Referencing and insurance firm Let Alliance said it enjoyed record business last year.

It completed 143,000 references and issued 44,000 rent guarantee policies, protecting rents of £25m a month.

It also protected letting agent fees, to the tune of £2.5m per month.

The firm, which entered the highly competitive tenancy referencing market declaring that it would shake it up with radically cheaper prices, reaches its fifth birthday this year.

Chief executive Andy Halstead said that when the business launched, critics said it would not last unless it hiked its prices.

However, prices have remained the same throughout.

The firm, which will only work with agents and not with landlords, now has some 800 clients and is shortly to launch new products.

One will be a ‘Legal4LettingAgents’ – a full eviction service exclusively for letting agents for when a rent guarantee is not in place.

In early March the firm is launching ‘Tenant Global’, dealing with the Right to Rent legislation. Following a successful pilot in the midlands, this will protect agents against potential Home Office penalties if and when the legislation rolls out across the UK.

But Halstead said that having a powerful  product proposition was only a part of the offering.

He told Eye: “It is just a ‘qualifier’. Putting customers first and always fixing things when they go wrong is what makes us different.

“Our philosophy is that even when our customers seem to be wrong, they are right. The only prize for proving a customer wrong is a lost customer.”

He said: “Of course, it is great to prove the doubters wrong.

“Let Alliance still offers a six-month, nil excess rent guarantee that pays 100% of rent to the letting agent until vacant possession is obtained, and that includes a full reference for just £35.”

And he added: “We have no plans to increase prices.”