The full HomeTrust guide
Every detail in one place: how a tenancy runs, what is checked and what is live today, the rules behind each deposit reading, and what owners get.
How it works
How HomeTrust works, for every side of the let
The tenant, landlord and PG owner flows end to end, each step marked with whether it is running today. Then the deposit: where it sits now, where escrow would hold it, what releases it and how long that takes.
Escrow: none of this is live
The escrow rail is not live. HomeTrust holds no money today, operates no escrow account, and has no banking relationship or payment licence.
Listings, visits, applications, agreements and the tenancy record are live. Deposits and rent are recorded on them, and are paid between tenant and owner directly.
If you are renting
From the first search to the review you leave when you move out.
- 1
Search verified listings
Filter by city, area, budget and type. Each result shows rent, deposit, a deposit-safety flag for its state, and the verified badge where it was earned. Duplicates appear once.
Live - 2
Read the listing
Photos, full details, verification status, past tenants' reviews, the food score for a PG, and a Deposit Safety Report with a scam red-flag screen.
Live - 3
Book a site visit
Pick a slot. The visit is recorded, the owner is notified, and you can follow it in your visits.
Notifications go to your HomeTrust inbox; WhatsApp is not connected.
Live - 4
Apply to rent
Apply with your profile (occupation, employer, income, budget). The owner approves or declines and you see the decision.
No Aadhaar KYC and no credit check are run.
Live - 5
Accept the agreement
Approval generates a state-specific Model Tenancy Act agreement with indicative stamp duty. Each side's acceptance is recorded with the account and time, and ops records the sub-registrar filing.
Acceptance on HomeTrust is not an Aadhaar e-sign.
Live - 6
Pay the deposit and first month's rent
Both are recorded against the tenancy, and the deposit's escrow status starts at holding.
You pay the owner directly. HomeTrust holds no money.
Recorded only - 7
Move in
Upload photos of the condition on day one. They are stored as the baseline that move-out is compared against.
Live - 8
Pay rent each month
A ledger shows paid, pending and late months. You are reminded 5, 3 and 1 days before and on the due date, and a receipt is issued for each paid month.
UPI mandates are not connected; rent is recorded, not collected.
Recorded only - 9
Report maintenance
A ticket gets a response deadline: 2 hours if urgent, 12 hours otherwise. Past it with no response, ops takes over and dispatches a verified vendor.
Live - 10
Move out
The owner files deductions against the move-in photos. You accept them or raise a dispute that ops resolves with written notes.
Live - 11
Get the deposit back
An accepted outcome marks the release due with the refund amount and the 30-day statutory deadline.
The release is a record; the owner returns the money directly.
Recorded only - 12
Review, or renew
Leave a review the landlord cannot remove. Or accept a renewal offered from 90 days before the lease ends, which creates the next agreement.
Live
If you are letting a flat
Real tenants, a recorded deposit, rent tracking, and no broker.
- 1
Add a property
Address, rent, deposit, BHK, furnishing and photos. You are told before saving if the deposit is over your state's two-month cap.
Live - 2
Earn the verified badge
Upload an electricity bill, a property tax receipt and optionally the sale deed. Ops reviews each, and the badge shows above 7 out of 10. Photos are checked against every other photo on HomeTrust.
No Aadhaar is collected. Web-wide reverse image search is not connected.
Live - 3
Handle visits and applications
Confirm visits, mark them completed or no-show, and approve or decline applications with the tenant's profile in front of you.
Live - 4
Approve a tenant
A booking is created with the agreed rent and deposit, and the state agreement is generated for both of you.
Live - 5
Run the tenancy
Each tenancy shows the rent ledger, payments to confirm, open tickets with SLA time left, and the move-out and renewal state. Your properties view shows occupancy, rent collected and open tickets.
Rent and deposit are recorded; no money moves through HomeTrust.
Live - 6
Keep compliant
A compliance calendar lists lease expiries, renewal windows, registration status and deposit return deadlines by date.
Live - 7
Move-out and renewal
File deductions against the move-in photos, or offer a renewal from 90 days before the lease ends.
Live
If you run a PG
Beds, food, maintenance and the PG Bill, in one account.
- 1
Set up the PG
Rooms and beds, food menu, FSSAI licence, amenities and photos, then the same document review as any property.
Live - 2
Fill beds
Bed availability shows on your listing. A tenant requests an available bed and you assign or release it.
Live - 3
Earn a food score
Ops audits and residents' weekly ratings make a public score out of 10. Below 6 the listing shows a warning, and a PG without an audit in seven days gets one scheduled.
