2028). If it doesn't meet standards, flag to landlord before taking on.
Smoke and CO alarms: Must be present and working. Confirm at first inspection.
Licensing: Check if the property requires an HMO licence or falls under selective licensing. Non-compliance here carries severe penalties.
With Awaab's Law introducing fixed timescales for hazard remediation, compliance has never been more important. Getting it right at onboarding prevents problems later.
Capacity planning: how many can you onboard?
Being systematic doesn't mean you can onboard unlimited properties. Your team still has finite capacity.
Realistic expectations:
2-4 properties per property manager per week is sustainable alongside normal workload
More than that, and corners get cut or existing work suffers
Complex properties (HMOs, problematic tenancies, compliance issues) take longer
If you're growing fast, consider:
Dedicated onboarding resource. Someone whose primary job is setting up new properties, at least during growth phases. They develop expertise and efficiency that generalists can't match.
Staggered start dates. Rather than taking on 10 properties on the 1st of the month, spread them across the month. Smoother workload, better attention to each one.
Onboarding "sprints." Batch onboarding into focused periods where the team prioritises new properties, with cover for business-as-usual work.
Saying no (temporarily). If you're at capacity, it's better to delay taking on new properties than to onboard them badly. A landlord who waits two weeks for a good setup is happier than one who starts immediately with a mess.
Setting up for smooth ongoing management
The quality of your onboarding directly affects the quality of the ongoing relationship.
Rushed onboarding means:
Missing information you'll spend months chasing
Compliance gaps that create risk
Tenants who don't know how to reach you
Landlords with unmet expectations
Your team constantly firefighting problems that should have been prevented
Thorough onboarding means:
Everything documented from day one
Compliance tracked and diarised
Tenants who know exactly how to report issues
Landlords confident their property is in good hands
Your team managing proactively, not reactively
The hour you invest in proper onboarding saves ten hours of fixing problems later.
Making maintenance reporting seamless from day one
One of the most common onboarding gaps is maintenance reporting. Tenants don't know how to report issues, so they call repeatedly or send emails that get lost. Then when something goes wrong, you're playing catch-up.
Set this up properly from the start:
Tell tenants exactly how to report issues. Not "contact us" — specific instructions. What channel to use, what information to include, what to expect in response.
Make it easy. If tenants can message via WhatsApp or email and get an immediate response — even at 10pm on a Sunday — they'll use the system. If they have to navigate a clunky portal or wait for office hours, they'll call instead.
Provide guidance for common issues. Boiler pressure problems, tripping electrics, no hot water — tenants can often resolve these themselves with the right guidance. Give them that guidance upfront, and you'll reduce unnecessary callouts from day one.
Explain what happens next. Tenants should know: their report will be acknowledged, triaged, and they'll be kept informed of progress. Setting expectations prevents chasing.
Onboarding as competitive advantage
Most letting agencies don't think of onboarding as a differentiator. But landlords notice.
A landlord who receives a professional welcome pack, sees their property set up correctly in your system within days, and gets confirmation that compliance is all in order — that landlord trusts you.
A landlord who's still chasing you for updates three weeks after signing up, who discovers their gas certificate wasn't checked, who has to re-explain their preferences multiple times — that landlord is already looking for an alternative.
Systematic onboarding isn't just about efficiency. It's about making a strong first impression that sets the tone for the entire relationship.
Lanten makes maintenance reporting seamless from day one. Tenants can report issues via WhatsApp or email, with AI gathering complete information, providing troubleshooting guidance, and keeping everyone informed — automatically. One less thing to worry about during onboarding.
