October delivered another substantial month of tenancy conclusion activity, with 2,649 tenancies processed through The Depositary. That takes the cumulative total to 95,848 conclusions and continues the high volumes we have seen through the second half of the year.
Of October’s conclusions, 818 tenancies, or 30.9%, had no liabilities proposed, while 1,130, or 42.7%, concluded with agreed liabilities. Behind those headline numbers, however, is a theme that has become increasingly apparent as the Tenancy Conclusion Index has developed: some agents are no longer simply producing occasional standout results. Fast, effective tenancy conclusion is becoming embedded across teams and businesses.
The wider benchmarks remain useful context. A UK letting agent manually reconciling a deposit averages around 28 days, while agents using The Depositary currently average approximately 12 days. Our ambition has always been to help agents achieve an average of 10 days or less, and October provides further evidence that this is not only achievable, but increasingly being surpassed by the strongest operators.
Speed and strong outcomes at scale
At LRG, more than 30% of the team averaged refunds in 10 days or less, while almost 45% averaged 14 days or less. At the same time, more than 60% of the team secured 100% of all proposed liabilities. At the scale at which LRG operates, seeing that depth of performance across a large property management team is particularly significant.
Charters continues to be one of the strongest examples of speed and outcome working together. The business averaged refunds in just 9.1 days during October, with Peter averaging 6.3 days and Yasmin 6.9 days. That speed was accompanied by an average of 91.58% of proposed liabilities secured, with more than 60% of the team achieving perfect 100% outcomes.
October’s fastest office-wide performance came from Spencer Munson Property Services, which averaged an exceptional 7.7 days. Tara led the team at 7.2 days, while the business still secured 91.42% of proposed liabilities. That combination is exactly what the Index is increasingly exposing: the fastest businesses are not necessarily achieving their speed by compromising their landlords’ position.
There were strong examples elsewhere. At Robinson Michael & Jackson, Amelia averaged just 7.5 days, while the whole team secured 100% of all proposed liabilities across the month. Reside Bath also secured 100% of proposals, with Stephanie averaging refunds in just 8.6 days, while Paul at Swindon Home Finders again delivered a single-digit average at 8.5 days.
The significance is not really who came first or second. Different portfolios and service models make direct league tables unhelpful. What matters is that we are repeatedly seeing businesses in different markets demonstrate that tenancy conclusions can be completed far faster than the traditional benchmark while continuing to deliver excellent landlord outcomes.
Perfect outcomes are becoming increasingly visible
The claims data provides another useful measure of professional performance.
At Robinson Michael & Jackson and Parkers in Witney, 100% of proposed liabilities were secured across October. Reside Bath matched that perfect company-wide outcome, while more than 60% of the teams at both LRG and Haslams secured 100% of proposed liabilities individually.
At Johns & Co, a third of the team achieved perfect outcomes, while Jones Robinson secured an impressive 98.32% of all proposed liabilities alongside Anna and Freddie both averaging refunds in 10 days or less.
There were further strong company-wide results from Quealy & Co, securing 95.94% of proposed liabilities, Paramount Properties at 92.87%, and The Frost Partnership at 92.39%.
Again, the important point is not simply the number of 100% scores appearing in the data. It is what these results allow professional agents to demonstrate to landlords. Historically, claims around service quality, diligence and protecting a landlord’s interests have been difficult to substantiate. Increasingly, agencies can put real numbers behind those promises.
An agent that can show landlords how quickly it typically concludes a tenancy and what proportion of appropriately proposed liabilities it actually secures has something considerably more powerful than a generic service claim. It has evidence.
A noticeable rise in challenge
October’s dispute figures add an interesting counterpoint to the strong performance data.
During the month, 396 cases were raised as disputes, equivalent to almost 15% of all tenancy conclusions. 58 of those were resolved through Final Offer before progressing to independent adjudication, leaving 338 cases, around 12.8% of all October conclusions, to proceed further.
Final Offer therefore prevented around 14.6% of raised disputes from escalating.
The month-on-month movement is worth paying attention to. In September, 299 disputes were raised from 2,625 conclusions, a rate of around 11.4%. October volumes were almost identical, yet the number of challenges rose to 396. That is a considerably more meaningful movement than one caused simply by higher transaction numbers.
One month does not establish a long-term trend, but it strengthens something we have been watching throughout the Index: tenants appear increasingly willing to challenge proposed liabilities. A more rights-aware rental environment will undoubtedly play a part, but we also believe easy access to generative AI is changing behaviour. It can now take minutes for someone to interrogate a proposed charge, research an argument and construct a detailed challenge.
That should not be viewed solely as a negative. Properly evidenced, fair claims should withstand scrutiny, while tenants should be able to question charges they believe are unjustified. What changes for professional agents is the importance of having the evidence, communication and audit trail required to support their position.
Against that backdrop, the exceptionally high claims outcomes being achieved by many of the agents in this month’s Index become even more meaningful.
The impact behind the numbers
October also delivered significant operational savings. Across 2,649 tenancy conclusions, around 6,622 working hours of manual agency time were removed, alongside approximately 40,000 days of waiting for landlords and tenants expecting funds.
Using a typical full-time working year of 1,750 hours, October alone returned the equivalent of around 3.8 full-time working years to agency teams. At an average property manager cost of £22.43 per hour, those saved hours represent approximately £148,500 of equivalent staffing time in a single month.
The customer impact is equally tangible. Forty thousand days equates to almost 110 years of waiting removed during October alone. Compared with the roughly two-month deposit return experience previously reported for self-managed landlords, and using the 45-day differential we have applied throughout the Index, October’s 2,649 conclusions equate to approximately 119,000 additional days of waiting avoided, more than 326 years in a single month.
The cumulative numbers are becoming substantial. Across 95,848 tenancy conclusions, The Depositary has now removed approximately 239,620 working hours from agency operations, nearly 137 full-time working years. At the same hourly benchmark, that represents around £5.4 million of equivalent staffing time.
Meanwhile, around 1.7 million days of landlord and tenant waiting time have been eliminated, equivalent to more than 4,650 years.
These numbers matter because the hours being removed are not abstract efficiency gains. They are hours property managers can spend supporting landlords, progressing tenancies, dealing with compliance and maintenance, winning instructions and delivering the parts of property management that actually benefit from their expertise.
What October tells us
As the Tenancy Conclusion Index builds month by month, the definition of good performance is becoming clearer. Speed alone is not enough, and neither is claims recovery in isolation. The strongest operators are increasingly demonstrating both: concluding tenancies dramatically faster than traditional manual processes while still securing fair, well-evidenced outcomes for landlords.
October also reminds us why that professionalism matters. Tenancy conclusions are becoming more scrutinised, and claims are increasingly likely to be challenged. That should place greater value on agents capable of combining speed with strong evidence, consistent processes and measurable outcomes.
The Index was never intended to create a league table. Its purpose is to make an historically opaque part of the rental journey more visible and to show what can be achieved when tenancy conclusion is treated as an operational discipline rather than an administrative afterthought.
October’s data provides some of the clearest evidence yet that the best agents are doing exactly that, and doing it at scale.
