Property Hawk Has Closed — Move Your Records to RentVault in 20 Minutes

By RentVault Team · Published 2026-08-23 · 6 min read

Property Hawk closed at the end of July 2026. This guide explains how to preserve your records, choose a modern replacement, and move to RentVault in around 20 minutes.

Property Hawk shut down its free property management software at the end of July 2026. After more than fifteen years as a fixture for small UK landlords, the platform closed — leaving over 160,000 registered users without a home for their tenancy records, rent history, and compliance data.

If you're one of them, this guide explains how to export what you can from Property Hawk, what to look for in a replacement, and how to get set up on RentVault in around 20 minutes.

What Property Hawk Was — and Why It Closed

Property Hawk launched in 2006 and built a loyal following among small self-managing landlords, largely because it was genuinely free. It covered the basics well — tenancy tracking, rent logging, maintenance records, and document storage.

What it didn't cover was the compliance and tax landscape that has emerged since 2024. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the Renters' Rights Act 2025, Section 8 possession grounds, the PRS Database — none of these were on the horizon when Property Hawk was built, and the platform never evolved to meet them.

The closure was a consequence of that gap. A free platform with no revenue model and no clear path to serving the new regulatory requirements couldn't sustain itself once the compliance demands on landlords became as serious as they are in 2026.

Exporting Your Property Hawk Data

Before doing anything else, export whatever you can from your Property Hawk account if you still have access.

What to export or manually record:

• Tenant details — full names, contact details, dates of birth for Right to Rent purposes
• Tenancy dates — start dates, current rent amounts, review dates
• Rent payment history — even a screenshot or export of the ledger is better than nothing
• Any documents stored — tenancy agreements, deposit certificates, Gas Safety certificates, EICRs, EPCs
• Maintenance records — dates, contractors, what was done

If Property Hawk's export functionality is still accessible, use it. If not, a manual record of the above is the foundation you need to set up in any replacement platform.

What to Look for in a Property Hawk Replacement in 2026

The landlord software market has changed significantly since Property Hawk launched. A replacement platform in 2026 needs to handle obligations that didn't exist in 2006:

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is mandatory from April 2026 for landlords with income over £50,000, dropping to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Your replacement platform needs to either generate HMRC-compatible quarterly exports or submit directly to HMRC.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished Section 21 on 1 May 2026. Every possession now requires a Section 8 ground with a documented evidence trail. A platform that doesn't support Section 8 notice logging and court-ready documentation is inadequate for the current legal environment.

Certificate tracking has legal consequences. An expired Gas Safety certificate can invalidate a Section 8 possession notice. An EICR beyond its five-year window exposes you to fines of up to £30,000. Your platform needs to track every certificate with advance expiry alerts.

The PRS Database — mandatory landlord and property registration — is rolling out from late 2026. Your platform should track this alongside your other compliance obligations.

A platform that only does what Property Hawk did — basic tenancy tracking and rent logging — is no longer sufficient for a self-managing landlord in England in 2026.

Why Landlords Are Moving to RentVault

RentVault is built for the compliance environment that exists now — not the one that existed in 2006. It covers everything Property Hawk covered and the compliance layer Property Hawk never built.

What RentVault covers that Property Hawk didn't:

Making Tax Digital — income and expense tracking per property, MTD quarterly export formatted for Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, or direct accountant handoff. HMRC production approval submitted and under review for direct quarterly submission.

Section 8 possession notices — all 17 grounds under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, with a pre-flight checklist confirming every prescribed information requirement is met before the notice is generated. Court-ready evidence bundle PDF exported per property at any time.

Certificate tracking — Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, HMO licence, fire risk, insurance — with colour-coded alerts at 60, 30, and 7 days before expiry. Day-of-expiry alerts when a certificate expires without renewal.

PRS Database and PRS Ombudsman registration tracking — both required from late 2026.

Right to Rent — six-point compliance checklist per tenant with follow-up reminders for time-limited rights.

Open Banking via TrueLayer — live bank feed connecting to 300+ UK banks, automatically matching rent payments and flagging missed payments.

36 legal document templates — tenancy agreements updated for the Renters' Rights Act 2025, Section 8 notices, deposit documentation, check-out reports — all with e-signatures via the tenant portal.

Iain — an AI assistant that answers landlord questions in plain English, available 24 hours a day.

What RentVault costs:

Free forever for one property. No card required. If you have more than one property, paid plans start at £9.99 per month. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

For most Property Hawk users with one or two properties, RentVault is free or costs less than £10 per month — and covers significantly more ground than Property Hawk ever did.

How to Move Your Records to RentVault in 20 Minutes

Setting up RentVault after Property Hawk is straightforward. Here's the sequence:

Step 1 — Create your account (2 minutes)

Go to rentvault.co.uk and click Start Free — no card required. The onboarding takes two minutes and gets you to a working dashboard.

Step 2 — Add your properties (3 minutes each)

For each property: address, property type (single let, HMO, short let), purchase price and current value if known, and mortgage details. RentVault supports single lets, HMOs, Airbnb and short lets, overseas properties, and limited company or SPV structures — all from one account.

Step 3 — Add your tenants (2 minutes each)

Name, contact details, tenancy start date, rent amount and payment frequency, deposit amount and protection scheme. RentVault auto-calculates the deposit protection deadline and flags it if it's outstanding.

Step 4 — Upload your certificates (5 minutes)

Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, HMO licence — upload each one and enter the expiry date. RentVault calculates the renewal deadline and starts sending you alerts automatically from that point.

Step 5 — Connect your bank (3 minutes)

Link your rental bank account via Open Banking. RentVault connects through TrueLayer to 300+ UK banks. Once connected, rent payments are automatically matched and any missed payments are flagged.

Step 6 — Set up MTD (2 minutes)

Go to Finance & MTD, confirm your income sources, and check whether you're in scope for Making Tax Digital. If you are — or will be from April 2027 — RentVault starts tracking your income and expenses in the correct HMRC format from that point.

Total time: approximately 20 minutes for one property with one tenant. Add five minutes per additional property.

What About Your Historical Records?

Historical rent payment records from Property Hawk won't transfer automatically — no software can import another platform's data without an export file in a compatible format.

For the purposes of MTD, only records from April 2026 onward are required. You don't need to reconstruct historical data in RentVault — start fresh from today and your records will be correct from this point.

For historical compliance records — old Gas Safety certificates, previous tenancy agreements, deposit correspondence — store these in RentVault's document section under each property. They don't need to be re-entered as structured data, just stored as uploaded files so they're accessible if a dispute or possession claim ever requires them.

A Note on Compliance Since Property Hawk Closed

If you've been using Property Hawk as your primary landlord management tool, it's worth taking stock of your current compliance position before setting up your new platform.

The compliance landscape since 2024 has changed materially. If your last compliance review was based on Property Hawk's reminders, there are several things worth checking immediately:

• Gas Safety certificate — is it current and has a copy been served on your tenant?
• EICR — is it within its five-year window?
• EPC — is the rating E or above?
• Deposit — is it protected, and has the prescribed information been served?
• How to Rent guide — was the current version served at the most recent tenancy start or renewal?
• RRA Information Sheet — has this been served to all existing tenants (required from 1 May 2026)?

RentVault's free Compliance Score Checker — eight questions, instant result, no account required — is available at rentvault.co.uk and will show you exactly where your properties stand against every current legal requirement.

[Check your compliance score — free, no account required →](/tools/compliance-checker)

[Start your free RentVault account — no card required →](/auth)

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Compliance requirements described are based on legislation current as of August 2026. Always consult a qualified solicitor for advice specific to your circumstances.