Live - 4
Answer maintenance
Same response deadlines as every tenancy: 2 hours urgent, 12 otherwise, with ops taking over a missed one.
Live - 5
Track the PG Bill
Fire safety, police verification, tenant registration and the FSSAI licence are dated on your compliance calendar, and overdue items are flagged.
Filing itself is not automated.
Live - 6
Collect deposits and rent
Each resident's deposit and rent are recorded in a ledger with receipts.
Escrow and UPI are not connected. HomeTrust holds no money.
Recorded only
Where your deposit sits today
Custody today
No instrument governs it. There is no account, no mandate and no third party between the two of you, on HomeTrust or off it.
- Held by
- The landlord or broker you paid, in an account of their own, mixed with their own money.
- Comes back when
- They decide it does. On HomeTrust the deductions are at least itemised against move-in photos and can be disputed to ops.
- Outer limit
- 30 days after you vacate, under the Model Tenancy Act 2021. HomeTrust records the deadline; nothing but you enforces it.
The person who decides whether you get it back is the person holding it.
That is not a finding about your landlord. It is the shape of the arrangement, and the shape is the same whether the deposit was inside the statutory cap or well above it.
Where escrow would hold it instead
Four steps, written in the conditional because no money has ever moved through them. Each one names the instrument that would govern it, who would be holding the money, and what would move it next.
Your transfer instruction
You pay the deposit once, into an escrow account
At the moment you would otherwise transfer to the landlord, the same amount would go to an RBI-nodal escrow account opened for this tenancy. The landlord is told it has arrived, and the tenancy starts on that confirmation rather than on a screenshot.
- Held by
- The escrow account. Not the landlord, and not HomeTrust.
- Moves next when
- The tenancy ends and a move-out is filed.
The escrow mandate
It is held untouched for the length of the tenancy
Neither side could withdraw it alone. The mandate would be agreed before the tenancy starts and would name the only two events that release money: an agreed move-out, or a decision in a dispute.
- Held by
- The same account, for the whole term.
- Moves next when
- One of the two named events happens.
The move-out inspection record
You move out, and the home is read against the move-in record
Condition is recorded when you move in and again when you leave. Deductions are itemised against that pair of records, so a claim on the deposit has to point at a line instead of being asserted after the keys are back.
- Held by
- The same account, while the itemisation is agreed.
- Moves next when
- The deductions are agreed, or formally disputed.
The release instruction
The undisputed balance comes back to you
Whatever nobody is arguing about is released to you. A disputed amount stays in escrow until HomeTrust ops resolves it, and that is the part that changes: today a disputed amount stays with the landlord, which is why so few disputes are ever raised.
- Held by
- You, for the released balance.
- Moves next when
- Nothing. The tenancy is closed.
How long a release takes
Release is tied to the inspection rather than to a calendar. Once the move-out deductions are accepted, HomeTrust marks the deposit release due with the refund amount; a disputed amount waits until ops resolves the dispute.
The Model Tenancy Act's 30-day return window after you vacate is the outer bound, and it is the deadline shown on every tenancy. With escrow, the balance would move as soon as the deductions are agreed rather than whenever the landlord gets to it.
We are not quoting a faster figure in hours or days. No deposit has moved through escrow on HomeTrust, so any such number would be invented.
What would have to exist before escrow is real
The honest version of a roadmap is a list of things that are not there yet.
- A bank that would hold the money
- Not arranged. HomeTrust has no banking relationship, nodal or otherwise, and nothing in progress that we could point you at.
- A licence to move other people's money
- Not held. HomeTrust is not a payment aggregator and is not registered as one, so the account would have to sit with a licensed partner rather than with us.
- Owners who agree to be bound by the inspection
- The move-in baseline, deductions and disputes are built and recorded. Whether owners will accept a release rule before the tenancy starts, with real money behind it, is untested.
- Renters who want it enough to use it
- Unknown. HomeTrust holds no deposits, and how many renters would choose escrow is what this release is built to find out.
What you can do today
Search verified listings, book visits, apply, accept an agreement and run the tenancy on one record, as a renter, landlord, PG owner or verified broker. HomeTrust holds no money, operates no account, and charges nothing.
Trust
Why a HomeTrust listing can be trusted
Fake landlords, stolen photos, duplicate ads and reviews that disappear are how rental scams work. Each layer below answers one of them, and each says plainly whether it is running today.
How to read the status
- Live
- Running in the product today.
- Recorded only, no money moves
- Tracked on the platform; money does not move.
- Not connected
- A named provider that is not integrated.
Trust layers
Layer 1
Ownership verification by document review
LiveAn owner proves the property is theirs before it carries the verified badge. A HomeTrust ops reviewer looks at each document; nothing is approved automatically.
