SiteBoundaries
Executive Summary
Vision Statement
Enable every resident, from council tenants to homeowners, to feel safe, respected, and in control during building works, with a widely recognized, evidence-based standard for on-site conduct between property occupants and contractors.
Problem Summary
Homeowners and tenants frequently face unauthorized use and damage of personal property by contractors during renovation or repair works.
In the source Reddit post, council-appointed builders entered the tenant's shed, stored their materials there, used professional buckets without permission, ruined them with render, and broke a glass ornament in the bathroom without cleaning up or notifying the tenant. Similar complaints in the comments describe contractors using tools, bathrooms, and storage without consent, causing damage and hygiene issues.
While legal frameworks (like the UK right to quiet enjoyment, repair responsibilities, and potential compensation for damage caused by council works) exist, they are reactive, fragmented, and hard for ordinary residents to navigate.[1][3][4] There is no simple, proactive way for a resident to define house rules, track contractor access and usage, and document issues in a structured, time-stamped, evidence-ready way.
Proposed Solution
Build SiteBoundaries, a web and mobile SaaS platform where property residents can:
- Configure clear access and usage rules before works start (what rooms, outbuildings, tools, facilities, and time windows are allowed; photo-based do/don't lists).
- Share a digital job brief with contractors (via link, QR, or PDF) including house rules, restricted areas, and agreed condition photos.
- Log incidents in seconds (photos, notes, timestamps, contractor team member, location) to create an auditable record of damage, mess, or rule breaches.
- Generate evidence packs (PDF timelines with photos and notes) to escalate to landlords, councils, housing associations, insurers, or ombudsman services when needed, aligning with existing rights to repairs and compensation.[3][4][5]
- Optionally, allow contractors to acknowledge rules and respond to incident reports, improving communication and accountability.
The MVP focuses on single-property residents (including council tenants) needing an easy way to assert boundaries and document issues, without trying to replace full project management tools used by contractors.
Market Analysis
Target Audience
Primary persona: "Stressed Resident Under Renovation"
- Demographics: 25–60 years old; mix of homeowners and social/council tenants; often living through kitchen/bathroom replacements, insulation upgrades, or other disruptive works.
- Location: Initially UK-focused (strong social housing and council works context) but generalizable to EU/US markets where similar contractor–resident friction exists.
- Situation: Works are ordered by a landlord, council, or housing association (for tenants) or by the resident directly (for homeowners). Multiple trades may be on-site, often with limited supervision. Residents feel power imbalance and uncertainty about rights.
- Pain points:
- Contractors using sheds, garages, tools, and bathrooms without permission, causing damage or hygiene issues (as in the Reddit post and comments).
- Difficulty asserting boundaries without seeming unreasonable.
- Lack of organized documentation when things go wrong, making it hard to pursue compensation for damaged belongings, especially in council housing where procedures exist but are opaque.[2][4][5]
- Anxiety about liability and mistrust when on-site behaviour is unprofessional.
- Behavior:
- Searches for “contractor damaged my property,” “builders using my stuff,” “tenant rights during renovation,” etc.
- Uses smartphones heavily; comfortable with basic apps; often takes photos but stores them chaotically.
- Goals:
- Protect personal property and set clear on-site rules.
- Have ready-made evidence if they need to escalate issues.
- Maintain a working relationship with contractors while feeling respected.
Niche Validation
The Reddit post clearly surfaces genuine frustration with contractors using and damaging a tenant’s property without consent. Multiple top-voted comments strongly validate that this behaviour is viewed as unacceptable and upsetting, with users recommending escalation to supervisors and councils and suggesting locks, bills for damage, and stricter boundaries.
This aligns with broader, documented issues:
- UK guidance recognizes tenants’ rights to quiet enjoyment and freedom from undue intrusion during repairs and renovations, meaning residents should be able to live without unnecessary interference even when works are necessary.[1][3]
- Government and council guidance explicitly states that councils must repair damage caused by maintenance or building work, and tenants may be due rent reductions or compensation in cases of disruption.[4] This implies damage is common enough to require formal policy.
- The Citizens Advice Right to Repair scheme and compensation guidance further demonstrate that disputes about repairs, delays, and quality are frequent and serious.[5]
However, existing frameworks are legal and procedural, not practical tools for day-to-day management. The niche — proactive definition of access rules plus structured incident documentation — is under-served by consumer-facing SaaS. Validation strength is medium: the pain is clearly real and recurring, but willingness to pay from individual tenants may be limited, with stronger potential among homeowners and professional property managers.
Google Trends Keywords
Market Size Estimation
Focus on UK & EU residential households plus small landlords and social housing tenants, where tenants’ rights frameworks and council repair schemes are explicit. The UK alone has ~24M households, with a significant social housing segment and high renovation activity. If 3M–5M UK/EU households per year are significantly affected by contractor works and 10% are reachable via online channels, that yields 300k–500k potential accounts. At $40/year, SAM is roughly $12M–$20M/year. This narrows down to English-speaking markets with similar legal structures and online behaviour.
