LLCR vs August: A Compliance Checklist and a Compliance Record Are Not the Same

LLCR vs August: A Compliance Checklist and a Compliance Record Are Not the Same

August is a mobile first landlord app with a free plan for two tenancies and paid plans from £8.99 a month. LLCR is a compliance evidence platform, free for one property and £19 a month for five. August gives you a compliance checklist. LLCR gives you a compliance record, which is a different thing.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England. Pricing was verified from each provider's published pages on 22 September 2026 and changes without notice.

Checklist, record, evidence

These three words get used interchangeably in landlord software marketing. They are not the same, and the distinction decides which platform you need.

A checklist tells you what you are supposed to have. Gas safety certificate, yes. EICR, yes. Deposit protected, yes. It is a prompt, and a good one.

A record holds the underlying documents and the dates attached to them, so you can find the certificate later and see when it expires.

Evidence is a record that a third party will accept. It shows not only what you held but when it was served, in what order events happened, and that nothing has been changed since. That last part is the hard one, and it is where most landlord software stops.

August is strong on the first two. LLCR is built for the third.

Verified pricing at September 2026

On headline price, August is cheaper at every tier, and it should be acknowledged plainly: for a landlord who wants rent tracking, expenses, tax reporting and compliance prompts in one mobile app, £8.99 a month is good value and there is no dishonest way to argue otherwise.

Where August is stronger

• Mobile experience. Built mobile first for iOS, Android and web, with auto document scanning and smart tenancy setup.
• Tenant facing app. Tenants pay rent, report maintenance issues and access documents at no cost to them. LLCR has no tenant product at all.
• Rent and expense tracking with bank connections. Open Banking rent matching with bank account allowances rising by tier.
• Making Tax Digital. Quarterly reporting to HMRC from the Growth plan upward, which matters for landlords over the £50,000 threshold that took effect in April 2026.
• Free tier generosity on tenancies. Two tenancies free with no time limit and no card.
• Breadth for the money. Financial reports, compliance checklists, reminders and document management in one subscription.

What a compliance checklist cannot do

None of this is a criticism of August's design. It is a scope boundary, and every platform has one.

A checklist and reminder system does not, on its own:

• record the date a document was served on a tenant, or the evidence of service
• preserve a history that can be shown not to have been edited afterwards
• produce an indexed evidence bundle for a single property in one action
• connect a rent arrears position to the specific Section 8 ground being relied on
• timestamp a reported hazard for a later disrepair defence
• total the civil penalty exposure across a portfolio and show which properties drive it

Those are the things asked for in an enforcement enquiry, a tribunal application, or a contested possession claim. Since 1 May 2026, when Section 21 was abolished in England, every possession claim runs through Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 and the compliance history is scrutinised as part of it.

Where LLCR is stronger

• Tamper evident history. Each change is fingerprinted and chained, with independent daily timestamps. If a record is altered, the chain breaks visibly.
• Proof of service. Records of what was sent, to whom and when, which is the evidence most commonly missing when a claim is challenged.
• Compliance Defence Pack. An indexed evidence bundle for a property, exported in one action, and included on the free plan.
• Statutory notice builders. Form 3A for Section 8 possession and Form 4A for a Section 13 rent increase, with date checks applied.
• Issue Register. Timestamped repair and hazard records, with a Hazard Response Pack export where an HHSRS type is set, kept separate from the Compliance Defence Pack.
• Penalty exposure in figures. An EICR not renewed within its five year interval can attract a civil penalty of up to £40,000 under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, with the amount set by the local authority on the facts. LLCR totals that ceiling across the portfolio from the records held.
• England specific depth. Obligations mapped to the statutory source rather than presented as a generic list.

The free plan overlap, and why it barely matters

Both platforms have a permanently free tier, so a landlord with one property can run both at no cost: August for rent, expenses and the tenant app, LLCR for the compliance record and Defence Pack. August's free tier allows two tenancies against LLCR's one property, and neither asks for a card.

At two or three properties the paid decision arrives, and it is not either or. Combined, August Growth at £8.99 and LLCR Starter at £19 is £27.99 a month for five properties, covering tax reporting, rent tracking, tenant communication and a defensible compliance record. That is below the cost of many single platform subscriptions that cover only part of it.

Who only needs one

• One or two properties, agent managed, no arrears, low risk appetite for cost. August's free tier alone is a reasonable position, though landlords usually remain legally responsible for compliance even where an agent arranges certificates.
• Self managing with a tenant in arrears, or a property with a disrepair complaint. The evidential record is the priority, because that is what will be examined.
• Above the MTD threshold. August or another HMRC recognised tool is not optional. LLCR does not file anything with HMRC.

For the wider comparison, see the 2026 landlord compliance software roundup, the Renters' Rights Act era software comparison, and what LLCR covers feature by feature. The Form 4A rent increase generator is free and needs no account.

If you use August and want to know whether your compliance record would stand up to a challenge, the free compliance checker takes about two minutes and shows the gaps before someone else finds them.