- The owner uploads electricity bill, property tax receipt (last 12 months), sale deed (optional).
- Each approved document adds to a score from 0 to 10: the electricity bill and the property tax receipt count 4 each, the sale deed 2.
- The verified badge is shown only when the score is above 7. Below that, renters see the listing as not yet verified.
- The score is recomputed by a scheduled job from the reviewed documents, so it cannot be set by hand.
Not yet
No Aadhaar number is collected and no Aadhaar KYC is run: the KYC provider (Digio) is not connected. Municipal property records are not cross-checked automatically either; the ops reviewer reads the documents.
Layer 2
Photo theft check
Live within HomeTrustEvery photo an owner uploads is fingerprinted by its content hash and compared with every other photo on HomeTrust. A photo already used on another owner's property is the most common sign of a fake listing.
- A match marks the listing "photo verification pending" and sends it to the ops queue.
- The owner is asked for a fresh photo or proof that the original is theirs.
- A scheduled scan rechecks every photo across owners, so a theft is caught even when the original was uploaded later.
Not yet
The check covers HomeTrust's own photos only. Web-wide reverse image search (hotel sites, stock photos, other platforms) is not connected.
Layer 3
One listing per property
LiveListings that describe the same property are grouped, and a renter sees one canonical listing per group instead of the same flat five times.
- Grouped on matching normalised address and pincode, the same owner phone, or near-identical title and description.
- One listing in each group is chosen as canonical and shown in search.
Not yet
HomeTrust does not scrape or import listings from other platforms. Every listing is published by its owner or shown as a clearly labelled sample.
Layer 4
Reviews the landlord cannot remove
LiveOnly a tenant who has lived in the property can review it: after moving out, or after six months in residence. The review is published on the listing and on the landlord's profile.
- Ratings for overall, landlord responsiveness, property condition, maintenance and locality, with written text.
- The landlord cannot remove, edit or hide a review, and there is no paid way to do so.
- HomeTrust ops moderates only for harassment or false claims of fact. A negative review is not removed for being negative.
- Ratings feed the landlord's trust score, together with disputes decided against them and their verification.
Not yet
Review prompts arrive in the HomeTrust inbox. WhatsApp and email prompts are not connected.
Layer 5
Maintenance response SLA
LiveA maintenance ticket carries a response deadline from the moment it is raised, and a missed deadline is not left with the landlord.
- 2 hours to respond to an urgent ticket, 12 hours to anything else.
- The owner is notified when the ticket is raised. A ticket past its deadline with no response is marked breached and handed to HomeTrust ops.
- Ops dispatches a vendor from HomeTrust's own verified vendor list and both sides are told.
Not yet
Vendor payment and landlord charge-back are not live: no money moves. Notifications go to the HomeTrust inbox; WhatsApp delivery is not connected.
Layer 6
Food score for PGs
LiveA PG's food is scored in public, so a renter can compare kitchens before choosing a bed.
- Ops audits (quality, hygiene, taste, variety) weigh 70% and tenants' weekly ratings 30%.
- A score below 6 out of 10 shows a warning on the listing.
- A PG without an audit in the last seven days gets an ops audit task and an owner reminder.
Not yet
Audits are entered by HomeTrust ops reviewers, so the score is only as current as the last audit.
Layer 7
Escrow-protected deposit
Recorded only, no money movesThe deposit's lifecycle is recorded for every tenancy: holding, release due, released or disputed, with the refund amount and the statutory deadline.
- At move-out the owner files deductions against the move-in photo baseline, and the tenant accepts or disputes them.
- An accepted outcome marks the deposit release due within 30 days of vacating, the Model Tenancy Act limit. A disputed one goes to ops, who resolve it with written notes.
- Renewal offers open 90 days before the lease ends.
Not yet
Escrow is not live. HomeTrust holds no money, operates no escrow account and has no banking relationship. A release is a record; the deposit itself is still paid and returned between tenant and landlord.
What is not connected
- Aadhaar KYC (Digio)Not connected
No Aadhaar number or identity document is requested anywhere on HomeTrust.
- Web-wide reverse image search (Google Vision)Not connected
Photos are compared with HomeTrust's own photos only.
- WhatsApp BusinessNot connected
Confirmations and reminders go to the HomeTrust inbox.
- Escrow and UPI (Razorpay)Not connected
Deposits and rent are recorded. HomeTrust holds no money.
See it on real listings
Each listing shows its verification status, deposit reading and every review. Creating an account is free and nothing is charged.