For an early-stage startup over 3–5 years, capturing 1–2% of the reachable SAM is a realistic stretch. If 300k accounts are reachable, 1–2% adoption is 3k–6k paying customers. At an ARPU of $60/year (mix of free and paid tiers), SOM could be $180k–$360k/year in recurring revenue, with upside if small landlords or housing associations adopt in bulk.
Consider a global TAM based on households undergoing contractor work annually. In developed markets (US, UK, EU, Australia/Canada), there are hundreds of millions of dwellings; a meaningful fraction undergo maintenance, repairs, or upgrades each year. Even if only 5% of 300M dwellings globally experience contractor work in a given year, that is ~15M projects. If each project corresponded to a potential SiteBoundaries user, and an average customer value of $50/year, the conceptual TAM would be on the order of $750M/year. This is a coarse, top-down estimate inferred from housing and renovation activity statistics.
Competitive Landscape
Relevant adjacent solutions include:
- Property management platforms (e.g., generic landlord/tenant portals) that handle rent, maintenance tickets, and documents but rarely offer granular on-site conduct rules and structured incident evidence for individual residents.
- Project and field management tools for contractors (e.g., job scheduling, time tracking, photo logs) designed for the contractor’s workflow, not the resident’s perspective.
- Consumer note/photo apps (e.g., Google Photos, generic note tools) used informally to document damage, but without templated rules, timelines, or evidence packs.
- Legal guidance and complaint channels (e.g., GOV.UK and local council guidance on repairs, damage, and compensation) that specify that councils should repair any damage caused by works and may offer rent decreases for serious disruption, but do not provide tooling for residents to track or present their case effectively.[3][4][5]
Direct, specialized competitors focused on resident-controlled house rules + incident logging for contractor visits are not prominent in mainstream search, suggesting an opportunity for a focused, UX-friendly solution integrated with existing complaint/compensation processes rather than replacing them.
Product Requirements
User Stories
- As a tenant or homeowner, I want to define which areas of my property contractors may access and which belongings they must not touch, so I feel in control before works begin.
- As a resident, I want to share a clear, readable rules summary (link/QR/PDF) with contractors, so there is no ambiguity about what is allowed.
- As a resident, I want to quickly log an incident with photos, notes, and time/location, so I can document damage or misuse as soon as I see it.
- As a resident, I want to generate a professional evidence pack (PDF) summarizing incidents, so I can send it to my landlord, council, or housing association.
- As a small landlord or property manager, I want to reuse standardized rule templates across multiple properties, so I save time and maintain consistency.
- As a council/housing association officer, I want to receive structured incident reports from tenants, so I can assess claims faster and more fairly.
MVP Feature Set
- Account & property setup: Sign up/sign in, create a property profile (address, type, landlord/council info).
- House rules builder: Simple wizard with predefined categories (access areas, tools & belongings, bathroom use, cleanliness, noise/time windows) and editable text; ability to attach reference photos.
- Shareable rules view: Public, read-only link and downloadable/printable PDF or one-page summary suitable to show contractors on day one.
- Incident logging: Mobile-friendly form to capture photos, brief text, date/time, location (room/area), and category (damage, intrusion, cleanliness, etc.).
- Evidence pack export: Generate a PDF containing property details, active rules, and a chronological list of incidents with photos and timestamps.
- Basic dashboard: Timeline of incidents, status tags (draft/exported), and simple search/filter.
Non-Functional Requirements
- Security & privacy: Encrypt data in transit (HTTPS) and at rest; strict access controls so only authorized users can view a property’s incidents and rules.
- Reliability: Target 99.5% uptime with automated backups of database and file storage to protect critical evidence data.
- Performance: Incident logging and dashboard views should load within 2 seconds on typical mobile connections.
- Usability: MVP must be usable on mobile browsers with touch-friendly controls and minimal friction for photo uploads.
- Compliance: Ensure GDPR-aligned data handling for EU/UK users, including clear consent and data deletion mechanisms.
Key Performance Indicators
- Activation rate: Percentage of new signups who create at least one property and one ruleset within 7 days.
- Incident logging usage: Average number of incidents logged per active property per month.
- Evidence export rate: Percentage of properties that generate at least one evidence pack PDF.
- Free-to-paid conversion: Percentage of active free-tier users who upgrade to a paid plan within 60 days.
- Institutional adoption: Number of properties covered under institutional (council/housing association/landlord) accounts.
- NPS or satisfaction after a documented dispute (e.g., post-resolution survey).
Data Visualizations
Visual Analysis Summary
The key strategic insight is that individual tenants are numerous but cost-sensitive, whereas homeowners and landlords, though fewer, have higher willingness to pay. Additionally, building B2B institutional accounts can significantly boost MRR despite a small number of customers. The chart illustrates how user distribution and ARPU interact to shape revenue focus.
