Title Guardian

Taking over a project in progress

real estate

law/conveyancing

code review

mobile application

Title Guardian offers innovative technology that protects UK property owners from identity and property theft. By analyzing submissions to HM Land Registry, sales and rent offers on the market, and actions in the Companies House, the software ensures that the users are notified of any suspicious activity, such as unlawful listing, mortgage, or sale, so it can be prevented.

Gorrion took over the project during MVP development. We have improved the backend to ensure air-tight security, developed an admin panel for the operators and a mobile app for the users, and provided new integrations with external APIs. Over the period of 2 years we transitioned from single mobile app development to strong business partnership, taking care of the entire Title Guardian product development to make the product even more helpful for homeowners and landlords.

Why does the UK need Title Guardian?

Title Guardian's technology, available via mobile and desktop application, aims to prevent property- and identity-related fraud in England and Wales, protecting people's homes from being stolen. In the UK it is surprisingly easy to steal a house. The fraudsters can lay a claim on someone’s property and either sell or mortgage it with the owner being none the wiser.

The usurpers “simply” steal the victim’s identity and register their property as their own with HM Land Registry. This opens the door to either take a mortgage against that property or even sell it. While it may sound rather incredulous, it does happen! In fact, the level of fraud in the UK has risen so much that it has become a national security threat (according to the UK Finance half year fraud update, 2021).

Title Guardian mitigates that problem. People who register their property in the app (after confirming their identity and their right to the property) will receive push, email, or text alerts whenever there’s any activity related to it, e.g. when someone tries to claim the title to their property or lists it for sale on the Internet. The platform conducts daily checks across hundreds of databases, including the government registry and online marketplaces, so that the users can have peace of mind, knowing their property is being protected 24/7. Whenever they receive an alert about an activity related to their property or identity, they can either confirm they are aware of it, or contact the support team to investigate the matter.

In the future, Title Guardian wants to develop features that will help people protect their identity as well. Since identity theft is usually the first step towards property theft, this functionality will help homeowners protect themselves even better. Title Guardian also plans on developing features for landlords to verify their tenants’ identity and existing court claims, and many other features in the future.

And how does Gorrion help?

Initially, Title Guardian asked us to develop a mobile version of their application. We came highly recommended by their Chief Technology Officer, with whom we’ve worked before on mobile projects such as the one for Product Guru.

After several months of working together and gaining their trust, Title Guardian decided to transfer the entire project to us. Before we could start working on the backend, though, we had to review the code, which uncovered a few issues. These ranged from simple lack of consistency in the code to improvements to external integrations that would allow us to collect more precise data and ensure air-tight security of the application. So we onboarded more developers to work on the backend, finish the mobile app, and implement payments before the deadline for the beta version going live – April 2023.

We have successfully launched a stable and secure version of the MVP, but that’s not the end of this story! Title Guardian was so satisfied with our work that they decided to continue our partnership as we go on to develop more new exciting features and integrations that will help homeowners keep their properties safe.

Are you thinking about replacing your development team? Tell us about your project and let’s work out a plan!

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Project highlights

Refactoring

Before taking over the entire project, we’ve reviewed the code and presented the client with a report showing the existing backend issues and their severity, indicating which needed to be addressed first. Then we went to work to stabilize and improve the platform, so that it was ready before the release date.

Moving forward, we plan on refactoring the entire backend so that we can securely scale the application in the future.

Integrations

Since the app hinges on external databases, there are a lot of integrations involved. And not just with HM Land Registry! We’ve also had to integrate the app with Onfido (for identity verification), Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe (for payments), and HubSpot (for sales and marketing activities). And that’s not all! Title Guardian continues to include more features and more databases to provide an even more comprehensive protection. Which means, there are more integrations to come, for example with AirBnB, Insolvency Register, and Dark Web Monitoring system.

Accessibility

Real estate is a complex matter and so we had to develop different scenarios and functionalities for different types of users. Since the platform protects the most vulnerable groups, there are features for landlords, such as enterprise subscription. But there are also features for the elderly who don’t use the Internet at all – they can be a part of a joint account set up by someone else and only receive text alerts if there is suspicious activity. This complexity requires us to constantly evaluate and challenge our solutions so they are as user-friendly as possible. That's why we're currently developing a web portal for the users who prefer to monitor their properties on desktop, rather than a mobile app. This makes the software more accessible to the widest range of home owners possible.