Compliance
What the rental rules ask of tenants, landlords and PG owners
The Model Tenancy Act 2021 sets the deposit cap, the return window and registration. The Delhi PG Accommodation Regulation Bill 2026 adds duties for PG operators. Below is what each says, and a calculator for the one-time cost of registering a lease.
This is not legal advice
HomeTrust is not a law firm. The Model Tenancy Act is a model law: it binds in a state only once that state notifies rules based on it, and states differ.
Of the states HomeTrust covers, we have confirmed notified rules for Assam only. Elsewhere the Act is shown as a national benchmark. Confirm with your state's Rent Authority.
The Model Tenancy Act 2021
- Deposit cap2 months
- A residential security deposit may not exceed 2 months' rent. In cities where ten or twelve months used to be normal, this is the rule most often broken.
- Deposit return30 days
- The deposit, less agreed deductions, is due back within 30 days of the tenant vacating and handing over possession.
- Written, registered agreementDigital
- Every tenancy is to be in writing and registered, with digital registration through the Rent Authority. A verbal let is no longer the default.
- Penalty₹5,000
- The specification HomeTrust is built from describes a ₹5,000 penalty for violations. The amount, and what triggers it, depend on the rules each state notifies.
Delhi PG Accommodation Regulation Bill 2026
What it asks of PG operators. It is a Bill: check the text in force in Delhi before relying on any single item.
- Fire safety
- Fire safety compliance for the premises, with the clearance kept current.
- Police verification
- Police verification of residents, completed for each person who moves in.
- Tenant registration
- A register of residents kept and filed as the Bill requires.
- Food licence (FSSAI)
- Where food is served, the FSSAI licence the kitchen operates under. This sits alongside the Bill rather than inside it.
A PG owner account has a compliance calendar that lists each of these items by due date with its status, alongside lease expiries, renewal windows, registration status and deposit return deadlines. A scheduled check marks overdue items and notifies the owner.
Stamp duty and registration, by state
Enter the terms of the lease. The figure is calculated with the same rule HomeTrust prints on the rental agreements it generates, and the rule is shown with it.
Indicative for Karnataka
- Stamp duty
- ₹500
- Registration fee
- ₹200
- One-time total
- ₹700
Rule applied: 1% of average annual rent plus advance, capped for a residential lease up to one year.
Deposit cap check
₹50,000 is 2 months of rent. Exactly at the two-month cap. The cap on this rent is ₹50,000.
We have not confirmed that Karnataka notified tenancy rules based on the Model Tenancy Act 2021. The reading above applies the Act's two-month cap as a national benchmark for Karnataka, not as law in force there.
Compliance as a service
₹2,999 to ₹9,999 per registration
HomeTrust ops would prepare the Model Tenancy Act filing and coordinate registration at the sub-registrar, so neither side queues at the office.
- LiveState-specific rental agreement generated on approval, with indicative stamp duty.
- LiveSub-registrar filing status recorded by ops and shown on the agreement.
- Not connectedAadhaar e-sign: acceptance is recorded with the account and time instead.
- Not connectedAutomated filing on state portals.
No registration can be bought yet and nothing is charged.
Every listing is read against these rules
Renters see each deposit read against its state's cap before they enquire; owners see it as they type. Creating an account is free.
For landlords
Real tenants, safe deposits, rent tracking, and no broker
HomeTrust is where an independent landlord lists a flat directly, chooses a tenant, and runs the whole tenancy on a record both sides can see, from the agreement to the deposit at move-out.
No money moves yet
Rent collection and escrow are recorded on HomeTrust, but no money moves through it. Tenants pay you directly, as they do today, and HomeTrust holds no money.
The account is free and nothing is charged.
What you get, and what is live
Real tenants
LiveTenants book a site visit and apply with their occupation, employer, income and budget. You confirm visits, mark them completed or no-show, and approve or decline each application from one place.
Credit checks and Aadhaar KYC are not connected; you see the profile the tenant entered.
Safe deposits
Recorded only, no money movesThe deposit you ask for is read against the 2-month cap before you save the listing. Move-in photos are kept as the baseline, deductions at move-out are filed against them, and a disputed deduction goes to HomeTrust ops instead of becoming your word against theirs.
Escrow is recorded, not live. The deposit is paid to you directly, HomeTrust holds no money, and the release due within 30 days of move-out is a record.
Rent tracking
Recorded only, no money movesEach month's rent appears in a ledger with paid, pending and late months. The tenant is reminded 5, 3 and 1 days before the due date and on the day, and a receipt is issued when a month is marked paid.
UPI mandates are not connected. Rent is paid to you directly and recorded on HomeTrust; no money moves through the platform.
Zero broker fees
Free todayYou publish the listing yourself and tenants reach you directly. There is no broker between you and no brokerage on the let.
