No Agent partners with Experian, reporting rental payment history to enhance tenants’ credit histories
On a mission to clean-up and revolutionise the UK rental sector, No Agent will be one of the first national letting business to ensure their tenants’ timely rental payments are counted towards their credit reports through Experian’s Rental Exchange initiative.
“Rent is usually the largest regular payment in a household and should be the main indicator of creditworthiness. Yet tenants paying rent regularly don’t see this reflected on their credit scores in the same way homeowners do with their mortgage payments. It’s making it even harder for them to get on the ladder and it’s simply not fair. So we are partnering with Experian to change things for Generation Rent.”
Calum Brannan, CEO, No Agent
No Agent manages private rental property across England by combining technology with a team of experienced property professionals. Their proprietary technology will be integrated into Experian’s Rental Exchange system and, following rigorous testing, No Agent will share rent payments data with Experian. This data will then be included in tenants’ Experian credit reports.
“Historically, it’s been easier for people who already own a home to build a credit history than those who want to get on the property ladder. Monthly mortgage payments were factored into credit scores, whereas rental payments were not considered. We felt it was time to give renters a level playing field. We’re pleased to welcome No Agent to the Rental Exchange, so their tenants can strengthen their credit histories simply by paying their rent on time.”
Mark Goodfellow, Rental Exchange Partner, Experian
“We started No Agent to fix the letting experience for both landlords and tenants, and we strongly believe technology is the solution. Through the Experian Rental Exchange, our tenants will boost their credit history with on time payments, access more affordable credit and get on the housing ladder faster. And our landlords are getting an extra assurance that their tenants pay in full and on time.
I am very proud No Agent is leading the charge in creating a marketplace that’s fairer for everyone.”
Calum Brannan, CEO, No Agent
The private rented sector is growing steadily, with a quarter of UKs population forecasted to be renting privately in five years’ time. Legislation was slower to catch up but things are changing. Last year saw a parliamentary debate following a 140,000-strong e-petition, the launch and second reading of Lord Bird’s Creditworthiness Assessment Bill in the House of Lords. At the beginning of the year the government launched a £2 million initiative to find the best fintech platform to record rental payments by tenants.
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About No Agent:
No Agent’s mission is to create a fairer, more equitable marketplace for both landlords and ‘generation rent’. The company uses technology to remove the pain points and inefficiencies of traditional lettings agents. The end-to-end property management platform fuses tech with great customer service to automate the entire rental process. Landlords choose how much they control and how much they pass on to No Agent, and have complete visibility over their property status – at any time, from anywhere in the world. Landlords pay a low monthly fee, while tenants don’t pay any fees.
About CEO Calum Brannan
In 2015, Calum set out to find a solution for renting out his property in Coventry. After a few bad experiences with local letting agents, he was looking for a service that would offer him the same friendly and simple user experience as AirBnB, but for long term rentals. He looked around and noticed there wasn’t anything like that on the market, so he set up to build it.
Today, No Agent directly employs over 30 people and coordinates a network of 500 Property Partners across England who do on-demand work such as viewings and inspections. In October 2017, No Agent opened an Operations Centre in the West Midlands to deal with the increasing demand for services.
No Agent Chair is Gillian Kent, the former CEO at Propertyfinder.com and the former MD of Microsoft MSN. Amongst the board members are Nick Hynes, former CEO and founder of Overture Europe and Carl Uminski, Co-Founder of Somo – world leading independent mobile transformation company.