Choosing housing management software for flexible housing

01Why does a spreadsheet stop working?

A spreadsheet is quick to set up and everyone can use it. That is exactly what becomes a problem as the number of houses grows. The most common pain points:

• Several versions. The planner, the coordinator and the office each keep their own file. Nobody knows which bed is really free.
• No history. Who lived in room 3, and when? Who got their deposit back? An overwritten cell will not tell you.
• Photos and documents detached from the data. Inspection photos sit on phones, contracts in a folder, meter readings in an email.
• Missed deadlines. A lease that ends, an inspection that is due, a boiler service: in a spreadsheet you only see them when you go looking.
• Everyone sees everything. There are no fine-grained permissions. A coordinator sees rents and personal details they do not need.

That last point is more than an inconvenience. The GDPR requires you to limit personal data to what is necessary for the purpose, and not to keep it longer than needed. With a shared file, that is hard to demonstrate.

02Which features are essential?

Software for flexible housing has to follow day-to-day reality: people arrive, live, move and leave. These parts belong in it:

Beds and occupancy

Per house, room and bed: who lives there, since when and until when. An overview of free beds today and in two weeks' time. With labour migrants you also want to see who works for which client, because that often decides transport.

Check-in and check-out

A fixed checklist on arrival and departure: keys, house rules, meter readings, condition of the room. Ideally on a phone, so the coordinator can finish it on site.

Contracts and signatures

Since 1 July 2023 the Dutch Good Landlordship Act (Wet goed verhuurderschap) applies. For labour migrants the rental agreement must be separate from the employment contract, and you must inform them in a language they prefer. Choose software that keeps contracts per resident, can offer them in several languages and supports digital signing.

Inspections with photos

A fixed checklist per house, with pass or fail per item, a photo and a short note. That lets you show later what a room looked like. It helps with damage claims and disputes about mould; see also mould damage: building defect or use?

Maintenance and faults

A reporting system in which every fault becomes a ticket, with status, photos and an owner. It is a plus when residents can report faults themselves, for example through a QR code in the house, in their own language.

Documents and deadlines

Leases with the owner, inspections, permits, insurance. Every document with an expiry date, and a list of what is due soon.

Costs and invoices

Rent to the owner, energy, water, internet, cleaning, repairs. Per house an overview of what it costs and what it brings in. That shows which house is too expensive for its occupancy.

Roles and permissions

Management, coordinators and external parties do not see the same things. A coordinator does not need rents. Role-based permissions are a direct application of data minimisation.

Multilingual communication

House rules, report forms and information in your residents' languages. For labour migrants that is often Polish, Romanian or another language next to Dutch and English.

Integrations and export

An API or integration with the planning and staffing systems you already use, so you do not enter names and start dates twice. And an export of all your data in an open format, so you are never locked in to one vendor.

03What does the GDPR require from your software?

You are the controller. The software vendor is usually a processor: it processes personal data on your behalf. According to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, AP), a data processing agreement is then mandatory. The AP recommends being concrete in it, for example about retention periods and security measures, and reviewing the agreement regularly.

Article 28 GDPR lists the minimum content. Among other things:

• subject, duration, nature and purpose of the processing, and the types of data and people involved;
• that the processor acts only on your documented instructions, including for transfers outside the EU;
• confidentiality for everyone with access to the data;
• appropriate security;
• rules for engaging sub-processors;
• assistance with data subject requests and data breaches;
• deleting or returning all data when the service ends;
• the possibility of audits.

Retention and deletion

The GDPR says you keep data no longer than necessary for the purpose. There is no single fixed period for everything. So ask whether you can set a retention period per type of data, and whether former residents are really deleted or anonymised after that period.

Access and rights

A resident may ask which data you hold about them. You must reply without undue delay and at the latest within one month. Software that can show and export all data per person turns that into a few minutes' work.

Where are the servers?

Transferring data outside the European Economic Area is possible, but only with extra safeguards. Hosting in the EU makes things simpler. Also ask where backups and sub-processors are located, not just the main server.

This article is not legal advice. Have your data processing agreement and privacy notice reviewed by a lawyer or privacy specialist.

04Which security questions should you ask?

Article 32 GDPR requires appropriate technical and organisational measures: encryption, reliable systems, quick recovery after an incident and regular testing of whether the measures work. Turn that into concrete questions for the vendor:

1. Is every connection encrypted, and are passwords stored as hashes rather than readable text?
2. Can I set permissions per user, and block a user immediately when they leave?
3. Is there a log of who viewed or changed what?
4. How often are backups made, where are they stored, and when was a restore last tested?
5. How and how quickly will you tell me about a data breach? I must report a breach to the regulator within 72 hours if it poses a risk.
6. Which sub-processors do you use, and where are they?
7. How do I get all my data out if I leave, and when is it deleted on your side?

A good vendor answers these questions in writing and without detours. Vague answers are an answer too.

05Which pricing models are there?

Vendors charge in different ways. Each model suits a different kind of business:

• Per house or unit. Predictable if you have many beds per house. Expensive with many small properties.
• Per bed or per contract. Follows occupancy. With fast-changing residents, the monthly bill can fluctuate.
• Tiers. A fixed monthly amount within a band, for example up to a certain number of houses. Easy to budget; check what happens when you just cross a boundary.
• Per user. Cheap with a small team, expensive if you want to give many coordinators and external parties access.

Calculate with your own figures over three years: number of houses, beds, turnover per year and users. Also ask about one-off costs for setup, data import and training, and about extra costs for integrations.

06How do you roll it out?

1. Write down your processes. How do an arrival, a move, a departure and a fault work? Software should fit them, not the other way round.
2. Clean up the data. Put all houses, rooms, beds and residents in one clean file. Drop what you no longer need.
3. Start small. Pick a few houses and one team. Run in parallel for a month and fix the friction.
4. Define roles. Who may see and change what? Settle that before you invite everyone.
5. Train the coordinators. They use the system daily on their phones. If it does not work there, it will not be used.
6. Inform residents. Tell them in their language which data you record and why, and how to report a fault.
7. Retire the spreadsheet. As long as the old file exists, people keep working in it.

07Checklist for your comparison

Use this list during demos. Score each vendor and write the answers down.

eyesonrooms also offers a housing management module, with beds, inspections with photos, contracts, faults and a commute planner. You can read more on housing management software. Hold it to this checklist just the same.

08Frequently asked questions

09Sources

• Dutch Data Protection Authority: there is no single processing agreement (NL)
• Dutch Data Protection Authority: may you process personal data? (NL)
• GDPR Article 28: Processor
• GDPR Article 5: Principles (data minimisation, storage limitation)
• GDPR Article 12: Time limit for data subject requests
• GDPR Article 32: Security of processing
• GDPR Article 33: Notification of a personal data breach
• Volkshuisvesting Nederland: Good Landlordship Act, 1 July 2023 (NL)

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