A Social Enterprise, And Why That Matters
Marks Out Of Tenancy is a social enterprise and a certified member of Social Enterprise UK. That is not a marketing line. It decides what we are allowed to do, and it is the reason the reviews on this site are worth reading.
What that actually means
A social enterprise trades like a business and exists for a social purpose rather than for shareholder returns. In our case:
- Profits go back into the work rather than out to shareholders.
- We take no money from the property industry we cover. No landlord, agent or portal can pay for a better rating, and none can pay for a competitor to get a worse one.
- The mission is written into how we operate, not bolted on as corporate responsibility.
We are a company, not a charity. We are also not a purely commercial business. That middle position is deliberate, because the thing we are trying to build only works if it is genuinely independent and it only survives if it can pay for itself.
Why independence is the whole product
Consider the alternative. A review platform funded by the letting agents it rates has an obvious problem, and everyone reading it knows.
The value here rests entirely on renters being able to trust that a rating reflects what tenants said, and nothing else. The moment the industry is paying the bills, that trust is gone and the site is worth nothing to anybody, including the good landlords who benefit most from being visibly distinguishable from bad ones.
So independence is not a virtue we are claiming. It is the product.
How the mission shows up in practice
- Reviews are free to read and free to write. The information is worth nothing locked behind a paywall.
- Anonymity by default. A published review shows the address and the year the tenant moved out, never their name unless they choose. That protects people from retaliation and revenge eviction, and it costs us the engagement that named reviews would bring.
- The renters' rights guides are free and carry no advertising. Read them.
- We work where the need is sharpest. Migrant communities, disabled renters, older renters and low-income renters are underrepresented in housing data and overrepresented in bad housing.
- We give data to enforcement. Councils use our data to find unlicensed properties, which turns a review into an actual outcome. How that works.
Who we work with
Tenant advice organisations, law centres, community groups, students' unions, councils and campaigners, plus funding from Impact on Urban Health, the operating name of Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation, for our work in Southwark and Lambeth.
Being honest about the trade-offs
Operating this way has costs and it would be odd not to say so.
A commercially-run version of this would monetise landlord and agent profiles far more aggressively, sell leads, and put the useful data behind a subscription. It would make more money and it would be a worse thing to exist.
What we do instead is keep the renter-facing side free, charge letting agencies for the analytics tools that genuinely help them run better branches, and sell data services to councils doing enforcement. That pays for the rest.
If you want to help
- Write a review. It is the single most useful thing anyone can do here, and it takes about ten minutes. Start here.
- Partner with us if you run an advice service, students' union or council team. Get in touch.
- Claim your profile if you are a landlord or letting agent, and reply to what tenants have said. Membership.