If you are a former customer of RentmanSoftwareLtd and have not yet contacted me… please do so.

DotGomm Inc still has access to backups from 26 March 2025. I don’t want to delete them until instructed by the data controller (i.e. you the customer) but i am still prohibited from contacting you direct.

We’re noticing an up-tick in customers enquiring about Rentman’s sales module; this could be concern about a downturn in the lettings market or responding to rental properties being sold.

In response we’re now offering the sales module on a 3 month free trial for existing users – just ask support to switch it on.

We’ll add some more training videos about sales in the coming weeks.

You can download the recording of the May webinar (23 mins) about tenants and contractors accessing Rentman from video1721732279.mp4.

Please email any suggestions for next month’s topic to nigel@dotgomm.co.uk.

As promised the next version of Rentman gives you the ability to run your own automatic overnight backups.
It’s in 3 optional parts :

• A human readable backup. The most useful of the todo lists saved into Excel. As well as being saved to local disk it can be emailed to you
• A normal mysqldump (password protected).
• Archived files copied to your local disk. These are the older photos and journal attachments that are archived to Azure Storage Containers. These files can be sensitive (e.g. passports) and, when downloaded, are not password protected so make sure the disk drive is secure.

It creates a task in the Windows Task Scheduler of the PC being used. Obviously the normal backup and the archived files can take up a lot of disk space so make sure plenty is available. How much space will depend on your own database; you can get a rough idea by looking at “Total Database Size” in Rentman’s About screen.

It’s worth repeating that Rentman servers are constantly backed up by the Azure platform and you should never need these backups.

But after recent events this is simply so you never feel vulnerable to being held hostage again.

The Bill is still going through committee stage in the House of Lords.
After committee stage there will be “report stage” where amendments are agreed in the Lords, “Third reading” typically happens at the same time and then it is sent back to the Commons.

David d’Orton Gibson at TfP is guessing Royal Assent just before or after the summer recess with implementation Jan to April 2026.

Just a word of gratitude to loyal Rentman users and supportive team members, all of whom enabled us to come through a crisis on March 27^th stronger, and with increased commitment to providing excellent customer care. From those agencies who expressed their solidarity in the early hours, to those who went on record to publicly affirm their intention of sticking by Rentman, and others who helped to spread the word that Rentman was still available, I thank you.

I would also be remiss if I did not thank Henry, Marike and Nathan in support, Ian in finance, and Noah in web development publicly for their belief in the product, the company, and the future.

After only two days, your allegiance kept Rentman viable and one month on, Rentman users are still finding us and being reinstated. The future is bright, and I hope our responsiveness to your business needs demonstrates my heartfelt thanks.

Rentman Software Ltd no longer has any association with Rentman; any invoices they are sending are for the GNB/RM Cloud platform.

DotGomm Ltd will be sending out new DirectDebit information in the next few weeks.

It seems RentmanSoftwareLtd is claiming that RM Cloud is ‘Still the Rentman you love and know but better‘; it’s not. It is instead a re-badged version of the entirely different GNB platform.

Rentman Software Ltd has no access to the rentman data you are using since 27 Mar 2025.

My apologies for the confusion.

[Lawyer approved version]

I own Rentman, the application.

Rentman Software Ltd (Scott and Gary) were the distributors.

I gave Scott 4 month’s notice on 15 January that he was no longer distributor for Rentman.

The law doesn’t allow me to solicit their customers. Instead, i issued press releases and kept my websites active so that customers would continue to have the necessary support to run their businesses.

Scott turned off the servers at 3pm the Thursday before month/year end, presenting you with an alien system, and I have been told that there was no training provided and key features missing.

The most important thing for now is to get customers back up and running; so far I’ve been able to get over 700 800 users back online with their Rentman.

Your Rentman is ready to go. Same terms and conditions and costs.

I’ve been having this conversation a lot recently .

The backup options will be expanded next week.

In particular using a faster process; mysqlsh.schemaDump() instead of mysqldump (The former is 20x quicker but less ‘portable’ than the latter.).

I’m also thinking about including stuff in human readable form. i.e. an excel of all your landlords, another of all properties, another of all tenancies etc. just so if Armageddon comes you have SOMETHING.

I’ll send an email next week with instructions on how your IT people can set it up as an automatic process. Nightly/weekly as you wish.

Just so you can’t ever be held hostage again

(The servers are being continually backed up automatically; the Microsoft Azure platform has that built in. A local backup is just for your own reassurance.)

Rentman Software Ltd just terminated effective 31 March.

Contact me by email at nigel@dotgomm.co.uk or book a zoom session.

My apologies to everyone for the turmoil. I tried to avoid this….

… but the law prevents me from contacting customers direct.