How sprovid is helping furloughed tenants get discounts on rent

Norwegian company goscore provides a better loan application experience and fairer assessments to businesses and consumers. Earlier this year, goscore entered the EUvsVirus Hackathon to tackle challenges related to COVID-19 through innovative solutions.

And so, sprovid was born, with the aim to help the 400,000+ Norwegians that have been put on temporary leave due to COVID-19. While the government provides up to 60% of their salary after they are laid-off, most people still have to pay rent – which can take up a significant chunk of their reduced salary.

What sprovid wanted to do is give these people an opportunity to ask for rental discounts until they get back on their feet.

Lifting a financial burden

To help furloughed employees get a discount on their rent, sprovid compares a tenants’ current financial situation to how it was before COVID-19 using the most reliable source – the tenants’ bank statements.

Once they assess how tenants have been affected and confirm they’ve lost a part of their income, sprovid generates a certificate tenants can share with their landlords, demonstrating a valid and rational reason to give a temporary discount until they can return to the workforce. They can also download a template for a letter to their landlord – all that’s needed is to add their name and send it.

All of this can be filled in, signed and sent to the landlord in just 2 minutes. As a result, some landlords have provided discounts between 10%-30%, and others have provided a deferred payment program for their tenants.

Using open banking for a good cause

Using Tink’s account aggregation and enrichment technology, sprovid retrieves up-to-date and accurate financial information straight from the user’s bank accounts. In just a few clicks, the user simply adds their rental information and authenticates using BankID – sprovid then conducts a transaction analysis, and presents the user with the certificate and letter template to send their landlord.

By tapping into new open baking technology, sprovid is just one of many companies that are developing innovative solutions to help people and businesses overcome current challenges.