£29 AI landlord software launches in England — useful admin, but licensing and notice risks stay with you

Lettance is launching in England at £29 per property per month with an AI-backed tool aimed at self-managing landlords, but the key fact is this: the landlord or agent still retains legal responsibility for compliance. The provider says it does not find tenants, attend viewings, give legal advice or replace a physical letting agent. That matters because a missed gas safety renewal, licensing breach or defective notice will still sit with you, not the software.

What the platform says it can do — and the immediate gap

The service says it can create a private email or link for each property, triage tenant messages, draft replies, repair jobs and notices for approval, read Gas Safety, EICR and EPC certificates, keep rent records and check council licensing against 293 of 296 English councils. That may be useful as an administrative shortcut, but it also sets a clear boundary: if three councils are not covered, there is an obvious risk in relying on the platform for licensing decisions. The source summary does not name the three uncovered councils, so landlords should ask for that list in writing before using the service.

London licensing remains a manual check, not an AI decision

For London landlords, licensing is the first issue to pin down. The capital has a dense patchwork of borough licensing schemes, additional HMO licensing, selective licensing and Article 4 directions, often with different start dates, renewal windows and fee structures. A borough-level error can be expensive. Civil penalties for certain housing offences can reach up to £30,000 under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, and rent repayment orders can create a second layer of exposure in some cases. If software flags a property as outside licensing when the borough says otherwise, that is still your breach.

The practical response is to treat licensing output from any third-party platform as a prompt, not proof. If you hold property in boroughs with active licensing churn — for example, Newham, Waltham Forest, Brent, Southwark or Haringey — check the borough website directly and keep a dated screenshot or PDF on file. For HMOs, also check whether planning restrictions and licensing interact; a tool may check licensing, but that is not the same as confirming that planning use is lawful.

Certificate reading does not transfer safety duties

Safety compliance is the second hard edge. The legal duties do not change because a platform can “read” a certificate. Annual gas safety checks remain required under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Electrical checks in most private rented homes remain subject to the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, which generally require inspection and testing at least every five years. EPC rules still apply where a valid certificate is legally required, and smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm duties still sit with the landlord. If the AI misreads an expiry date, misses remedial works or files the wrong version, the enforcement risk remains yours.

That is why original documents should remain in your own compliance system, whether that is a managing agent portal, a document vault or a basic but disciplined folder structure. At minimum, keep the original Gas Safety Record, EICR, EPC, alarm test logs and any legionella risk assessment records outside the platform and diarise renewal dates independently. For a London portfolio, where contractor lead times can stretch in busy periods, relying on one automated reminder stream is a weak control.

Drafting notices is not the same as serving valid notices

Statutory notices need similar caution. Lettance says it can draft notices for landlord approval, but it does not give legal advice. That distinction matters because the validity of a notice can turn on service, dates, prescribed wording, deposit protection history, licensing status and whether required documents were previously given. A draft produced by software may save admin time, but a defective notice can cost weeks or months in a possession timeline. For any notice with legal consequences, especially where arrears or possession are involved, a qualified person should review it before issue.

UK GDPR questions to ask before uploading tenancy data

Data protection is the third risk area, and it is one that smaller landlords often underestimate. If the platform processes tenant names, contact details, rent records, complaint history and certificate data, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 are engaged. You need to know whether Lettance acts as a processor or claims any controller role for parts of the service, what data it stores, where it is hosted, how long it is retained and what happens if a tenant makes a subject access request. Before uploading a single tenancy record, ask for a data processing agreement, security information and breach notification terms.

This point is sharper for agents and portfolio operations teams. If you already operate under redress scheme and client money protection rules, adding a third-party tool does not dilute those obligations. If the platform touches rent records but does not handle client money, your own reconciliation process still needs to stand on its own. If it does handle money at any point, the compliance review becomes more serious and should be documented before rollout.

What £29 per property per month actually buys

Cost is the part likely to attract landlords first. At £29 per property per month, a 10-unit portfolio would spend £290 monthly or £3,480 a year. In London, that is materially cheaper than full management, but it is not comparable to full management because the service expressly says it is not a replacement for a physical letting agent. The sensible comparison is with admin support software, not with a manager who handles inspections, contractor attendance, local negotiation and day-to-day judgement calls.

A safe way to test it

For property teams, the safest route is a controlled trial on a low-risk unit for 30 to 60 days. Use it in parallel with your existing diary, licensing checks and document storage, then test three things: whether tenant message triage is accurate, whether certificate reading is reliable, and whether borough licensing results match the local authority’s position. If any of those fail, the monthly saving disappears quickly.

Three checks before you rely on it

First, before subscribing, ask Lettance for its terms, liability cap, insurance details, data processing agreement and the list of the three English councils not covered. Second, within the first week of any trial, manually verify licensing on each relevant borough website and save evidence to your compliance file. Third, before any notice is served or safety deadline is diarised through the platform, keep an independent record and have a qualified person review anything with legal effect.

This article is general information, not legal advice.