Tenancy management software

Solution

Business analysis

The customer provided us with the documentation describing their overall vision for the solution and its features, which our business analysts studied carefully and further elaborated. Our specialists defined the scope of key features for an MVP release that included landing pages, landlord, agency and tenant portals, and integrations with payment, email, and SMS services. 

For the final version of the product, we planned to expand the MVP functionality with additional features like end-of-tenancy and resolution management and implement an admin panel for the web application as well as an API for the integration with end clients’ systems.

Also, since landlords and agents are mainly corporate users and are likely to use a web solution during their working hours, the customer decided the mobile app should only support tenant-oriented features. 

UX/UI design

Having some ideas about the application’s design before the project started, the customer prepared design mockups together with the apps’ color schemes, styles, and workflow diagrams. As they needed full-cycle UX/UI design services, we allocated our UX and UI designers to the project.

The customer’s team was actively involved in the design stage, clarifying their requirements to our designers, reviewing wireframes and prototypes we prepared, and leaving their comments. After the customer approved all of the application prototypes, they were sent to the development team. 

The feature set

Itransition developed Ome, an insurance-backed deposit replacement membership service, available as web and mobile applications, allowing tenants to rent property from landlords or real estate agents without the need to pay an upfront deposit. 

The MVP version of the application that we delivered facilitated monthly subscription payments from tenants, automatic email notifications, communication between tenants and property managers, and customer service for all types of users. 

The final application version has an API allowing real estate agencies and software providers to integrate it with their internal software such as CRM systems and synchronize various types of data between the systems. 

Tenancy initiation

The initial rental process, including searching for property, applying for it, and paying the fee, happens outside the app via third-party systems. To register a tenancy and add it to their portfolio, agents first need to add or invite the landlord and assign the property to them. 

There are the following tenancy statuses:

• Live – the property has confirmed tenants and no actions are required from tenants or landlords.
• Vacant – no tenants are associated with a given property.
• Pending tenant action – invitations are sent, but one of the tenants hasn't confirmed them yet. This status is also assigned when any action from the tenant is required.

When both parties agree on using the deposit replacement scheme, the landlord or the agent appointed by the landlord adds the property to the system and sends an invite to the tenant. Having accepted the invite, the tenant creates an account and considers the proposed monthly subscription fee, calculated from the traditional deposit amount for the given property. Alternatively, tenants can register on their own with no access to tenancies. After a tenant makes a confirmed payment, the agent or landlord receives the confirmation about their membership, and the tenant can move into the property.

Payment and billing

Tenants are expected to pay a one-time registration fee and monthly non-refundable membership fees after their tenancy starts. The system generates a standard membership agreement in the PDF format containing all the terms and automatically fills in the membership fee amount and the household composition. The agreement is attached to the created tenancy, available for all parties to view.

If several tenants are living in one household, the lead tenant can make payments on everyone’s behalf. Otherwise, tenants can pay separately, with the rent payments and membership fees equally divided among them.

When there are changes in the household, the system generates a new agreement and sends the notification to all parties involved. This is also the time when the property owner can change the lead tenant or the payment scheme.

End of tenancy

End of tenancy takes place when tenants leave the property and can be initiated by either tenants or the property manager, with its progress visible to all parties involved. The process can follow three different scenarios:

• Swapping, when a new tenant replaces the existing one.

• Splitting, when one tenant leaves and no new tenants move in.

• Exiting, when all the tenants leave.

Damage claims settlement

The settlement feature allows owners and property managers to raise a dispute in case there is some damage to their property. The initiator can attach images or documents to the claim as evidence, add comments, and indicate the sum to be refunded. The tenant linked to the claim should accept or decline the settlement, and if the tenant and landlord can’t settle the dispute amicably, they need to do it outside the system. 

DevOps automation

We set up the development, testing and production environments using Azure Cloud, Azure DevOps, Azure Portal, Azure App Service, and other Azure tools and configuring the services to ensure they communicated seamlessly with each other. We also integrated the environments with GitHub to prevent code mergers that might disrupt the build.

Apart from this, we set up CI/CD processes, which allowed us to frequently change merging code and carry out unit tests in Azure DevOps, while also contributing to high code quality and delivery process automation in the long run. 

Quality assurance

Itransition involved our independent QA department in the project, with the specialists carrying out new feature testing, performance testing, API testing, and regression testing. The tests were performed on both desktop and mobile devices, ensuring accurate, efficient, and user-specific testing in a real environment. Testing with real devices also helped us check for a wide range of issues that end users may face, such as usability problems, battery drainage or overheating, etc., and assess the app’s operation during interruptions like push notifications, messages, or calls.

After the application development was complete, user stories were sent for testing. If a story wasn’t compliant with the requirements, a bug was recorded and fixed by the development team, with the fixes subsequently verified during defect validation. As soon as a certain set of stories passed the validation, they were planned for delivery, with the QA team carrying out regression testing afterward. 

Since the developed solution allows for connecting with other systems via APIs, a separate set of tests was carried out to check the API data. All test cases were described in the TestRail test case management tool.

Results

We delivered a deposit replacement membership solution for Hamilton Fraser, to serve as an alternative to the traditional tenancy deposit services and cater to the individual preferences of tenants. 

As a result, the service benefits both tenants, who can pay a small and manageable fee instead of an upfront deposit, and landlords and agents, who get smaller deposit protection fees and a lower risk of deposit-related fines.  

After launching their new solution, Hamilton Fraser has already met the first-year target of 12,000 transactions, all carried out with little to no human interaction.