There was a time when to rent a property meant battling a mountain of paperwork, making dozens of phone calls and traipsing around letting agents.

But now tech has consigned this world of pain to the history books. Tech is being applied to renting to make it quicker and easier, and help tenants make the most of their renting years.

Almost every aspect of the renting process now has an app or website aiming to disrupt the status quo.

This includes helping people find properties to rent or the ideal flatmate, book viewings, sign tenancy agreements, pay deposits and rent, tell landlord about repairs, improve their credit scores and get housing advice.

Here’s our guide to the technology.

Find somewhere to rent

Ideal Flatmate

This start-up helps tenants find like-minded people to rent a home with. Quiet types no longer must risk renting with 24-hour party people, and vice versa. It’s a cross between a platonic dating site and Rightmove.

SpareRoom

SpareRoom is the UK's No.1 website for tenants looking to rent a spare room within a house or flat both within traditional shared houses, and properties where the landlord lives. It has nearly 100,000 listings across the UK which SpareRoom says it checks manually to ensure they are real.

EasyRoommate

This website enables tenants to search for spare rooms to rent and advertise their requirements to potential landlords or sharers. It claims to be part of the world's largest flat share network with over 50,000 registered landlords. One advantage of EasyRoommate is that both tenants and landlords have to be registered with the site to talk to each other, making using the site safer.

OpenRent

OpenRent is an online letting agent that enables tenants to rent properties directly from landlords. OpenRent is the largest letting agent in the UK and offers tenants a free online paperwork and moving in service.

Report leaks and broken boilers

TenantLoop

This is a WhatsApp-style service that handles everything after a lease is signed. TenantLoop enables tenants and landlords to manage a property via a single shared app so no more landlords saying they didn’t get your text or call, etc. Tenants can send photos of repair or maintenance issues, chat with their landlord direct and access their tenancy agreement and other paperwork.

Improve your credit score

CreditLadder

We are an online platform that enables tenants to help build their credit score. Tenants enable CreditLadder to report their monthly rent payments which are then automatically added to their Experian credit file.

Get free housing advice

RentersUnion

Chatbots are all the rage now and RentersUnion, which for now is just for London renters, offers tenants legal advice and documentation via step-by-step questions. This covers common areas where tenants need advice including tenancy negotiation, unfair letting fees and outstanding repairs or maintenance issues.

CreditLadder can help you improve your credit score

If you want to improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments, CreditLadder is the only way to improve your credit score and position across all four of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money.

CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.

Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.