Rent to rent software for guaranteed rent operators
Bricky Bot is rent to rent software that does the work: an AI lettings team for guaranteed rent and rent-to-rent operators that fills rooms fast, keeps every owner in the loop, chases repairs and keeps each certificate in date. Nothing goes out until you approve it.
The short answer
In rent to rent you pay the owner a fixed rent and earn the gap between that and the room rents, so empty rooms, bills and slow repairs come out of your margin. Council tax on a room-let house falls to the “owner”, which in law can be you: the holder of the lowest lease of six months or more. Check how your agreement is written, and see our council tax checker for what it costs. The software has to re-let rooms quickly, keep the owner informed, track who arranges each certificate under your agreement, and keep costs per house in view. Bricky Bot does that work for you as a team of AI staff, and every message waits for a person’s ✅.
Built running real HMOs
Luke Ashton, founder of Bricky Bot and Based Lettings. Five years in property, responsible for 150+ HMO rooms across his own portfolio and clients’. Bricky Bot was built to run those rooms first, for owners as well as for himself. Here’s Based Lettings on Bricky Bot today:
From Based Lettings’ own Bricky Bot records on 2 October 2026.
What rent to rent software needs to do
Whatever you choose, check it covers these six jobs, because they’re where a guaranteed rent business wins or loses its margin. Here’s how Bricky Bot handles each one.
| The job | Why it matters in rent to rent | What Bricky Bot does |
|---|---|---|
| Letting rooms | Your margin is the gap between the room rents and what you pay the owner, so every room has to be full | Answers SpareRoom and OpenRent enquiries, books viewings and follows every lead through referencing to a signed tenancy, with the next step on every card. |
| Re-letting before a void | An empty room still costs you the owner’s rent and the bills, so a void comes straight out of your margin | Logs the notice against the room and builds the advert from the house record for your own SpareRoom and OpenRent accounts, and renews SpareRoom adverts every morning. One view shows the empty rooms, another who moves in and out over the next 60 days. |
| The owner | You answer to the owner for the rent, the state of the house and anything your agreement says you report | Gives each owner a landlord record with their own messages, drafts their updates for your approval, and matches every payment you make to them from your bank statements. Where you manage on a percentage, it drafts their monthly statement as a PDF. |
| Compliance, as agreed | Your management or lease agreement decides who arranges gas, electrics, fire safety and the licence: you or the owner | Records, certificate by certificate, whether you or the owner arranges it, and opens each renewal inside its lead time. When the owner arranges it, a reminder to them is drafted with the last report attached. New certificates are read and filed on the house. |
| Bills | Most rooms are let bills included, so the utilities are your cost, not the tenants’ | The house record holds whether bills are included, which ones and any fair-use cap, and the adverts carry it. Utility bills are logged as costs against the house. |
| Repairs | Shared kitchens and bathrooms mean more reports, and who pays depends on your agreement with the owner | Every incoming message gets an owner. The Maintenance Manager suggests the fix that worked last time, books contractors once you approve, and files the cost against the house, or on the owner’s statement when they pay. |
Rent from every room is matched from your bank statements too, and late or part-paid rent is flagged. Most rent-to-rent houses are let room by room, so see our HMO management software page for the HMO side, and coliving software if you let them as co-living. Repairs in detail are on our landlord maintenance software page, and certificates house by house on our landlord compliance reporting app page.
The rules a rent-to-rent house meets
Rent to rent isn’t a legal category of its own. The house is judged by the usual landlord and HMO rules, and your agreement with the owner decides which duties are yours. This isn’t legal advice; these are the questions to settle first (England).
| Question | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Does the owner need their lender’s permission? | GOV.UK’s landlord guidance says that if you have a mortgage on a property you want to rent out, you must get permission from your mortgage lender. Ask the owner to confirm they have it before you sign. | GOV.UK: landlord responsibilities |
| Does the house need an HMO licence? | A large HMO in England or Wales must be licensed, and councils can require smaller ones to be. You need a separate licence for each HMO, a licence lasts up to 5 years, and renting out an unlicensed HMO can mean an unlimited fine. | GOV.UK: HMO licence |
| Who can manage it? | A licence condition is that the manager of the house, the landlord or an agent, is “fit and proper”, for example with no criminal record or breach of landlord laws. | GOV.UK: HMO licence |
| Are you the “person managing”? | In the Housing Act 2004, the person managing an HMO is the owner or lessee who receives the rents from its occupiers, including anyone who receives them as their agent. A lessee collecting the room rents fits that definition. Whether it covers you, the owner or both depends on your agreement: ask a solicitor. | Housing Act 2004, s.263 |
For licensing in more depth, see our guide to HMO licences; to check a specific address before you take it on, Bricksmart’s HMO report (our sister product) covers licensing and Article 4.
How it works
- A team, not a tool. Specialist AI staff for enquiries, listings, move-ins and move-outs, maintenance, landlords and money, records and inbox triage, with Bricky in charge. What an AI lettings team is.
- You approve everything that goes out, in the app or straight from WhatsApp, and every action is logged.
- Your accounts, your data. Bricky signs in to your own SpareRoom, OpenRent and WhatsApp accounts; it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by them. It runs on your own Mac or Mac mini, or on Bricky Cloud.
- Your AI plan. It uses the AI plan you already have, such as a ChatGPT plan, so you pay your provider directly.
- Switching is included. We move your records and documents across from COHO, PaTMa, Arthur or spreadsheets.
What it costs
One price per tenant, everything included, with the AI plan you already have. See the pricing calculator for your portfolio. Weighing up a new deal first? Try our HMO rental yield calculator.
Is Bricky Bot right for you?
Compare rent to rent software
- Bricky Bot vs PaTMa, the low-cost landlord records and accounts software
- Bricky Bot vs Landlord Vision, the accounting-led landlord software with Making Tax Digital
- Bricky Bot vs Landlord Studio, the low-cost landlord accounting app with Making Tax Digital
- Bricky Bot vs COHO, the HMO and co-living software
- Bricky Bot vs Arthur Online
- Bricky Bot vs spreadsheets and WhatsApp
- Best AI lettings software in the UK (2026)
Questions rent-to-rent operators ask
What is rent to rent software?
Software for operators who rent houses from their owners and let them on, usually room by room: letting and re-letting rooms, a tenancy and rent for each room, the relationship with each owner, bills, repairs, and the compliance your agreement makes yours.
Is it the same as guaranteed rent software?
Yes, for the work involved. “Guaranteed rent” usually describes the deal with the owner, a fixed rent paid whether or not the rooms are full; “rent to rent” describes the model. Either way you let the rooms, run the house and answer to the owner, which is what Bricky Bot does.
Does Bricky Bot work out what I owe each owner?
It matches every payment you make to an owner from your bank statements and, where you manage on a percentage, drafts their monthly statement. It isn’t accounting or Making Tax Digital software, so your accountant or accounting software still does the tax.
Does Bricky Bot message tenants or owners on its own?
No. Every message, advert, booking or payment the team prepares waits for a person’s approval, in the app or straight from WhatsApp.
Can I move across from COHO, PaTMa or spreadsheets?
Yes. We move your records and documents across: houses, rooms, tenancies, owners and tenants, certificates and files. Migration is included.
Who built it?
Luke Ashton, founder of Bricky Bot and Based Lettings, who is responsible for 150+ HMO rooms across his own portfolio and clients’. Based Lettings runs on Bricky Bot.
See it run your rooms
A short demo of the team handling real room-by-room work: enquiries, re-lets, WhatsApp groups, repairs, renewals and approvals.
Book a demo