Heidi Shackell has spoken of her bounce-back in the industry after a notorious sacking.
Today, success can never have felt sweeter for the 36-year-old who was made chief executive of The Landlord Hub and LetRisk after their merger last month.
But in 2012, Shackell – then known as Heidi Abbott – was fired by tenancy referencing and insurance firm HomeLet, where she had been business development director.
She was a casualty along with HomeLet boss John Boyle.
The story evoked enormous interest right across the industry – not just because of the sackings of a popular pair but because the then City regulator, the Financial Services Authority, launched an inquiry into the contracts that letting agents who were signed up to HomeLet were offering to tenants.
The firm alleged gross misconduct, and the whole experience must have been totally humiliating.
Finding herself jobless and expecting her first child, she contacted Ian Wilson, the boss of franchise firm Martin & Co.
“I told him, look, this is not a great scenario. I’m pregnant and I’ve just been sacked. I talked to him about setting up a referencing company and things went from there. Richard Martin, the chairman of Martin & Co, provided the capital and on October 1, I started working for them.
“In February 2013, we launched The Landlord Hub. Initially, it was a service for Martin & Co agents, but I always had plans to take it to a wider market.”
But whatever happened to the FSA inquiry – inherited by its successor, the FCA?
Shackell says that the FCA found nothing to concern it and the inquiry finished.
Nor was that the end of that particular chapter. She took HomeLet to tribunal and won her case for unfair dismissal, with the maximum payout.
Together with the FCA’s decision to take no action, she says: “I had cleared my name.”
When Martin & Co had plans to float on the stock market, the decision was taken to hive away The Landlord Hub.
“We were doing 11,000 tenant references a month, and our clients included Martin & Co agents, Countrywide, and a lot of independent agents,” she says.
“Nevertheless, even though we were very much a separate enterprise, there was some reluctance among agents who knew of the connection with Martin & Co. They didn’t want to feel they were putting money into a competitor.”
She initiated talks with LetRisk after deciding that The Landlord Hub was good at referencing but less good at insurance, while LetRisk’s strengths were precisely the other way around.
LetRisk agreed to acquire the Hub, releasing Richard Martin’s investment, and the deal went through very swiftly, on August 20. The next day, Shackell became chief executive of Let Insurances, the parent company of LetRisk and The Landlord Hub, and she now runs both companies.
With a growing family – she now has two children with a third due in February – it is perhaps fitting that Shackell now plans to brood over plans for the merged business.
“I am going to go quiet for a time and have a think,” she says. “I want to emerge with something of real and significant value for letting agents.”
She will even reconsider the brand names of the two companies, having given herself a deadline of the end of the month.
What is not up for grabs is what The Landlord Hub does well – and differently from its competitors.
Tenants are not just initially referenced but monitored continuously throughout their tenancy, and agents alerted if there is a change in their financial circumstances; there is an eviction guarantee so that if a tenant needs to be removed, The Landlord Hub will pay all costs; and tenants are supported through the vetting process, to take pressure off the agent.
“So far, we have not had one single complaint, touch wood,” says Shackell. “Obviously there are some things you cannot foresee at the time of referencing, such as a breakdown in a relationship or a redundancy. But we have never had a complaint about a tenant being poorly referenced.”
The next landmark in the lettings world will presumably be Right to Rent. “We have a free step-by-step guide, and we give agents a way of storing documents free. But the responsibility will still sit with the letting agents, as we won’t physically be able to match up the picture in the passport to the person sitting in the office.
“However, if we need to invest more into a broader system we will do that.”
For the moment, she is planning the imminent launch of a range of new insurance products; there is also a further six months worth of development of a referencing platform that LetRisks has been developing.
LetRisks had outsourced its own referencing to Experian. That will come back in house, creating 30 new jobs – the merged firm currently employs 37 people in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and 58 in Peterborough. The new posts will all be in the latter.
“We are looking for some really good people,” she says, “at every level right up to IT and operations directors who will sit on the board. We really are in substantial growth mode.”
Shackell must take huge satisfaction from both that and her ability to pick herself quite so decisively off the ground.
Comments (21)
Funny most of the dislikes to the negative comments are in two’s, must be Heidi and Rob-bum bum!
I really hope Letrisk have a large retention on their acquisition deal, somewhere in the Order of 90% of the acquisition price £1.24m, because I suspect there will be a mass migration of M & C’s due to them be being royaly piped.
Ok not one to lament, but why should an M & C franchise be press ganged into a referencing provider that (A) offers a cheaper price on referencing to an agency outside the M & C network, and (B) Have a service that is substandard and positively pants.
what next; will the M & C network have to buy their loo rolls and coffee from a Martin and co approved supplier?
It’s to say that the network needs flexibility, they are after all individuals who have stumped up a considerable amount of cash and have worked hard to develop their businesses, and this is no easy task.
Here’s to the franchise network!! Keep on grafting and don’t eat what you don’t want to swallow…
I don’t normally comment on these forums but feel compelled to do so in this case.
We are a large independent firm with five offices, and have been trading for over 25 years. We have won numerous industry awards including six Sunday Times Gold Awards in the last three years including UK Small Lettings Agency of the Year 2015.
We have supported Landlord Hub since they setup, as we did with both Moneypenny and TenTel. We are not ‘tied’ to Landlord Hub in any way, I lose count of the number of firms that contact us attempting to entice us away.
