flatfair

flatfair differs from most deposit-alternative providers by offering both options in one platform. An agent can administer a conventional cash deposit or offer the alternative, without running two systems or asking the tenant to choose before the agent knows the landlord’s position.

How It Works

Tenants choosing the alternative pay a non-refundable fee of 28% of one month’s rent plus VAT in place of a five-week deposit. Landlords get up to ten weeks of protection for damages and rent arrears — roughly double a standard capped deposit. Traditional deposit administration is offered free to agents.

As with any deposit replacement, the fee is a charge rather than a stake: it is not returned at the end of the tenancy, and the tenant remains liable for damage and arrears. The trade is a lower move-in cost against a payment that is never recovered.

Position

Offering the free traditional route alongside the paid alternative is a distribution strategy: it makes flatfair the deposit system for an agency regardless of which product any individual tenant takes, and the alternative then sells itself tenancy by tenancy.

The ten-week protection figure is the sharper commercial argument, since it exceeds what a landlord could hold in cash under the deposit cap. The company states it is trusted by more than 850 agents and build-to-rent operators, and was registered in England in 2016.