Treehaus was founded by entrepreneur Neil Nichols and technologist Mark Brown. Neil is also entrepreneurially involved in accounting and legal sector businesses, as well as not-for-profit projects in the music industry. However, it is his extensive experience in the property sector that led Neil to establish Treehaus. Alongside his brother, Robert Nichols, Neil played an integral role in setting up the highly reputable London-based property company, Portico.
Portico was subsequently sold to LRG in 2021, leaving Neil free to pursue a new venture. Treehaus was born of a passion to create a fairer culture within the property sector. Alongside software expert Mark, the enterprise is on a mission to help fix the problems that are prevalent in the rental industry.
Treehaus’ intention is to give tenants a voice in response to the systematic lack of fairness evident in the private rental sector. Tenants living in poor rental conditions currently have no practical means of redress, and Treehaus is setting its sights firmly on combating this by launching a revolutionary landlord review platform.
The new landlord review platform is part of the first-ever national rental database in which tenants can search for their rental property and leave a review as to the condition of the property and the conduct of their landlord.
To further support the intention to raise the standards throughout the rental sector, Treehaus is committed in the future to only advertising properties on behalf of trustworthy landlords. Ultimately, the reviews on the platform will determine who the good landlords are, but in the meantime, the firm is proactively requesting that all well-intentioned landlords sign up to their Treehaus code of practice.
The company believes that great landlords deserve to be acknowledged and given the opportunity to build a respectable reputation that will attract responsible, reliable tenants. Their review system is equally designed to help tenants easily identify the most considerate, responsible landlords and make more informed choices regarding new rental properties. In providing a fair platform that will benefit both tenants and landlords, Treehaus’ mission is to ultimately bring about a new level of transparency that will revolutionize the rental sector and raise standards throughout the industry.
Putting the tree in Treehaus
Treehaus also prides itself on cultivating an environmentally friendly approach to property management – not surprisingly, they are passionate carbon-neutral tree-huggers. According to their mission statement, approximately 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted by each average UK property per year, which would take approximately 250 trees to absorb. While the company recognises that offsetting carbon footprints isn’t as ideal as not creating it in the first place, it’s an excellent place to start.
Consequently, Treehaus encourages landlords and tenants to offset their property’s carbon footprints, and in practicing what they preach, the firm also uses carbon-neutral data centers and servers that are powered by energy from sustainable sources.
Furthermore, in line with their sustainability ethos, the company is pledging to plant 100,000 once they reach their first 1 million landlord/rental review target.
Join the movement
Treehaus is on a mission to collate 1 million reviews from UK tenants – both positive and negative – to make landlords more accountable, and over time, provide tenants with a reliable database with which to find only highly rated landlords.
If you currently rent a property in the UK, you can join the movement by visiting Treehaus.com, entering your postcode, and leaving your review.