Logo - Marks Out Of Tenancy

About Marks Out Of Tenancy

Marks Out Of Tenancy started because of one bad tenancy and one obvious gap: there was nowhere to warn the next person.

You can look up a restaurant, a plumber, a hotel and a second-hand car before you commit. You cannot easily look up the person you are about to hand five weeks' rent to, or the flat you are about to spend two winters in. That asymmetry is not an accident. It is simply what happens when nobody writes anything down.

What we do

Renters rate a completed or current tenancy out of ten across four things: the landlord, the letting agent, the property and the neighbourhood. Those reviews build into profiles the next tenant can find when they search an address or a name.

The press tend to call it the TripAdvisor of renting. That is close enough, with one difference that matters: a bad meal costs you an evening, and a bad tenancy can cost you a year of your life and your deposit with it.

Renting should not be a leap in the dark

Most renters make the single largest financial commitment of their year on the basis of a twelve-minute viewing, a floor plan and a deadline invented by an agent.

The process is not too complicated. The problem is that renters rarely get the full picture, and the one group of people who have it, the previous tenants, have moved out and have no way to pass it on.

So we built the way to pass it on. What we know about a property comes from people who actually lived in it.

What we stand for

Empowerment

Every renter deserves a voice. We amplify tenant experience so others can make informed, confident decisions about where to live and who to rent from.

Fairness

Fairness between renters and landlords, and across the housing sector. We support responsible landlords, and we hold bad practice to account. Both halves of that are load bearing.

Transparency

Information should be open, honest and useful. We are committed to showing the rental sector as it actually is, through real experiences from real people.

Independence

We are driven by renters, not property interests. We take no money from the industry we cover, which means nobody can buy a better rating and nobody can buy a competitor a worse one.

Community

We work with local authorities, students' unions, charities and grassroots groups, and particularly with the communities who face the sharpest end of the housing crisis.

Integrity

From secure data handling to fair review moderation, we do things properly, including when the easier option is available.

How we keep it fair

A review platform that publishes anything anyone types is worthless, and one that removes anything a landlord dislikes is worse. So:

  • Reviews are moderated and checked as coming from genuine tenants.
  • Landlords and letting agents pass verification before they can claim a profile.
  • Ratings use Bayesian weighting, so a single review cannot define anyone and accuracy improves as volume grows.
  • Reviews are anonymous by default, showing the address and the year the tenant moved out but never their name unless they choose. That exists to protect people from retaliation and revenge eviction.
  • There is a right of reply on every review, and a formal complaints procedure if something gets through that should not have.

Who we are

Marks Out Of Tenancy is a social enterprise, not a charity and not a purely commercial business. We are independent of the property industry by design. More on how we are structured, and why.

We work with tenant advice organisations, community groups, students' unions and councils. Our partners.

Where to start