Early access · for UK flat buyers

Know exactly what you're buying,before you exchange.

Backstory is an AI buying agent that reads everything about a property — the lease, the cladding, the freeholder, the flood risk, the price history — and tells you in plain English what's actually worth worrying about. Enter an address and get a free expert report while you still have room to walk away.

Land Registry, lease and cladding dataChecked by a real expertBuilt for buyers, never sellers

Get your free report

Human-reviewed, within 24 hours.

Step 1 of 3

Free during early access. Enter an address, get a human-reviewed report within 24 hours. No agents, no upsell.

The questions keeping you up at night

You're about to spend more than you ever have. On a hunch.

A 20-minute viewing, an estate agent who works for the seller, and a gut feeling. That's what most people buy a home on. Backstory answers the questions you don't even know to ask yet, while you can still do something about them.

“Am I overpaying for this?”

“What's the catch with this lease?”

“Will I be able to sell it again?”

“What should I push my solicitor on?”

“What's hiding behind the fresh paint?”

“Should I just walk away?”

How it works

Know it. Then decide.

Drop in the address

Any UK flat you're considering, from “just browsing” to “offer accepted”. That's all we need to start.

Our AI reads everything

A frontier AI model and deep data enrichment pull together the records no one shows you on a viewing — lease, cladding, freeholder, flood risk, price history and more — and connect the dots a buyer can't.

A human checks it, then it's yours

Every report is reviewed by a real person before it reaches you, so you're never acting on a machine's guess. It lands in your inbox within 24 hours.

What the data reveals

The risks that hide behind a fresh coat of paint.

A nice kitchen tells you nothing about the things that actually decide whether you'll be happy, or trapped. Backstory pulls together the records that do.

Building management and freeholder

How reliable is the managing agent? Is the freeholder fair or extractive? We surface service-charge history, ground-rent traps and the relationship you're really buying into.

Cladding, insulation and fire safety

Post-Grenfell, the wrong building can be unsellable and uninsurable. We flag cladding status, EWS1 issues and remediation history before you fall in love.

Lease, extensions and height

Lease length, extension rights and building height are live issues for remortgaging right now. We tell you what the lease really lets you do.

Price and sale history

How many times has it sold, for how much, and how often did a sale fall through? The Land Registry trail tells you whether you're overpaying.

Disputes and litigation

Neighbour disputes, freeholder battles, planning rows. We dig out the history of conflict that takes years and thousands to resolve.

Insurance and claims

Past building and flat insurance claims, subsidence, leaks and flood risk: the things that quietly raise your premiums or block a mortgage.

Owners vs renters and community

The owner-to-renter ratio shapes lending, atmosphere and resale. We show you who actually lives in the building.

Parking, permits and nuisance

Permits aren't a given. Commercial neighbours, noise and nuisance can define daily life. We check what living there is really like.

Why we built it this way

The AI does the reading. A human signs it off.

AI is brilliant at reading thousands of pages of records in seconds. It's also capable of being confidently wrong. So we don't let it have the last word. Every Backstory report is reviewed by a real person before it reaches you. That's why it takes up to 24 hours, and why you can act on what it says. We'd rather be right than instant.

We don't work for the seller, the agent or the developer. We only work for you.

“

I spent three years fighting my freeholder over my London flat. I won, but it cost me thousands and nearly broke me. Almost none of it was visible when I bought.

The founder of Backstory

Former first-time buyer, reluctant expert

We learned the hard way so you don't have to

The information exists. Nobody is pulling it together for you.

The records you need to buy safely already exist. They're just scattered across the Land Registry, lease documents, planning portals, insurance records and freeholder accounts, and no buyer has the time or training to pull them together. Backstory does. It reads everything, connects the dots, and tells you in plain English what it means for you: what to ask, what to push on, and when to walk away.

£15k+

Typical cost of buying the wrong flat

1 in 3

Sales that fall through after an offer

100%

On your side, never the seller’s

Don't make the biggest purchase of your life on a hunch.

Run a free report on the address you're considering. You'll have it within 24 hours, in plain English, while you still have room to walk away.