Negotiator Awards – Regional London
1. Tell us about your agency’s history and development to date
LeBern was founded in 2013 by the current MD Lee Anderson, who wanted to be able to make a material difference to local landlords, to offer a service that really attended to the challenges they faced, whilst at the same time providing opportunity to young people in the social housing system, which he himself was a product of. Lee had his roots Lewisham and knew many local landlords who were becoming increasingly frustrated with lack of consistency and reliability of return they were getting from their investments, so it seemed the obvious place to open the business, whilst also being able to give something back to the local community at the same time.
The starting point was not to open just another lettings agency, there were plenty of those in the area already. The aim was to offer landlords a selection of innovative services that resolved the unpredictability of being a landlord, always looking for new private tenants, at the mercy the level of local rents, fearful of voids, late rent payments, and poor cash flow that many of them relied upon to supplement their incomes. Peace of mind was what a large section of Lewisham landlords were looking for, not record-breaking rents, so Lees’ focus was to provide a solution to that, with “value add” always at the forefront of everything he did.
So LeBerns’ moniker was born, “Helping Landlords on their property journey”. This help though was focussed on giving them the additional confidence to allow their properties to be placed in the social housing sector with local authorities, so Lee could open up the possibilities for young people looking for a stable home life like he had been many years before whilst giving landlords the certainty they craved.
A guaranteed rent service with 0% fees, was the first service LeBern opened its doors with, where LeBern was the tenant. Back in 2014, guaranteed rent models didn’t appear to exist, and if they did, no one know about them, but LeBern was one of the very first to do so nine years ago, to offer that medium term reassurance, that predictability of a fixed income. Today of course, they are becoming more well-known, but LeBerns’ motives and model still remains unique.
Since then, they have continued to innovate with a subscription-based maintenance service, designed to bring landlords costs down and provide that continuity that is all so important. An in-house tenant eviction service followed, which quickly became well known and used nationally by landlords and lettings agents alike, who didn’t have the expertise to deal with the 10% of problematic tenancies.
Later came in house independent inventories, and an EPC consultancy helping landlords upgrade their properties efficiently to a necessary EPC EER C by 2026. As we write, the business has just launched its Advanced Rent Service, and one where the landlord can still expect a market level rent, and no higher fees than a traditional fully managed service, yet a years rent paid up front.
2. Tell us about your innovation, specialisms, services and your clients
Leberns’ very existence and continued evolution has been borne out of innovation, developing a specialist set of services that were specifically designed to solve an increasing insecurity in the landlord community in Lewisham that in turn would support those in the greatest need of social housing.
Most lettings agents conform to a standard private let model, an off the shelf approach, with very little scope for tailoring to specific needs or problems they may face as landlords. Indeed, these traditional lettings services focus solely on finding an individual tenant(s), statutory commitments, rent collection and maintenance, but very little thought is given to the economics of scale for landlords.
LeBern decided to look at it completely in reverse, with personal experience also there to guide them. What were the pain points for landlords when renting their properties, what were their insecurities, why did both exist and what could be done to remedy them? Lettings to LeBern was not about finding tenants, or fixing boilers, both were a given. Lettings was about helping their landlords get peace of mind, to get the best possible return with the lowest possible risk.
The lettings industry often struggles with an unhealthy counterintuitive balancing act when lettings agents’ success in maximising their own revenues can be in direct conflict with the interests of their landlord client. However, LeBerns’ philosophy and model makes it possible however for landlords to achieve this. Success for LeBern is not measured by short term immediate profits, but by the length and quality of relationship, which over time will allow to LeBern achieve its own financial ambitions.
This is how the first bespoke service evolved in 2013, the 0% Guaranteed Rent Service, but one where the landlords’ margins were not significantly trimmed in order to facilitate its very existence. Rents were not heavily discounted, individual tenancies were long term, HMOs were not created to increase profits, all of which are standard fayre of those companies that offer a comparable service.
Likewise, the subscription maintenance service was designed to reduce unnecessary labour costs, where call out fees, and expensive contractors rates, often inflated for landlords, are capped inside a modest monthly all-inclusive premium. Similarly, Lebern trained an in-house EPC business consultant to be able to advise landlords on the most cost-effective way to conform to the upcoming changes to MEES in 2026.
An in-house tenant eviction service followed, something that nearly all agents refer to 3rd party solicitors to deal with at immense cost to the landlord. This became so popular in landlord communities that LeBern now offers this nationwide and crucially to other lettings agents who lack the expertise to offer this service to their own clients.
The most recent, the Advanced Rent Service is another pioneering service. Once more, market rents are not traded at the landlords’ expense in order to provide them with upfront cash flow, fees are not increased.
Le Berns’ model is unique, to make a genuine, tangible difference to the performance of their clients’ investment.
3. Tell us why and how you lead the market in your region?
LeBern from its inception has never tried to compete with traditional lettings agents on their own terms, it has never been an ambition for the business to do so, or indeed to become a lettings agency per se at all. The mission or raison d’etre for Le Bern was what it could do to add value to the management of their landlords’ investment, to do something extra at an affordable level for them that was traditionally not something that was found on the high street or was in the domain of expensive independent specialists.
So, in touch with the grass roots in its patch the business owners took their time to understand what those pain points were that lettings agents either didn’t understand or had no capacity to deal with. Those were the insecurity and stress surrounding constantly changing tenancies, cash flow, the escalating costs linked to fees the agents themselves charged, maintenance and the fear and expense of evictions.
What most lettings agents do not address, is that a high churn of tenants is very expensive for their landlords even if voids are low. There are significant costs associated with starting and ending a tenancy, more so now after the Tenant Fees Act, and even a handful of contractor visits per year have a significant impact on the landlords’ P&L. Evictions are off the scale expensive and a minefield for even an experienced landlord.
