The scale of what's at stake — and how little of it is ever challenged.
in UK rental deposits sit in protected schemes. Only one per cent gets formally disputed each year.
TDS · 2024UK renters were at risk of losing their homes last winter.
Shelter · 2024of UK private rented homes fail the Decent Homes Standard, often without their tenants knowing.
English Housing Survey · 2024Shelter and Citizens Advice fight the worst of it every day. We'd like renters to need that fight less often.
£5.5bn sits in protected schemes. Only 1% is ever formally disputed each year.
The money is protected. The power to challenge it is not.
Fifteen minutes.
You'll live with this decision for years. You got about fifteen minutes to make it.
A viewing shows a home at its best hour — you'll live in all the others. The noise. The neighbours. Whether anyone comes when the boiler dies. The things that decide whether a home is good tend to arrive after you've signed.
We think that's the wrong way round. We're not claiming to fix it yet. We're starting by collecting what the photographs leave out — from the people who already lived it.
Ten quiet minutes that change everything.
Move-in day is the only moment in a tenancy where you have nothing to prove and everything to capture. We've made that moment count.
- A guided room-by-room walkthrough
- Photos timestamped on arrival — never editable, by design
- Meter readings tied to your address
- Housemates contribute by code
- A record that's yours — export it, keep it
What we're building — in the order renting hurts.
Move-in,
documented."Proof of every wall, floor, and meter."
A guided ten-minute walkthrough. Timestamped photos. Beautifully exported.
First
Letters that
work."The response that lands."
Cited, dated, structured correspondence for deductions, repairs, disputes.
Next
Deadlines,
tracked."We start the clock for you."
Every clock the rental system runs — quietly monitored.
Later
Notice,
understood."We check it's valid before you pack."
When a notice arrives, we read it carefully. We check it's valid.
Later
Your tenancy,
remembered."Yours, across every home."
A private record of every home you've lived in. Never sold.
Researching
When all else
fails."We help you escalate properly."
The right next steps — calmly, carefully, with everything documented.
Researching
No dates you can hold against us — we'd rather build it right than announce it twice. The waitlist hears first.
Pick a problem.
Watch the letter write itself.
Letters that get read — because they are calm, structured, and cite the right law. Choose a situation below and we'll draft your opening move.
These six letters are free, today. Copy one, adapt it, send it — no account, no email, no catch. They cite the actual law because we checked the actual law.
Choose a situation above to see your draft letter
For years, renters have been telling the same stories.
- Boiler · Mumsnet
"Boiler's been broken three weeks. They said wear a jumper."
UK tenant · 2024 - Deposit · Reddit
"£600 for professional cleaning. The flat was already clean."
UK tenant · 2025 - Repairs · MSE
"Asked for repairs. Got an eviction notice the next week."
UK tenant · 2024
- Mould · Mumsnet
"Mould everywhere. They said it was because I dry clothes inside."
UK tenant · 2024 - Referencing · Trustpilot
"Failed referencing. Nobody will explain why. Deposit's gone."
UK tenant · 2025 - Silence · Reddit
"The agent stopped replying. I don't know what to do."
UK tenant · 2025
Real posts from public UK forums, lightly edited for length. As Leeds opens, these become our own community's voices — with their permission, in their words.
What did you only find out after you'd moved in? Tell us →
Renting should feel like staying somewhere considered — not fighting for what's already yours. We're building the experience renters deserve. Not someday. Starting now — by listening.
— Accqui · est. 2026 · Leeds
Got a renting story of your own? Share it →
What we owe you.
Not features. Not promises about next year. Four commitments you can check today.
Truth before marketing.
If we can't prove a claim, we delete the claim. We run that check against our own website — words that fail it don't ship.
Tenants only.
No landlord money. No agent money. The day that changes, stop trusting us.
Your data is yours.
Got an account? Export or delete it yourself, anytime — the buttons are there now. No account? One email and it's done.
Real news only.
We write when something real happens — not weekly, and never "exciting announcements". One reply removes you.
"We're not promising to fix renting. We're trying to build something genuinely useful for tenants."
I'm Nojendra Ola. I've rented homes in different cities and spent years hearing the same frustrations from tenants. Accqui started because I kept seeing people make decisions that would affect months or years of their lives with very little information and very little protection. If you've rented, you know things we need to know — tell me what happened. I read every story that comes in.
Some of this still needs building. Maybe by you.
We're building Accqui carefully, one problem at a time.
We're short of people who notice the small print. The people who ask why something works that way, and whether it could work better.
Researchers. Designers. Engineers. Writers. Students. People who care about renters.
You don't need to have done this before.
You need to believe the problem is real.
If you've ever looked at renting and thought, “surely this could be better than this,” we'd like to hear from you.
Three ways in. No wrong one.
Join the waitlist
For renters.
Be first to hear when Accqui opens in your city.
Leeds first isn't Leeds only — telling us your city is how city two gets chosen.
Share your renting story
For people who've lived it.
Tell us what a viewing hides — what you only found out after you'd moved in.
Share your renting story →Help build Accqui
For people who want to help create something better.
Researchers. Designers. Engineers. Writers. Students. The careful and the curious.
Help build Accqui →