case study
Safely
Safely helps property owners gather all rental-related documents in one place and minimize the financial risk associated with their properties.
Location
Estonia
Industry
Let’s talk about
Technologies
Ruby HTML
The platform also features a lease agreement builder. Owners can create documents and edit contracts using a flexible template. Once the contract is ready, tenants can review the terms, provide comments, and sign.
Safely supports property owners in proper documentation of rental agreements and handover protocols, cost settlement and invoicing, reminders, meter readings and instructions, as well as managing maintenance requests and service providers.
Project Background
The idea for the platform originated in the insurance world. The industry recognized that rental claims and their management share many similarities with standard insurance processes. Insurers pointed to the lack of handover protocols containing information about the condition of properties.
This caused problems with maintaining photographic documentation of rental property conditions. Insurers also reported recurring issues with missed maintenance inspection schedules, which often resulted in warranty loss.
In response to these needs, Safely was created — initially as a simple tool that over the years evolved into a comprehensive management platform, equipped with a built-in risk engine and integrations with credit bureaus for insurance risk assessment. Notably, Safely’s risk engine is capable of assessing insurance risk based on statistical analysis and risk scoring.
The Challenge
The biggest challenge was meeting the needs of and automating complex business processes within a single platform. It quickly became clear that there are no universally accepted best practices in the real estate industry. Almost every company has its own processes, legal interpretations, approach to tenant relations, and existing IT systems.
We wanted a single, easy-to-maintain platform, so designing a flexible and modular system became a challenge. We wanted to create a tool as an alternative to applications built for individual entities. We chose RoR because Rails allowed us to achieve flexibility and configurability while maintaining a consistent platform.
The Process
To launch Safely’s marketing, we needed to deploy the system quickly. Thanks to Ruby on Rails, we were able to release a working prototype within a few weeks, rather than waiting months for a full implementation. We used ROR conventions, which simplified the later maintenance of Safely. The framework is also regularly updated with necessary security patches.
On the system architecture side, we opted for a shared base component handling core technical tasks such as user management, registration, and password handling. The remaining components are referred to as micro-applications. Larger than microservices, they contain complete business solutions — including cost settlement, document management, and invoicing.
Safely’s infrastructure is based on a single codebase that we deploy across different countries. This allows clients to manage white-label solutions within their own technical environment. Maintaining the system within a single codebase is also efficient for our platform development team.
On the frontend, we chose the Stimulus JavaScript framework, which allowed us to speed up code development and ensure smooth animations in the web application.
There were other reasons for choosing Ruby as well. It is a language with robust security mechanisms and many built-in safeguards. ROR also enforces a set of performance indicators that developers follow from the very beginning. As a result, it is possible to build a system from smaller, independent features — rather than one monolithic application.
What We Achieved
We built a solid platform that helps property owners efficiently manage all rental-related documents. Using Ruby on Rails, we delivered a fast, highly scalable, and — most importantly — secure solution that protects sensitive data with advanced security mechanisms.
By implementing advanced features such as risk assessment and credit scoring, we helped Safely give property owners and insurers greater control and peace of mind in managing properties and policies. We ensured that the platform operates flawlessly, offers a reliable user experience, and is flexible enough to meet the diverse and evolving needs of owners and tenants.