FileSeal is a UK-hosted secure document sharing service for letting and estate agents. You create an encrypted upload link in about 30 seconds, your tenant or buyer uploads a passport, proof of address, references or bank statements without creating an account, and you download the files once before they are deleted from FileSeal’s servers. The free trial is 5 secure requests with no time limit and no card. Professional is £29 a month (£25 billed annually) and Teams is £59 a month (£47 billed annually) for up to 5 people including the owner, both plus VAT.
Prices and facts last reviewed: September 2026. Prices exclude UK VAT.
The Letting Agent Document Chase
The Weekend Move-In
Tenant moves in Saturday. You need 5 documents from 3 tenants. It’s Wednesday and you have 2 blurry passport photos and a promise of “I’ll send it tonight.”
Multi-Tenant Chaos
Three tenants, three sets of documents, three email chains. Which passport belongs to which applicant? You’re cross-referencing email timestamps at 6pm.
Right to Rent Penalties
Home Office penalties for non-compliance are up to £10,000 per tenant for a first breach, and £20,000 for repeat breaches. You need clear evidence that you checked documents properly and on time.
Professional Tenant Document Collection
From application to move-in, documents sorted and compliant
1. Send secure link
Per tenantGenerate a unique secure link for each tenant. Send via text or email: “Please upload your documents using this secure link.”
2. Tenant uploads
Any deviceWorks on phones, tablets, laptops. Tenants upload passport, proof of address, and references in one go. No app needed.
3. Right to Rent sorted
Audit trailDownload, verify, file. Uploads and downloads logged for Home Office compliance. Documents auto-deleted. GDPR sorted.
Every Property Document You Need
Right to Rent
Passports, visas, biometric residence permits, Home Office share codes
Proof of Address
Utility bills, bank statements, council tax bills
Employment References
Employer letters, payslips, employment contracts
Landlord References
Previous landlord references, rent payment history
Guarantor Documents
Guarantor ID, proof of income, signed agreements
Property Surveys
Buyer surveys, mortgage valuations, EPC certificates
Entry Codes & Account Numbers
Send a tenant an entry code or utility account number as a one-time note
Why Property Agents Choose FileSeal
Right to Rent Compliance
Clear audit trails for Home Office checks. Evidence of when documents were received, verified, and securely deleted.
Speed to Let
Tenants upload from their phone in 30 seconds. No waiting for scans. Get documents before the competition steals your tenant.
Multi-Party Collection
Separate secure links for each tenant, guarantor, or buyer. No more cross-referencing email chains.
Professional Image
Tenants and buyers appreciate secure handling of their passport and bank statements. Better experience = more referrals.
Ways an agent can collect a tenant document, compared
| How you collect it | Who can read the file | After the download | Record you can point to | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email attachment | Every mail server and mailbox the message passes through | The attachment stays in both mailboxes until somebody deletes it | Nothing beyond your sent folder | Included with your mail account |
| WeTransfer or a similar transfer service | The provider holds the keys, so it can access the files | Kept for a fixed window whether or not anyone downloaded it | None on the free tier | Free tier, or a paid plan |
| A Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive link | The provider holds the keys, plus anyone the link reaches | The file stays in your drive until you remove it | Access logs on business tiers | Bundled with a storage subscription |
| A property management system | Your firm and the vendor, under their terms | Stored for the life of the matter | Usually, inside the system | Typically quoted per user on request |
| FileSeal | Anyone holding the link, and its key in Most private mode, can open it once. In the default Email them mode FileSeal holds the key too, so it can email a working link | Deleted from FileSeal’s servers after the one download | Uploads, downloads and collections logged against the request | £29 a month plus VAT, after 5 free requests |
See also: FileSeal compared with WeTransfer.
Frequently asked questions
What letting and estate agents ask before switching from email.
How much does FileSeal cost for a letting or estate agency?
The free trial is 5 secure requests with no time limit and no card. Professional is £29 a month (£25 billed annually) and Teams is £59 a month (£47 billed annually) for up to 5 people including the owner, both plus VAT. Teams suits a branch where several people collect documents, and extra seats beyond the included 5 are £10 a month each on request.
Do tenants need an account to upload their documents?
No. Clients upload from any device without creating an account or installing anything. They open the link, choose their files and upload. Nothing is installed and no password is set.
Can I use FileSeal for right-to-rent document collection?
You can use it to collect the documents securely. FileSeal gives your tenant an encrypted one-time upload link instead of asking them to email a passport, and logs when they uploaded and when you downloaded. It does not perform the check, verify identity or judge whether a document is genuine: that remains your responsibility.
Where are tenant documents stored?
The application, database and encrypted files are hosted in the UK: Vercel in London, Neon PostgreSQL in AWS eu-west-2, and Vercel Blob’s UK store. Supporting services such as email delivery and error monitoring run in the UK or the EEA, listed in the Data Processing Agreement at fileseal.uk/terms/dpa.
What happens to the documents after I download them?
Each link works once. Files are deleted from FileSeal’s servers after that download, and uncollected files are deleted when the link expires. Notes are wiped the moment they are opened, and the recipient keeps the copy they downloaded.
What record do I have of what a tenant sent?
Uploads, downloads, collections and expiry clean-up are logged against the request. Separately, any signed-in account can download an activity report listing its requests with their status, expiry and download count. Creating a request is not itself logged, so this is a record of what happened to the documents rather than of every action in the account.