Getting Started with Property HQ

Getting Property HQ properly set up takes about half an hour for a small portfolio, and most of that time is spent the first time you add each property rather than fighting with the software itself. This guide walks through the setup in the order that makes sense: properties first, then mortgages, then your compliance register, then connecting your bank and email so the day-to-day admin starts running itself.

If you manage two to fifty properties yourself, rather than through a letting agent, this order gets you to a genuinely useful dashboard fastest, because each step builds on the last.

Add properties

Start by adding each property you own or manage, one at a time. For each one you will want:

• The full address, and whether it is held personally, jointly, or through a limited company
• The property type (house, flat, HMO) and number of bedrooms
• Current tenancy status: occupied, vacant, or between tenancies
• If occupied, the rent amount and payment date, so reconciliation can start matching payments straight away

If you are converting from a spreadsheet, resist the urge to import everything in one sitting if your existing records are messy. It is usually faster to add properties cleanly one by one over a coffee than to spend an evening untangling an inherited spreadsheet's inconsistencies before you can import it.

For HMOs or licensed properties, note the licence type and expiry now, even before you get to the compliance section below - it saves you looking the detail up twice.

Mortgages and fixes

Once your properties exist, add the mortgage attached to each one (if any):

• Lender, product name and current interest rate
• Whether it is fixed, tracker or variable, and if fixed, the exact end date
• The loan amount, term and repayment type (interest-only or repayment)
• Monthly payment amount, so it can be matched against your bank feed once connected

The fixed-rate end date is the single most useful piece of data to get right immediately. Property HQ surfaces upcoming fixed-rate expiries so you can start shopping for a remortgage three to six months ahead, rather than defaulting to your lender's standard variable rate because the renewal crept up on you. If you hold four or more mortgaged buy-to-let properties, it is also worth reading our guide to portfolio landlord rules, since lenders will expect a fuller picture of your whole portfolio at your next remortgage, not just the property being refinanced.

If a property is owned outright with no mortgage, you can skip this step for that property entirely - there is no need to record anything here.

Where a property sits in a limited company rather than personal ownership, record that against the mortgage too. Limited company buy-to-let lending has its own rate and criteria landscape, and keeping personal and company-held properties clearly separated from the outset makes both your tax reporting and any future portfolio-wide remortgage conversation considerably easier.

Compliance register

This is usually the section that pays for itself fastest, because a missed compliance deadline is expensive and entirely avoidable with a working reminder system. For each property, add the dates you have on file for:

• Gas Safety Certificate (CP12), if the property has gas appliances
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
• Deposit protection scheme and date registered
• Right to Rent checks, if applicable
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm checks
• HMO or selective licensing, where the property requires it

You do not need every certificate in hand to get started; even entering the expiry date from memory or an old email is enough to get a reminder working, and you can attach the actual document later once you track it down. Property HQ will flag anything approaching its renewal window well ahead of the deadline, rather than the day it lapses.

If you genuinely cannot find a date for a particular certificate, treat that as a task in itself rather than leaving it blank. A missing gas safety record, in particular, is worth chasing up with your last contractor or letting agent before anything else on your setup list, since it is one of the few compliance gaps that can create real safety and liability exposure rather than just an administrative one.

Connect bank and email

The last step is the one that turns Property HQ from a record-keeping tool into something that actively does work for you: connecting your bank account and, optionally, your email.

Bank connection uses Open Banking, via our regulated partner TrueLayer, to read your transaction data securely - we never see or store your banking login. Once connected, incoming rent is matched automatically against each tenancy, and outgoing payments are categorised by property, so your profit and loss figures build themselves in the background rather than requiring a monthly sit-down with a spreadsheet. Our guide to Open Banking for landlords covers exactly how this works and what data is and is not shared.

Email connection lets Property HQ surface tenancy-related correspondence (maintenance requests, certificate renewal notices, agent communications) in context, alongside the relevant property, rather than leaving it buried in a general inbox. This step is optional and can be added later if you would rather start with just properties, mortgages and compliance.

Once both are connected, most of the ongoing admin - noticing a missing rent payment, spotting an upcoming certificate renewal, tracking a fixed-rate end date - happens automatically, and your job shifts from remembering everything to reviewing what Property HQ has already flagged.

If you manage a portfolio with a business partner or spouse, it is worth setting up shared access at this stage too, so both of you are looking at the same current data rather than one person holding the master spreadsheet and the other working from an out-of-date copy sent by email.

What to do in your first week

A realistic first-week plan, rather than trying to do everything on day one:

1. Add all your properties with basic details and current tenancy status
2. Add mortgages, prioritising any with a fixed rate ending within the next 12 months
3. Enter compliance dates from whatever records you have, even if incomplete
4. Connect your main rent-collection bank account
5. Review the dashboard after a week and fill in any gaps the reminders have surfaced

By the end of that week, most landlords have a genuinely current view of their portfolio for the first time, rather than a snapshot that was accurate whenever the spreadsheet was last updated. For a broader look at what to expect from landlord software generally, our guide to landlord software in the UK covers the wider feature landscape beyond Property HQ specifically, and our landlord certificates checklist is a useful reference while you are filling in your compliance register.

How Property HQ helps

Property HQ is built for exactly this setup flow: properties, mortgages, compliance dates, bank feeds and email in one workspace, so a small landlord business runs from a single current view rather than several disconnected records.

Disclaimer

This guide is general information for UK landlords, not legal, tax or mortgage advice. Check GOV.UK, HMRC or a qualified adviser for your specific situation.