Shock announcement and abrupt closure of the Upad business

Online Lettings:

The pioneering
online letting agency Upad has announce an immediate closure of its
business operations, citing a serious illness of its founder James
Davis as the reason.

The business was registered as a private limited company by James Davis in April 2008, and it has occupied a leading spot in the UK’s online-only lettings service ever since.

The ten-year-old
business had pioneered the online-only lettings business model, but
it has now thrown in the towel and its website says it is not
accepting any new business from landlords.

CEO and a portfolio landlord himself, James Davis, headed the company with an energetic and capable marketing presence in the industry, building up a strong brand name and represented a real disrupting force in the industry. In addition, its online information resources and regular webinars provided landlords with legal updates which proved of value to his user clients.

However, the more
recent arrival of well-funded competitors such as Howsey and OpenRent
has probably contributed to the rising losses of the company.
Companies house records show that losses had been building for at
least the last three years, whilst the business was being kept afloat
with mounting additional funding from its directors.

The situation calls into question the viability of a purely on-line letting agency, and it mirrors that of on-line estate agents. Emoov – which had previously merged with TV property personality Sarah Beeny’s start-up online estate agency Tepilo earlier this year – collapsed into administration. Hatched has been shut down and even the quoted company, the market leading PurpleBricks, has had its business operations severely curtailed, its charges slashed and has seen its share price collapse.

Upad’s homepage simply offers a message of thanks to its former clients for their support and gives guidance on how those landlords affected by the closure should proceed. Basically the company is stating that those landlords affected (estimated by Upad to be around 450) should contact their tenants direct and make their own arrangements for the duration of their existing tenancies.

This
is Upad’s announcement:

FAQs for
tenants

Q: I’m a Upad
tenant. What will happen to my deposit?

A: Your deposit
is protected by a government approved tenancy deposit scheme – TDS
www.tenancydepositscheme.com/tenants-FAQs.html. We have transferred
tenants’ deposits held by us to TDS. If your tenancy has ended,
please contact your landlord to agree the deductions from the
deposit.

Q: I pay my rent
to Upad. What will happen to that process in future?

A: Any rent
already collected by us will be promptly paid over to the landlord on
receipt. We hold all client money in a strictly segregated account,
separate from our own funds. We will stop collecting rent by direct
debit after 10 October 2019 so you should contact your landlord
directly to make alternative arrangements for future rents to be
paid.

Q: I am in the
process of agreeing a tenancy for a new property. What should I do?

A: Please contact
the landlord directly, if you have their contact details, or wait for
them to get in touch with you.

FAQs for
landlords

Q: I have an
ongoing tenancy administered by Upad. What will happen to my tenant’s
deposit?

A: The deposit is
protected by a government approved tenancy deposit scheme (TDS). We
have transferred all deposits held by us into their custodial scheme.

If you need
further information about the deposit, you can access this via the
TDS website by entering the tenancy details here

https://www.tenancydepositscheme.com/is-my-deposit-protected.html

At the end of the
tenancy, you will negotiate any deductions directly with your tenant
and then give authority to the deposit scheme administrators for the
deposit to be released, subject to the rules of the scheme.

Q: Upad are
collecting rent from my tenant. What will happen to that process in
future?

A: Any rent
already collected by us will be promptly paid over to you on receipt.
We hold all client money in a strictly segregated account, separate
from our own funds. We will stop collecting rent by direct debit
after 10 October 2019 so you should contact your tenant directly to
make alternative arrangements for future rents to be paid.

Q: I have paid
for a Upad advertising package and haven’t yet found a tenant.

A: We are sorry
that we have not been able to find you a tenant. If you have
purchased a Upad package since 1 October 2019 then we will be
refunding you in due course. If you purchased a Upad package prior to
that date, we regret that we cannot offer a refund.

Q: I am in the
process of agreeing a tenancy for a new property. What should I do?

A: Please contact
the tenant directly to conclude negotiations.

We will add more
information to this website when it becomes available. If you have a
different query then please email query@upad.co.uk and we will deal
with your email as soon as possible.

www.upad.co.uk

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