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Go-to-Market Strategy
Core Marketing Message
Protect your home and your belongings during building works. Clearly set house rules for contractors, document every incident with photos and timestamps, and generate evidence packs you can use with landlords, councils, and insurers if things go wrong.
Initial Launch Channels
- Reddit and forums: Share practical guides and free templates for “contractor house rules” and “how to document damage” in subreddits like r/HomeImprovement, r/LegalAdviceUK, r/Homeowners, and tenant forums, linking to the SaaS.
- Partnerships with tenant advocacy and housing advice sites: Offer co-branded checklists and a free tier tailored to council and social housing tenants, referencing existing guidance on damage and compensation.[4][5]
- Content SEO & email: Publish concise articles and downloadable templates targeting search terms like “builder damaged my property what can I do” or “council repairs damage to belongings,” building an email list and nurturing to paid tiers.
Strategic Metrics
Problem Urgency
High
Solution Complexity
Medium
Defensibility Moat
Defensibility can be built through:
- Procedural & template expertise: Curated rule templates and evidence-pack formats aligned with council, ombudsman, and housing law processes give SiteBoundaries a knowledge edge that is not trivial to copy.
- Data & reputation: Over time, anonymized statistics on incident frequency, common issues, and contractor behaviour patterns could be valuable to insurers, councils, and large landlords, creating a data moat.
- Institutional integrations & policy alignment: Integrations with council/housing repair systems and recognition by tenant advocacy groups or ombudsman bodies as a recommended tool would create switching costs and trust advantages.
- UX and brand focused on the resident-side experience rather than generic project management, making it the default reference for "contractor house rules."
Source Post Metrics
Business Strategy
Monetization Strategy
Monetization can follow a freemium plus B2B approach:
- Free tier (residents/tenants):
- 1 active property, limited number of incident logs per month.
- Basic rule templates and photo storage.
- Ideal to drive widespread adoption and build data/brand.
- Premium individual tier (homeowners, small landlords) (~$5–$10/month):
- Multiple properties, unlimited incidents.
- Custom rule sets, advanced evidence pack export (watermarked PDFs, timelines).
- Secure cloud archive for previous projects.
- Small landlord / property manager tier (~$29–$79/month):
- Manage 10–50 units, share standardized rule packs with different contractors.
- Aggregated reporting on incidents per contractor or supplier.
- Institutional / council or housing association tier (B2B):
- White-label or integrated portal that residents can use when repairs are scheduled.
- API or SSO integration into existing repair management systems.
- Volume-based pricing (e.g., $1–$3 per dwelling per year).
Additional revenue could come from insurance partnerships (e.g., bundling with home insurance or legal protection) where structured evidence is valuable for claims.
Financial Projections
Assume year 3 with mixed user base:
- 2,000 individual premium subscribers at $8/month → $16,000 MRR.
- 50 small landlord/property manager accounts at $49/month → $2,450 MRR.
- 5 institutional clients (councils/housing associations) at $1,000/month → $5,000 MRR.
Total indicative MRR ≈ $23,450. This assumes successful penetration into at least a few institutional customers and steady growth in individual paid users driven by organic search and reputation.
Tech Stack
Use Node.js with a lightweight framework such as NestJS or Express to build REST/GraphQL APIs. Node pairs well with a React/Next.js frontend, supports real-time features (e.g., live incident sync), and has strong ecosystem support for auth, file uploads, and PDF generation.
Use PostgreSQL as the primary relational database to model users, properties, rule sets, incidents, and evidence bundles reliably. Combine with an object storage service (e.g., S3-compatible) for photos and documents, referenced via Postgres.
Use Next.js (React) for the web app to gain server-side rendering for SEO (important for organic acquisition via search), fast navigation, and easy deployment on platforms like Vercel.
For mobile, start with a responsive PWA within the same stack; consider React Native only if native features become critical.
- Authentication & user management: Auth0, Clerk, or NextAuth with a secure identity provider.
- File storage & CDN: AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or similar for images and documents.
- PDF generation: Server-side library or service (e.g., Puppeteer-based HTML to PDF) for evidence packs.
- Payments: Stripe for subscription billing and invoicing.
- Email & notifications: Transactional email service (e.g., Postmark, SendGrid) and optional push notifications via web push or a service like Firebase if mobile expansion occurs.
Risk Assessment
Identified Risks
- Low willingness to pay among tenants: Many social/council tenants expect the landlord or council to provide tools or may lack budget for a subscription, limiting direct B2C revenue.
- Complex legal and jurisdictional differences: Rules and processes around damage, compensation, and repairs differ by country and housing type, creating product and messaging complexity.
Mitigation Strategy
- Shift emphasis to B2B and prosumers: Treat individual tenants as a growth channel and data source with a strong free tier, while monetizing via homeowners, small landlords, and institutional customers who have clearer ROI.
- Start with one legal context (e.g., UK): Deeply align templates and evidence formats with UK council and housing guidance first; later expand with localized packs per country in partnership with local housing/tenant organizations.