Launchpad meet the teams: Rate My Flat

Rate My Flat's Lindsey Horne, Leander Schulz, Letisha Nicholas and Cade Bedford. Photo / Mark Tantrum

Launchpad is the social enterprise incubator where eleven fledgling businesses are prepared for market.

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RB: Describe Rate My Flat?

Lindsey Horne: Rate My Flat is a website enabling tenants to rate the fl ats and homes they rent across a variety of aspects including warmth, dryness and landlord responsiveness, so future tenants know what they're getting before they sign the lease.

RB: Tell us about the brains behind Rate My Flat.
LH: We are all graduates or current students at the University of Otago with an interest in improving energy efficiency and health. Leander is our solutions director. Letisha is our external relations director. Cade Bedford is Rate My Flat's logistics & financial director. As for me, I'm the marketing director.

RB: Tell us about the "aha" moment?

LH: After living in Dunedin for a few years, we were all sick of living in freezing fl ats where you couldn't think because you were so cold! We decided to move into what was the 'Official Worst Flat in Dunedin' - or, as we like to call it, the 'Sh*tshow Chateau'. For 18 months we've worked alongside our landlord to renovate it (with the help of our friends). We insulated over half the house, installed a pellet fire burner, painted over the graffiti and removed five skips of rubbish. We were able to convince Canterbury Power Solutions to install eight solar PV panels. After this we started thinking about how we could drive change on a larger scale. Rate My Flat was born.

RB: What gaps does TMH fill?

LH: Rate My Flat is a platform that goes beyond information sharing. It changes the relationship between landlords and tenants from something that can be troublesome into something where both parties are stoked to have one another. If rental properties are warm, healthy and energy efficient then tenants are more likely to respect properties. People will suffer less from respiratory illnesses and fl us and power bills and emissions will decrease. Landlords stand to gain with homes that will have less maintenance and lower rental turnaround.

RB: What will society look like 10 years from now because of RMF?

LH: Over a third of kiwis rent and this is on the rise as buying your first home is becoming harder. We hope that every tenant and their landlord will be using tools like RMF to improve their relationship. We want to see a world where tenants can ask for insulation, extractor fans or solar heating without fear of being considered troublesome tenants who won't get their lease renewed and landlords see that tenants are a positive contribution to their investment property.

RB: Do you see RMF evolving into something bigger?

LH: We're looking beyond RMF to tools that can fast-track win-win situations for all rental parties involved. We learned really quickly how having a high trust relationship with your landlord is key for keeping homes healthy. We're looking into the relationship side of housing and using that as a basis to then improve housing standards.

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Check out Te Radar's interview with Rate My Flat.

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