An application in the general inbox
A tenant's solicitor writes to say their client is selling its business and wants consent to assign the lease to the buyer. The letter goes to the general inbox. It reaches the asset manager a week later. The asset manager asks for accounts and references for the incoming tenant. Some arrive. The asset manager is on leave. The tenant's solicitor writes again, pointing out how long the application has been with the landlord.
Your solicitor then tells you that, depending on the lease, you may be expected to deal with the application within a reasonable time. You had not realised the clock mattered.
Why consent applications drift
Applications to assign, underlet or share occupation are not common enough in a small portfolio for anyone to have a routine, but common enough across a larger one to become a steady stream. Each involves outside parties and a decision that affects income for years.
- Applications arrive through solicitors, agents or tenants, by post or email.
- The information needed about the incoming party arrives in pieces.
- Financial checks on the incoming tenant are done differently each time.
- Internal approval depends on who is available.
- Your solicitor is instructed late, without the information they need.
- Nobody records when the application was received and what was requested.
The legal position on response times and reasonableness is for your solicitor. The admin failure is losing sight of the application while it waits.
What drifting applications cost
A tenant with a buyer waiting is under pressure, and delay creates friction or worse. A poorly checked incoming tenant can become an arrears problem. An underletting you did not properly record means you may not know who is in your building. And without a record of the timeline, it is hard to show your team acted properly.
Multi-let buildings add a practical risk. An underlessee you never approved, or approved and never recorded, is still a business using your lifts, your car park and your fire strategy. The building manager needs to know who is in the building, who holds fobs and who to call in an emergency, and none of that is clear if the consent file stopped at the solicitor's letter.
The consent tracker we build
- Incoming post and email are checked for consent applications. Anything that looks like one is logged with the date received and assigned to an owner the same day.
- Each application gets a checklist of the information your process requires: accounts, references, proposed use, draft documents, guarantees. The tracker requests what is missing and records what has arrived.
- Checks on the proposed tenant run from the tracker: Companies House filings, credit report through your chosen provider, and any other checks you use, with results attached.
- The application goes to the people who approve it under your internal rules, with a summary, the lease terms and the check results.
- Your solicitor is instructed from the tracker, with everything attached, and their progress is logged.
- Completed consents update the rent roll, tenant contacts and occupier records, including any underlettings.
| Application stage | What the tracker records |
|---|---|
| Received | Date, route, applicant and lease |
| Information | What is requested, received and outstanding |
| Checks | Company, credit and other results |
| Decision | Who approved or refused, when and on what basis |
| Legal | Solicitor instructed, drafts, completion |
| Records | Tenant and occupier changes applied |
What the team can see
Every live application is visible with its date received, what is outstanding and who holds it. Decisions are made with the information in front of the approver. Your solicitor gets a complete file. And you always know who occupies each unit, including under underleases.
When a tenant's solicitor asks where their application has got to, anyone on the team can answer from the record, with the dates of each request and reply. If a decision is ever questioned, the timeline is already written down.
Does this sound like your office?
- Consent applications have waited in an inbox.
- Information about incoming tenants arrives piecemeal.
- Checks on proposed tenants vary each time.
- You are not sure who occupies every unit under underleases.
- Tenants' solicitors have chased you about delays.