Built around a real practice: how a West Wales estate manager got ahead of the Rent Smart Wales audit

Most software is built in a room and pointed at a problem it has never actually met. HouseComply started the other way round - with a real letting practice, a real audit, and a managing director who was spending real hours chasing paperwork he could not always put his hands on.

That practice is Owen & Owen. That managing director is Lloyd James. This is the story of the problem the product was shaped around - told, mostly, in his own words.

Who is Lloyd James, and what does Owen & Owen do?

Lloyd James (BSc (Hons) MRICS FAAV) is the Managing Director of Owen & Owen, a specialist land and estate management firm based in Pembrokeshire and working across West Wales - residential properties, farms and land.

"I'm Lloyd James. I am the managing director of Owen & Owen, a specialist land and estate management firm based in Pembrokeshire, working in West Wales, dealing with residential properties, farms, and land."

The compliance side of the business is bigger than it first looks. Owen & Owen manages just over 100 residential properties for compliance, inside an overall portfolio of nearly 700 - spread across Pembrokeshire, South Ceredigion, West Carmarthenshire, and further afield towards Newport and Monmouthshire.

"We're managing just over 100 properties for compliance, which are residential, in an overall portfolio just shy of 700 properties - so it's a significant proportion of our portfolio."

A hundred-plus homes, scattered across rural West Wales, each with its own gas record, electrical record, EPC and inspection history. That is the job. And before HouseComply, the tools did not fit it.

What was tracking compliance like before HouseComply?

Two systems that did not talk to each other, and a lot of manual checking to cover the gap.

"Before HouseComply, we were using a property management system and our own in-house database, neither of which really worked together, and neither of which were really adapted for today's type of management."

When two systems hold half the picture each, the join has to be done by hand - and anything done by hand can be missed. Lloyd is candid that things did slip, usually where the work depended on someone else.

"We've been in instances where things have gone wrong, and that has tended to be in the case where a contractor hasn't done the work that we've asked them to do. We've had to put manual processes in place to make sure that happens, but that leaves it open to human error and things can get missed."

How much time does property compliance admin actually take?

For Owen & Owen, five to six hours in a normal week - and far more when an audit is in view.

"In general admin time the team might be spending 5 to 6 hours a week. And then in times of audit, it could be taking significant chunks of the day and week."

That is the quiet cost most agents recognise. Not one dramatic failure - a steady weekly drain, chasing third parties, re-checking records, making sure the thing you asked for actually got done.

What does a Rent Smart Wales audit feel like when it is coming?

Overwhelming, a bit unknown - and, by every account Lloyd hears, getting heavier.

"It's slightly overwhelming, and slightly unknown. Talking to other people who've been through the audit process, it's clear the audit is evolving and the requirements are getting greater and greater. So the onus on agents is only increasing."

This is the Welsh wedge, and it matters. Rent Smart Wales puts the responsibility squarely on the licence holder - to produce the policies, to hold the evidence, to prove the work was done. And the evidence often sits with people who do not feel the weight of it.

"The risk is ultimately fines, and not being able to evidence work. And often the evidence they're relying on is being provided by third-party contractors who don't necessarily understand the importance of how they report and how that needs to be clear."

Lloyd's wider point is that Wales has been an afterthought in the software that is meant to help.

"The majority of property management systems are designed for big corporations - a one-size-fits-nobody. And especially in Wales, where the legislation is slightly different, the focus on development has been in England and Wales has been left behind."

How did HouseComply come about?

Not from a product roadmap. From a conversation.

"HouseComply came about by a conversation with Dominic, in that we were having these specific problems. And we felt we weren't alone, and that there would surely be other people in the same situation that we are - and that's proven to be the case."

The problem Lloyd described was a specific one, and it was not really about any single certificate. It was about the lack of a single, joined-up place to evidence and report on a portfolio.

"What's broken is that, before HouseComply, there wasn't any joined-up thinking in how you evidence and report on your properties. Rent Smart Wales puts the onus all on the licence holder to produce their own policies and procedures and to evidence matters, and that really isn't as simple as it might be."

So HouseComply was built around that real audit problem - the one Lloyd was living with - rather than around a generic idea of "compliance." When it came time to put his properties in, the lift was small, because the HouseComply team did it.

"It was very easy, as the onboarding was dealt with by the HouseComply team. The key thing was being able to have information to upload and for that to be in a usable format."

What changed for Owen & Owen?

The shift Lloyd describes is not "everything is sorted." It is a change in posture - from reacting to being ready.

"There's lots of things HouseComply has picked up that would have been on our nice-to-do list. The aim of using HouseComply is to get us ahead of the game, so that we're ready for audit next time, rather than responding to an order. It's being proactive rather than being reactive."

That is the whole idea in one line: proactive rather than reactive. Seeing where you stand before the auditor tells you - and keeping the record straight as you go, instead of rebuilding it under pressure.

Lloyd also points to the thing he could not find anywhere else: the join between the inspection on the ground and the report that has to stand behind it.

"There's lots of apps and different types of software out there trying to do some of these things. But what they don't do is integrate the inspection and the reporting parts the way HouseComply does - and at a price point that's going to be affordable."

Who does Lloyd think should use HouseComply?

Anyone managing residential property - and especially the smaller operators who assume they are already on top of it.

"Anybody who's managing residential properties. That could be an individual - and the reality is lots of individuals doing self-management haven't even considered half of what they need to do. Many people I've spoken to say they're doing the right things, but I'm sure they can't evidence it."

For a small-to-medium practice, he frames the value as time and exposure, not box-ticking.

"If you were a small-to-medium-sized organisation with between 100 and 500 properties, this could take a lot of admin off your hands and make huge efficiencies to your business."

"This could save you time and money - not only your physical time, but the exposure to fines."

Where does Lloyd see HouseComply going?

He keeps the answer short.

"The go-to system for assisting with housing compliance."

That is the practitioner the product was shaped with, telling you what he wants it to become. The rest of this series goes closer to the ground - the inspection partner, Alan, and Ed, who does the on-the-ground visits that turn into the records an audit relies on.

See where you stand - free Gap Scan

HouseComply helps letting agents and landlords in England and Wales organise and evidence their property compliance - and see where the gaps are before an audit does. It does not assess or certify your properties; that call stays with the council or the inspector. What it does is keep your record straight and joined up, so you are ready next time rather than scrambling.

If you want to see where your own records stand, start with the free Gap Scan. A few minutes to upload, no cost, and we email you a clear picture of what is evidenced and what is not.