A landlord managing for landlords
Leyo is run by Lily Cunningham, who has been letting property in Leeds and York since 2016.
How this started
I bought my first house in York in 2016. I was living in London at the time, renting a room in an HMO, and I wanted a house of my own. London prices meant that was never going to happen. So I looked to Yorkshire, where I'm from, and bought a house there to let out instead.
I still own it. It's a seven-bed HMO now.
After that I started buying cheap houses in Leeds, doing them up and letting them out, and building the portfolio one property at a time. In 2021 I left my job in PR in London and moved into property full time.
Why HMOs
I lived in them for six years before I owned one. As a student in Nottingham from 2010, then in rooms in London from 2013.
Most people who manage shared houses have never lived in one. My rental experience was of tired houses, magnolia walls and threadbare carpets. A house people want to stay in is a house that isn't empty, and the difference shows up in the rent roll.
I still own and run my own portfolio alongside the properties we manage for other landlords.
We make the same decisions about your property that we make about our own.
What we manage
7
owned properties
6
managed single lets
39
HMO rooms
Lily's own portfolio runs to seven houses across Leeds and York. Leyo also manages 39 HMO rooms and single-let houses for other landlords.
We manage a small number of properties well rather than a large number adequately, and we would rather tell you the real figure than a vague one.
Where the name comes from
Leyo is Leeds and York, joined together. We cover both cities, so we made a name out of both.
How we work
Every landlord deals with the same person, who knows the property and the tenants.
We publish our fees in full. We charge on rent collected, not rent contracted. We don't charge set-up fees, renewal fees or exit fees, and if you leave us we stop charging commission entirely rather than continuing to bill on tenants we introduced.
The people who turn up
A managing agent is only as good as the people it can get to a house on a Tuesday afternoon. Most of ours have worked with me for years, on my own properties long before they worked on anyone else's.
There is Paul our property manager who knows every house inside out. Behind him, a gas engineer and a plumber in each city, an electrician (who was trained by my dad) a fire alarm contractor, a roofer, a joiner who also plasters and tiles, a locksmith in Leeds and another in York, Nikki and her team of cleaners and even our flooring fitter Sal and Danny. All our team I know personally, not someone we have just got from check a trade.
It matters more than it sounds. Firstly, they always pick up the phone and help in an emergency but they also know the houses where the stop tap is located or what boilers we use. Nobody spends the first hour working out how the building is put together, and small jobs get done rather than quoted for.
We authorise anything under £200 without troubling the landlord, so a dripping tap is fixed the week it is reported rather than the month it is approved.
Credentials
Leyo Lettings is a trading name of Create Property Management Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 14953938.
Propertymark member.
Member of the Property Redress Scheme, membership number PRS049179.
Client Money Protection is provided through Propertymark. Create Property Management Ltd is a Propertymark member (firm membership M00015464), so any rent or deposit money we hold for you is covered by the Propertymark Client Money Protection scheme. Our CMP certificate is available on request and is valid to 30 September 2027.
Leyo Lettings is an ARLA Propertymark member, and all client money is held in a separate client account protected by Propertymark Client Money Protection.
Deposits protected with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (Custodial), so tenant money is held by the scheme rather than by us.
Lily is also accredited in her own right as a landlord. She is an NRLA Accredited Landlord, membership number 2228010, and is accredited under the Leeds Rental Standard, membership number LRS 2186 — the scheme run by Leeds City Council with Unipol and the NRLA. Both are earned through training and inspection rather than bought, and both are held personally rather than by the company.
Get in touch
If you have a property in Leeds or York and want an honest view of what it should be earning, we'll give you one.