The best operators are redefining what ‘good’ looks like

For too long, tenancy conclusion has sat in an odd place in the rental market. It is one of the most important parts of the resident journey, one of the moments that matters most to landlords, and one of the clearest tests of an agent’s operational grip - yet it remains one of the least benchmarked parts of the lettings process.

That is part of the reason we are launching The Tenancy Conclusion Index. This first edition draws on activity across 67 businesses, spanning more than 85 brands across England and Wales, and covers 4,026 tenancy conclusions processed through The Depositary across March and April 2026. What the data shows is encouraging, but also instructive.

There is still friction in the market. Disputes remain a live issue. But the strongest agents are proving something the wider sector should take seriously: tenancy conclusions do not have to be slow, vague or operationally messy. In the hands of experienced, process-led professionals, they can be fast, controlled and commercially effective. That distinction matters.

Because there is a world of difference between a professionally managed tenancy conclusion handled by an expert agent, and the far more variable experience many tenants still encounter in the wider market, particularly where individual landlords are managing the process themselves. Nationwide has said tenants renting from private landlords waited almost two months on average for deposits to be returned. Against that backdrop, the results now being delivered by some agent-led businesses on our platform look all the more significant. In short, the best operators are redefining what good looks like.

In March, 1,936 tenancies were concluded through our platform. In April, that rose to 2,090.

In March, 754 tenancies concluded with no deductions proposed or made, 802 ended with agreed liabilities, 190 were raised as disputes, and a further 40 disputes were prevented through our Final Offer process, where agreement was reached before the dispute continued.

In April, 750 tenancies concluded with no deductions proposed or made, 912 ended with agreed liabilities, 235 were flagged as disputes, and 31 disputes were prevented using the same process.

The first takeaway is straightforward: volumes are rising.

The second is that disputes are rising too. That does not prove a long-term trend on its own, but it does underline something many agents will recognise immediately - the end of a tenancy is still one of the points at which operational quality, communication and evidence matter most. That is precisely why the top performers stand out.

For years, the sector has accepted delay as more or less inevitable. Deposit returns have often been treated as one of those processes that simply “takes time”. But what this data shows is that the best agencies are no longer accepting that logic. They are building better workflows, creating clearer internal accountability, and delivering stronger outcomes at speed.

Take LRG. In March, more than 100 users averaged 10 days or less to reconcile deposits, with 41 branches hitting that same mark. In April, the number of users achieving that level increased again to 120. Just as impressively, more than 120 users and over 50 branches secured 100% of proposed tenancy liabilities in March; in April that remained at a striking 89 users and 45 branches. That is not a one-off standout. That is evidence of process quality at scale.

At Charters, part of Lomond, the picture is equally compelling. In March, average deposit reconciliation time was just 7.2 days. In April it was 9.6 days. Yet speed did not come at the expense of outcomes. Charters secured more than 90% of dilapidations for clients in March, and its top performer in April secured 100%. That combination is where the real story lies. Faster does not have to mean weaker.

Cooper Green Pooks delivered one of the most eye-catching sets of results in the dataset. In March, the business averaged just 9.7 days to reconcile deposits, with its top user posting an extraordinary 5.5-day average — the fastest individual result recorded on our platform that month. At the same time, the team secured an average of 98.59% for landlords, with four users at 100% and every member of the team at 92% or above. Even with a slight softening in April, the agency still returned very strong numbers: 12.9 days on average, 9.4 days for the fastest user, and 94.6% secured for landlords, with three users still achieving a perfect score. That is elite territory.

Haslams also offers a strong example of what improvement looks like when good teams get better. In March, deposits were reconciled in an average of 13.7 days, with the top property manager averaging 8.7 days. Three members of the team secured 100% outcomes, with a fourth at 99.59%. In April, seven team members secured 100% of deductions for landlords.

At Richard James Estate Agents, the story is about complete control. In March, the top property manager secured 100% of proposed deductions for landlords. In April, the whole company secured 100% of all dilapidation proposals, while its top user averaged deposit reconciliations in just 11 days.

Jones Robinson combined speed with consistency, posting an average reconciliation time of 13.5 days in March, with top individual performances of 7.9 days and 9.5 days. The latter was repeated in April. At the same time, the agency averaged just shy of 100% in dilapidation outcomes, with five property managers achieving perfect scores in March and three doing the same in April.

There were strong performances elsewhere too....

National Home Move secured more than 94% of tenancy liabilities for landlords in March. Home Finders Swindon matched Haslams’ March average of 13.7 days, while its top property manager averaged just 8 days and secured 100% of dilapidations. Paramount Properties reconciled let-only deposits in 9.7 days in March, with three property managers averaging under 10 days, while the wider team averaged around 93% across the portfolio. In April, Paramount’s managed portfolio secured 97.4% of deductions, with two users at 100% and a third at 99.19%. The Frost Partnership posted March top-performer refund times of 7.0 and 9.0 days, then followed that in April with a top user averaging 8.5 days and five team members securing 100% of deductions. Maxine Lester averaged refunds in 12.5 days in March, with all users above 90%, then improved again in April to an average of 94.24% of deductions secured. Taken together, these are not just good internal stats. They are evidence that operational excellence at tenancy conclusion is measurable, repeatable and already being delivered by agents in the market today. That matters commercially because this is not just about administration. It is about service proof.

Landlords do not pay agents simply to move money around at the end of a tenancy. They pay for judgement, control, communication, evidence and outcomes. In a more demanding rental market, where professionalism matters more and service claims are scrutinised more closely, the ability to demonstrate those outcomes is becoming a serious differentiator. The strongest agents are beginning to show exactly that.

They are not merely concluding tenancies faster. They are giving landlords a clearer, more evidenced account of performance. They are reducing ambiguity. They are creating better resident experiences where agreement can be reached quickly. And they are proving that the end of a tenancy can be managed with far more discipline than the wider market has often come to expect.

One secondary pattern in the March and April data is worth noting, though not overstating. Cases involving deposit alternative products represented around 30% of concluded tenancy cases in both months, but accounted for a disproportionately high share of disputes - 83 of 190 disputes in March and 110 of 235 in April. That is an operational signal worth watching, but for now it should sit behind the main story rather than dominate it: the core market remains cash-deposit led, and the bigger lesson here is about conclusion quality, communication and control across the board.

This first edition of the Index combines March and April deliberately, because opening with a broader base gives us a more useful first benchmark. Future editions will move to a monthly format, allowing us to track patterns over time and build a clearer picture of what best-in-class tenancy conclusion really looks like across the PRS.

But even at this early stage, one point is already clear: The market does not need to accept slow, inconsistent tenancy conclusions as the norm. The best agents already don’t.