Nothing is charged today. The published landlord plans and the 8% first-month match fee are on the pricing page, and none can be bought yet.
From listing to move-out
1
Create a landlord account
Choose the landlord side at signup. Brokers sign up as verified brokers and go through the same document review.
2
Add your property
Address, rent, deposit, BHK, furnishing and photos. Each photo is checked against every other photo on HomeTrust so a stolen one is caught.
3
Earn the verified badge
Upload an electricity bill and a property tax receipt, and optionally the sale deed. An ops reviewer reads each one, and the badge is shown above 7 out of 10. No Aadhaar is collected.
4
Approve a tenant
Approval creates the booking and a state-specific Model Tenancy Act agreement with indicative stamp duty. Both sides accept it on the platform, and ops records the sub-registrar filing.
5
Run the tenancy
The rent ledger, move-in baseline and maintenance tickets live in one place. A ticket has 2 hours for urgent and 12 hours otherwise; past that with no response, ops takes it over and dispatches a verified vendor.
6
Renew or close
You can offer a renewal from 90 days before the lease ends. At move-out you file deductions, the tenant accepts or disputes them, and the review they leave stays on your profile.
Also in a landlord account
- Your properties in one view
- Deposit standing, verification status, occupancy, rent collected this month and open tickets, for every property you list.
- A compliance calendar
- Lease expiries, renewal windows, registration status and deposit return deadlines by date. See the rules and a stamp duty calculator.
- Owners abroad
- NRI owners can request full management of a property in India, priced in US dollars. A request is recorded and ops follows up; nothing is charged.
List your first property
Create a landlord account. It is free, no card is taken and nothing is charged.
Sign up as a landlordFor PG owners
Run an independent PG that renters can check
Branded coliving chains win on looking dependable. HomeTrust gives an independent PG the same proof in public, a verified badge, a food score, a response deadline on every ticket and a compliance record, while the PG and its revenue stay yours.
HomeTrust does not run your PG
It does not lease your building or take over your residents. It is a marketplace and a set of tools; you stay the operator.
The account is free and nothing is charged. WhatsApp delivery is not connected; notifications arrive in your HomeTrust inbox.
The tools in a PG owner account
Bed management
LiveAdd each room and bed. Availability shows on your listing, a tenant can request a specific available bed, and you assign or release it as residents arrive and leave.
Food menu and food score
LivePublish your menu and FSSAI licence. HomeTrust ops audits quality, hygiene, taste and variety, residents rate the food weekly, and the resulting score out of 10 is shown on your listing. Below 6 it carries a warning, so a good kitchen is something renters can see.
A PG without an audit in the last seven days gets an ops audit task and you get a reminder.
Maintenance with a response SLA
LiveResidents raise tickets with a severity. You have 2 hours to respond to urgent ones and 12 hours to anything else. Past the deadline with no response, HomeTrust ops takes the ticket over and dispatches a verified vendor.
Vendor payment and charge-back are not live; no money moves.
PG Bill compliance calendar
LiveFire safety, police verification of residents, tenant registration and your FSSAI licence are listed by due date with their status, next to lease, renewal and deposit deadlines. Overdue items are flagged and you are notified.
Filings themselves are not automated. The calendar tracks them; you or ops file them.
Verified badge and reviews
LiveYour documents are reviewed by ops and the verified badge is shown above 7 out of 10. Residents' reviews are published on your listing and profile and cannot be removed, which is what makes a good one worth something.
No Aadhaar is collected from you or your residents.
Deposits and rent
Recorded only, no money movesEach resident's deposit, first month's rent and monthly rent are recorded in a ledger with receipts and late months, and move-out deductions are filed against the move-in photos.
Escrow and UPI mandates are not connected. Residents pay you directly and HomeTrust holds no money.
The Delhi PG Bill 2026
The Delhi PG Accommodation Regulation Bill 2026 asks PG operators for fire safety compliance, police verification of residents and tenant registration. The calendar in your account keeps each item dated and visible, so staying compliant does not depend on remembering.
Read what the rules requireGetting a PG onto HomeTrust
1
Sign up as a PG owner
Choose the PG owner side when you create the account.
2
Add the PG
Rooms and beds, food menu, FSSAI licence, amenities and photos.
3
Get verified
Upload ownership documents for ops review. Photos are checked against every other photo on HomeTrust.
4
Fill beds
Renters find you by area and budget, see your food score and reviews, and request a bed.
List your PG
Create a PG owner account. It is free, no card is taken and nothing is charged. Plans by bed count are on the pricing page, and none can be bought yet.
Sign up as a PG owner