Nov

Rental industry giant, Hamilton Fraser, to launch deposit alternative product

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UK lettings and
landlord insurance industry giant, Hamilton Fraser, has announced the launch of
its own in-house deposit alternative brand, Ome.

Having previously
highlighted the problems surrounding the increasing trend for such schemes,
Hamilton Fraser has decided to tackle these issues head-on itself, providing a
transparent product aimed at delivering complete market choice for UK tenants
and landlords, without compromising their rental wellbeing in the process.

Ome
is the latest brand to launch in the Hamilton Fraser Group and will be the
vehicle for its Deposit Replacement Membership. Ome will operate independently,
enabling agility within an adapting market, but with the support and entire
resources of the Hamilton Fraser Group behind it, including its extensive
knowledge of deposit protection having operated the government authorised
scheme mydeposits since 2007. Ome will also benefit from Hamilton Fraser’s own
adjudication service HF Resolution, which already provides services to many of
the existing deposit alternatives.

This is already the case with many of the
offerings in Hamilton Fraser’s extensive portfolio and will ensure that,
regardless of which deposit path tenants and landlords opt to go down, they
receive a customer focused service. Not only this, but Ome’s digital first
approach will provide Hamilton Fraser with a pioneering brand as they continue
to make improvements to customer service and operations.

Why Ome?

Ome aims to
address a number of market changes, particularly with many tenants now renting
as a lifestyle choice, coupled with the introduction of the tenant fee ban and
the industry milestone of mandatory client money protection.

In addition to
these external changes in the private rented sector, Hamilton Fraser already
has the relevant internal expertise. In fact, Hamilton Fraser is already
providing the adjudication services to many of the leading deposit alternatives
through HF Resolution and has been offering traditional deposit protection
since 2007 through mydeposits. So, with
Hamilton Fraser experiencing increasing demand from even the largest property
industry brands for these products, and with the expertise and tools already at
its disposal, the company is extremely well placed to deliver such a product
via Ome.

Ome will look to
tackle existing industry issues through an open approach, ensuring every tenant
and landlord is aware of the pros and cons of deposit protection options, and
how both an alternative or traditional deposit scheme might best suit their
individual situation. Ome doesn’t want to dissuade anyone from using the
traditional format, but they do want to offer the flexibility that more than
one choice can provide.

Deposit
alternatives are not an affordability product. Ome has been designed as a cash
flow solution to provide an option that doesn’t require a hefty upfront sum for
those tenants that would rather financial flexibility.

Ome is as much about protecting landlords as it
is about helping tenants. Ome will provide landlords with the exact same
financial protections that they would receive with a traditional deposit
scheme.

The only question Ome encourages landlords to ask
themselves is whether or not they want to deal with the administrative and
legislative burden a traditional cash deposit requires.

With increasing reports of some landlords not protecting
deposits correctly and rogue agents running off with tenancy deposits, Ome’s
alternative product protects against these risks.

Co-founder of Ome,
Matthew Hooker, commented:

“Ome is about
offering choice and transparency within the market rather than completely
rewriting the tenancy deposit rulebook and I think Ome’s Deposit Replacement
Membership will be the “go-to” option for many renters and will
complement the traditional deposit schemes in today’s rental market.

Hamilton Fraser
provides such a wealth of resources at our fingertips and has a rich history of
expanding and improving its consumer offering. As a result, we are in a strong
position to offer the best deposit replacement product available today in Ome,
whilst also driving positive change in the UK rental sector and, like Hamilton
Fraser, we will continue to raise industry standards.”

Group CEO of Hamilton Fraser, Eddie Hooker,
commented:

“Hamilton Fraser is one of the country’s leading
specialists in landlord and tenants’ services and products and is well known as
an expert in the sector. Therefore the launch of Ome is complemented by the
huge resource and credibility that the family group provides. When you think
about it, a deposit alternative product is a very natural expansion for us
because we know the space so very well and we’ve been asked by our many
landlord and agent clients to provide one. So we have.

Hamilton Fraser’s
business ethos is to offer products that protect businesses and consumers, to
provide market-leading customer service and to educate the market where we can.
With this mission to raise standards in the private rental sector, the next
natural step was to challenge the new crop of deposit products and demonstrate
ourselves the standards that should be expected within the sector.”

Additional
Information

Tenant responsibilities Tenants will be held to the exact same obligations as a traditional deposit scheme. They must understand that they are still responsible for leaving the property in the same condition they found it, and most importantly that they must pay all the rent and bills they are contracted to pay within the tenancy agreement.

If a tenant does not look after the property then
Hamilton Fraser’s experienced adjudicators will assess the settlement figures
owed to the landlord and the tenant will be obliged to pay them. If they don’t,
the landlord will be financially protected and the tenant will be held liable
under contract.

Ome’s deposit alternative will build on the good
work done by the traditional deposit schemes in raising standards and improving
communication between all parties to the tenancy agreement.

Tenant references will be required but, in line
with the theme of offering choice, Ome will not dictate what referencing
supplier can be used.

Landlord and
agent obligations

Landlords and agents can continue to rely on
their existing referencing relationship with the only requirement being that
the landlord must comply with Ome’s minimum referencing standards.

Ome will require
landlords and agents to perform property inventories and check-in and check-out
reports. This is not only because
disputes at the end of the tenancy will be evidence based, but also because it
creates better transparency and communication between the landlord and tenant,
reducing conflict at the end of the tenancy should a dispute arise.

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