We continue to use them because we feel that they offer best level of service in the market and find them honest and reliable. They clearly have a passion to be the best they can be and this doesn’t just extend to Heidi, it is something cultivated within the entire team.
Obviously, with referencing things sometimes don’t go to plan, but when we have raised concerns each time, without fail, Landlord Hub have apologised and rectified the issue.
I hope this post provides some balance to the comments posted above.
Rob in order to provide a little balance to the conversation why not post your last invoice from the Landlord Hub so all the M & C’s can see what you are paying for your references, that would be the prelude to an interesting debate!
So much for supporting your franchise network!
Oh dear this PR stunt has gone rather badly! I feel sorry for the Martin & Co’s; press ganged into using the hub, paying more and receiving a poor service just isn’t right. Ultimately they will think with their cheque books and find an alternative.
Reading these comments by Martin & Co Franchisee’s maybe they should not have ‘Hived’ the referencing off.
By the sounds of it a lot of agents will be leaving in the future ……
A nice attempt at spin Heidi. But I’m sorry to have to say, that for those customers who have been forced to use the landlord hub it just doesn’t wash. We would have walked months ago had it not been specified as part of “The Service”.
Quote “So far, we have not had one single complaint, touch wood,” says Shackell. “Obviously there are some things you cannot foresee at the time of referencing, such as a breakdown in a relationship or a redundancy. But we have never had a complaint about a tenant being poorly referenced.”
The service that we have been offered is extremely poor. We have made numerous complaints, yes few have ever been answered. Key personnel have left the company due to the number of complaints etc etc
Hi it’s Heidi here. Thanks for reading the article and taking the time to comment – I do want to quickly clarify one point regarding the context of the statement that we’ve not had any complaints, as this has been mis-interpreted and I think it is important to set the record straight.
As a business we reference over 11,000 applicants each month, and of course like any business we have complaints and grumbles. That’s not to say we don’t pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service but, as a highly transactional business employing over 50 people, I’d be very naive to think (or say) that we’ve never had a complaint about service. I know we do, because I am usually involved in resolving them personally and what I can confidently say is that we’ve never had a complaint we haven’t been committed to resolving in full.
The message that I was portraying was simply that as we offer a Free Eviction service on every successful application we have the ability to understand what percentage of tenants that we have recommended go on to be evicted from their home due to non-payment of rent.
Where our customers have used our Free Eviction service, it has been the tenant losing their job or a relationship breakdown that have been the main catalysts; both events that could not have been predicted when we initially referenced the tenant. This provides us with confidence in the robustness of the referencing checks we perform and that we are putting the right people in properties and protecting our customers and their landlords.
Where our Free Eviction service has been used, we have a 100% success rate in gaining possession of the property.
As the only provider who does this for all references it provides us with valuable insight and allows us to tweak our referencing criteria and procedures to provide maximum protection for both letting agents and landlords.
Thanks for reading, and if anyone would like to contact me directly I’m happy to answer any questions relating to the business, my e-mail is heidi.shackell@landlordhub.com.
I am also always happy to hear from our customers, and if any customers who have commented want to speak to me about any specific service comments then please get in touch.
Heidi
Dear Heidi. Unfortunately our MAC closed forum is awash with contributions over your article and not a single one is complimentary. The consistent remark is that everybody does complain and nothing is done as we have all been tied in without option. My colleague has chased a reference every day this week and it turns out it has been sitting there waiting for validation and this is a common theme. Attitudes won’t change until our contract is up for renewal and I for one along with the majority of my colleagues will want to move elsewhere!
11000 references a month; that represents a round 20 processors completing the reference files. What are the other 30 staff doing having coffee and bagels. Let’s be honest for a moment, you are being a little economical with the truth, and that leads me to beleive that your you are porking on the rest of your story.
Having been a LetRisks customer for years and prior to the previous merger a PropertyRisks client.
I can only echo MF’s comments, their staff and customer service is excellent. If and when a problem occurs, they always find a solution and nothing is too much of a problem.
I am surprised that Heidi says that LetRisks are less good at referencing, I have always found them really good. I know they have had a few challenges recently, but I have been kept in the loop and understand.
Good luck to all involved and it would be a shame if the service drops or the people change as I have built up a great relationship with all.
Gosh! I’m surprised at all these negative comments (but then I have no previous knowledge or experience of Heidi or the Landlord Hub, only of LetRisks).
It sounds as though LetRisk are significantly better – if this is the case then I genuinely hope that this rubs off on the Landlord Hub
Claiming that the Landlord Hub good at referencing is a total joke. We are contractually obliged to use them and have to chase for everything constantly!! Having a couple hundred offices forced to use you and then provide a poor service is great work if you can get it!
Wonder if all M&Co offices were locked into the sale to LetRisks as I’m sure I saw somewhere that there is a 3 year lock-in ?? Nice work if you can get it…………
Not one complaint? Lol. Heidi, what a selective memory you seem to have! Many complaints from lots of Martin & Co offices. Oh, and Richard Martin didn’t just provide the funds he also supplied the customers too…
Well done Heidi and good luck with your plans. As a LetRisks customer of many years, I can testify to their hugely impressive customer service levels, as well as the quality of their referencing. Their staff have always been very professional and dedicated, and must truly enjoy their work since hardly any have left in all the years I’ve been with them (about eight years now).
Never received a single complaint? Well I’ve made about half a dozen and I can a significant number of other Martin & Co franchisees who have too. I suspect there may be some significant filtering going on between the revolving door workforce and those at the top.