LeBern set about addressing these concerns with an innovative and still market leading series of services designed to deal with these precise pain points.
The 0% Guaranteed Rent Service provided a guaranteed rent with no fees for 3 years, so churn became irrelevant. Dilapidations were covered by LeBern as well, meaning very little cost to the landlord. The Rent in Advance service went further to provide each years rent in advance, and the subscription maintenance service meant that unlimited labour costs were covered throughout the tenancy for a modest monthly premium, equivalent to less than 50% of a single call out charge.
The ground-breaking in-house eviction service and used now by many other agents and landlords nationwide, made the fear and expense of starting the eviction process disappear. Finally, the in-house EPC consultancy is available to help landlords tackle the 2026 MEES changes affordably.
Lebern set about rewriting the traditional lettings model and designed a set of services that put the landlord first, that removed problems before they even had a chance to develop but did it in a refreshingly transparent and affordable way that meant it was accessible to all landlords in the Lewisham community. In doing so he was also able to pay back into the social housing sector that once supported him, giving young people in need a place to live, showing them there was a way out.
It is for these reasons that Le Bern leads the market in Lewisham and in London as a pioneer, an agency that genuinely troubleshoots for its community with their best interests coming first.
4. Tell Us about your plans for growth
Growth for LeBern is about reaching out to more landlords in London who need the specialist support the business offers that traditional lettings agents don’t have appetite or expertise to deal with, through four different strategies.
Firstly, to continue to contribute to thought leadership in London, to stimulate discussion on where landlords need the most help as the PRS continues to evolve. Government is continually introducing new legislation and regulation that has consequences for both landlords and tenants, quite often unexpected, as we have seen with the 2019 Tenant Fees Act. There are plenty more changes in the pipeline, not least the Renters Reform Bill and the next stage of MEES that have the potential to send shock waves though the sector. Lebern plans to lead the debate and understand what the pain points could be for landlords, so more affordable housing can continue to be provided to the local community.
Secondly, to expand and broaden the digital marketing strategy to place Lebern in the same place digitally as local landlords who are having the same challenges that the business is skilled to help resolve. This would be through a number of specifically targeted initiatives expanding the research in Google keyword planner to reach out through Google Ad words looking for these landlords using the specific search strings that demonstrate they are looking for help.
Thirdly, continue to be at the coal face of innovating for landlords, providing hands-on, value-added services that the traditional lettings industry chooses not to offer. LeBern has pioneered the way not only with these targeted services but delivering them in a truly cost-effective way for landlords, to remove any obstacles associated with cost that could prevent them taking them up and resolving the issues that exist, which is the first priority.
As importantly is ownership and control which is why LeBern has chosen to offer these services internally, to be accountable to their clients when offering advice and making recommendations. The 0% Guaranteed Rent Service, the Advanced Rent Service, the Tenant Eviction Service, the Maintenance Subscription Service and the EPC Consultancy Service are all services provided by LeBerns’ team in Lewisham, all having undergone years of CPD to give them the expertise and experience they need to make sure that each one offered will actually add the value it is designed to do, not sold as a placebo.
Finally, in recognition that there are tens of thousands of landlords in London who are still unaware of the services LeBern has available, who due to their age, may not be as active online, Lee, the Managing Director is looking to acquire managed portfolios by acquisition from existing lettings businesses, targeting those where he feels the need and impact felt is likely to be the greatest. One acquisition of has already been completed in 2022, with more in the pipeline.
Growth for Lebern is about increasing the number of landlords’ challenges resolved, to expand the choice of social housing available to young local people.
5. Tell us about anything which you feel will help you win this Award
The key differentiator in LeBerns success and journey to date, unlike many other agents has been its conception and evolution from the very beginning, and why the MD Lee now considers it to be an industry leading pioneer in its field. That key difference was its purpose, its raison detre, the reason the business was started in the first place. More often that not, a lettings businesses primary focus is to make money, to be as profitable as possible, and to do that they create a set of services that they perceive landlords are looking for, and then charge them a series of fees for providing them.
This was never the starting point or primary motive for LeBern and why Lee founded the business. He had been a product of the social housing system in Lewisham, a successful one, but had at the same time seen the weaknesses in the system and understood why local private landlords were frustrated with the suppose accepted status quo, that other local agents seem averse to or incapable of changing. At the same time, he appreciated the value that having a stable home had provided him, giving him the opportunity to avoid trouble when he was a younger man, giving him the reset, he needed to start his own business.
The social housing sector in London is broken, out of capacity, with virtually no new build supply, but an ever-increasing waiting list of mainly young people, many of whom work, who need a place to live. Increasing that supply from the Private Rented Sector has been difficult partly due to stigma, and the perceived higher risk of doing so. Higher dilapidations, lower rents, higher arrears, an expensive eviction if it all went wrong were all concerns.
So, the approach was twofold. To reassure local landlords that he could use their properties to help local young people get a stable start in life, while at the same time make that vehicle perform better for them than the traditional letting model had done for them in the past. So, Lee and LeBern took all the risk and created and refined a set of services that no only dealt with any landlord concerns, but also made the proposition a no brainer for them.
LeBern became the tenant, guaranteed the rent, its level, therefore no arrears, accepted liability on dilapidations and the cost of eviction if required, and made expensive maintenance a thing of the past, all for fees that were no higher than other local agents charged. Too good to be true? No, just an innovative solution to two significant challenges facing two related parts of the Lewisham community that one entrepreneurial product of that community recognised existed and could be solved with the right solution in place.
Not many lettings businesses have a “Why?”. LeBern is all and only about “Why?” Why the business exists, the services it offers, the people it helps.