Running costs nobody added up
Rent is the number on the listing. The council tax band, the energy bills implied by the EPC and the water aren't — and together they can quietly outweigh a bargain on the rent itself.
Buyers get a survey.
Renters get ten minutes.
Renting is one of the biggest commitments you can make, and the only one you are expected to make blind. We check 10 public and government sources for any UK address, before you sign.
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The imbalance
The same building. A fraction of the protection.
Two people commit to the same property in the same week. Here is what each of them is given before they decide.
Someone buying it
Weeks to decide
Offer to exchange, with the right to pull out
- A surveyor who inspects the building
- Local authority and environmental searches
- A solicitor acting solely for them
- A lender valuing the property independently
- The right to walk away up to exchange
Someone renting it
Ten minutes to decide
One viewing, then a holding deposit
- A ten-minute viewing, often in a group
- A description written by the seller
- A reference and credit check — on you
- A deposit and first month up front
- A decision expected within the day
The buyer is protected because the decision is expensive. So is yours.
Whose side is everyone on
Everyone at the viewing is paid by someone else.
Paid by the landlord
The letting agent
Their fee depends on letting the property quickly and close to the asking price. Nothing in that arrangement rewards them for mentioning the EPC is an F.
Owns the asset
The landlord
Sets the rent and the terms. Under no obligation to volunteer the flood history, the broadband speed, or what last winter actually cost to heat.
Represented by nobody
You
Given a viewing slot, a deadline and a form. Expected to commit thousands on the strength of a description written by the person letting to you.
PadAudit is the only one in that list working for you — and the only one you don’t pay.
A worked example
The same flat, with the bill attached.
This is our sample report — a flat in Manchester with an EPC of B and nothing wrong with it. Even here, the number on the listing is not the number you pay.
What the listing says
£1,200
per month
One number, chosen by the person letting it.
What the record says
- RentAs advertised
- £1,200
- Council Tax, Band BEstimated · Valuation Office Agency
- £142
- Energy, from the EPCEstimated · EPC Register
- £85
- True monthly cost
- £1,427
That is £227 more every month than the listing implies — £2,724 over a twelve-month tenancy, on a flat with nothing wrong with it.
Check the arithmetic in the full sample reportWhat it costs you
The things you find out after you sign.
Money is only the part that is easy to add up. None of the rest is visible in a viewing either, and all of it is already published somewhere.
Risk a dry afternoon hides
Environment Agency flood zones and street-level Police.uk crime for the exact address. Neither is visible from the doorstep on a sunny Saturday.
Connectivity you assumed
You cannot test the broadband at a viewing. Ofcom speeds and 4G/5G coverage by operator tell you before your first working-from-home Monday does.
Compliance nobody raised
An EPC of E or below raises real questions about minimum energy efficiency standards — questions no one at the viewing is going to ask on your behalf.
Our answer
So we built the check that was never offered.
One address, 10 sources, about thirty seconds. Not a survey — we cannot inspect a building from here — but everything the public record already knows, gathered before you commit rather than after.
- The report. Running costs, flood and crime risk, connectivity and EPC compliance, each traced to the authority that published it.
- The Viewing Toolkit.Questions built from your property’s own risks, so you arrive knowing what to ask instead of what to admire.
What the listing tells you
“Bright modern flat in a sought-after location. Excellent transport links. Early viewing strongly advised.”
What the record tells you
- Council TaxBand B · £142/mo
- EPCB · £85/mo estimated energy
- Flood riskNo zone recorded
- BroadbandUltrafast available
What we believe
Six things we will not compromise on.
Open data belongs to the public that funded it
Every source we use is already paid for out of public money. The information exists — it is just scattered across a dozen sites and written for professionals. Collecting it up shouldn't cost a tenant anything, so the core audit is free.
Tenants deserve the same tools as buyers
Nobody thinks a buyer should skip the survey to save time. Renters commit to comparable sums with none of it. We are closing that gap, one address at a time.
Evidence beats pressure
“We have three more viewings this afternoon” is a sales technique. A flood map is not. When the room is engineered to make you decide quickly, the most useful thing we can hand you is something checkable.
We show our working
Every figure carries the authority that published it and how confident we are in the match. Where a number is estimated, it says so. Where we cannot match your exact property and only have the postcode, it says that too, rather than guessing and sounding certain.
You should not have to hand anything over
No account, no credit check, no footprint on your file. Checking a property is nobody's business but yours, and we never sell your personal data.
We would rather admit a gap than fill it
Public data has holes. Some sources hold nothing for some addresses, and coverage differs across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. When a source comes back empty the report says which one, and why, instead of quietly rounding it into something that reads like a fact.
See exactly what a report is and isn't
Stop deciding on ten minutes.
One address, 10 sources, no account needed. Find the problems while walking away is still free.