At
Website Planet, we had the opportunity to speak with Dean Owen, CTO at VeriSmart, a company that started as a family-run inventory service and has since grown into a nationwide franchise and compliance partner for landlords and agents. Guided by the principle of “Keeping Landlords Legal and Tenants Safe,” Dean shares how VeriSmart ensures accuracy through rigorous training, human-led quality control, and innovative transcription technology. He also discusses how their first-of-its-kind tenant delivery system and seamless integrations, such as with The Depositary, give agents a competitive edge, and what innovations are on the horizon.
What inspired the creation of VeriSmart and how has its mission evolved over time?
Originally, VeriSmart was simply another Inventory company, founded by Jonathan Senior and his family, using paper and pen with supporting photographs developed by the local camera shop.
When I came into the picture, Jonathan was looking to create an online training course which could match his training standards. This course is responsible for the high quality of reporting demonstrated by our excellent property inspectors .
This evolved into the creation of our online booking system and its various services.
As the VeriSmart brand gained industry recognition and experienced high client demand, franchising the business became the next logical step for expansion.
From producing highly accurate inspection reports, our mission has evolved to include a range of essential services for landlords and agents. We now include help for them to comply with some of their legal obligations in ensuring the health and safety of their tenants. Our guiding principle has become: “Keeping Landlords Legal and Tenants Safe.
How does VeriSmart ensure the accuracy and reliability of its property inspection reports?
Put simply, excellent training with ongoing support and quality control. All our property inspectors go through the same online and in-person rigorous training. We still use voice transcription as we find that nothing else can give that level of detail and flexibility, though of course we are constantly striving to improve our transcription technology. We are currently trialling an in-house AI transcription service, with impressive results.
Everyone in our organisation is also supported by our Quality Control department. Whilst we use various automated tools where we can, we find that nothing can really match having a real human person checking work and keeping standards aligned.
In what ways does your technology give landlords and letting agents a competitive edge?
Our systems allow Agents to track and verify things like report delivery to their Tenants, and to their Landlords. Being able to do this quickly and easily and know it’s all logged and available to you means the Agents can rely on us to produce. Our Tenant Delivery system was the first of its kind in the UK, with full tracking on multiple delivery channels whilst still being fully compliant with data protection requirements.
We are also fully integrated into multiple third-party Tenancy Management systems, with many more to come over the next few months. This allows Agents and Landlords to book with us without leaving their existing management system at all. This is great for speed and eliminating “copy and paste” errors when transferring data between systems.
I’m very proud of our recent integration with The Depositary. When our property inspectors finish an integrated Check Out report, all the deductions are automatically sent to The Depositary system, allowing a painless and quick tenancy resolution.
How does VeriSmart stay compliant with ever-changing housing regulations and legal requirements?
Our Managing Director and Co-Founder, Jonathan Senior, is a wealth of industry knowledge. He ensures our company stays current with the latest requirements, sharing this expertise and best practices with both our inspectors and our customers.
We consult with and are trained by highly qualified experts, such as Dick Scott of Monitor BCS UK Ltd and Alex Fairhall of Prescient Accounting. Both have been invaluable to us and our Franchisees.
What training or support do you offer to your network of property inspectors?
Everything! We pride ourselves on our support here, especially if it’s for something a customer has requested. I am constantly adding new features and updates to our systems, a lot of which are directly requested by customers or by our Franchisees.
We have a wonderful Helpdesk available, headed up by Oliver. His job is to directly support or to make the resources needed available to our people. Sometimes that’s to me, sometimes to Jonathan for compliance advice, or sometimes to Amanda, our administrator and accounts manager. The point is that when our people need help, we help.
We also encourage our Franchisees to be part of our country-wide group chat, where they can share experience and advice.
What’s next for VeriSmart in terms of innovation or expansion?
I’m currently focused on expanding our integrations, as they have a significant positive impact on our customers’ experience. After that, I’ll be moving on to another major project, though I can’t reveal the details just yet..
