Chasing that reads the reply.
Obtainr writes the chase, sends it from your own mailbox, and checks what comes back against what you actually asked for. If they send the wrong thing, it asks again — in your name, on the same thread. You find out the file's complete, not just that an email arrived.
14 days free · no card · cancel any time
From Sarah Whitfield <s.whitfield@harlow-legal.co.uk>
To James Okafor
Two things outstanding on 14 Elm Road
Hi James — thanks for sending the passport, that's fine.
Still outstanding before we can proceed:
- Proof of address dated within 3 months
- The third bank statement (April)
Easiest is to photograph them with the code below — no login needed.
Sent from your mailbox. No branding, no portal, no account.
Portals only work on people who'll log into your portal
Every other tool in this space hands the recipient a portal to sign into. That works on your own client, on a good day. It does not work on the people your file is actually waiting on — and you have no authority to make any of them register for anything.
Obtainr sends an ordinary email from your ordinary mailbox. It works on anyone with an email address, whether or not they've ever heard of us. There's nothing for them to join.
A portal reaches
- The other side's solicitor
- The freeholder's managing agent
- A referee at a company you've never dealt with
- A subcontractor on four other sites
- A gifting parent, involved once, ever
- The loss adjuster, the lender, the surveyor
An email reaches
- The other side's solicitor
- The freeholder's managing agent
- A referee at a company you've never dealt with
- A subcontractor on four other sites
- A gifting parent, involved once, ever
- The loss adjuster, the lender, the surveyor
The file isn't stalled. It's waiting on one document.
You've asked the client for their certified ID. They've sent a photo of a driving licence, cropped at the corner. You asked for three months of bank statements. They've sent one, as a screenshot. You asked the other side for the TA10 and they've replied “will chase” — which is not the TA10.
None of this is a hard problem. It's just a problem that needs someone to notice, read, decide it isn't good enough, and write another email — politely, again, without souring a relationship you still need.
So it sits in a pile. And the pile is why the average transaction takes as long as it does, why your people spend their afternoons on admin they're not charging for, and why the client rings you to ask what's happening.
Obtainr does the noticing and the writing. You keep the relationship, and the mailbox it's all sent from.
Four steps, then it runs
Say what you need, and from whom
Plain language: “Get certified photo ID and three months of bank statements from Sarah Whitfield.” Obtainr asks a couple of questions back — which address, what counts as certified, what date range — until the request and the requirements are pinned down. Those requirements are the thing it checks against later.
Decide how much rope it gets
Fully automatic, so it sends and then sends again whenever a reply falls short. Approval mode, so every message waits for your yes. Or draft-only, where it writes and never sends. You can change your mind per chase.
It sends from your mailbox
Connect Gmail or Outlook once, with OAuth. The email goes out from your address, in your name, and lands in the recipient's inbox looking like an email from a person — because it is one, from you. Inside is a secure upload link and a QR code. No account, no password, no portal to register for.
The reply comes back, and gets read
Replies arrive in your normal inbox, on the normal thread. Obtainr reads each one against the requirements from step one and tells you exactly what's still outstanding. If the statements only cover two months, it drafts and sends the next chase — same thread, same tone — up to a turn limit you set, ten by default.
What other reminder tools don't do
It checks the reply against what you asked for
Most reminder tools count a reply as a result. Obtainr doesn't. Every response is read against the requirements you set when you started the chase, and you get told what's still missing — the third statement, the certifier's name, the signed page.
It comes from you, not from a robot
Obtainr sends through your own Gmail or Outlook over OAuth. Your address, your signature, your thread. Nothing is relayed through us, no “sent on behalf of” header, no branded template. Your name stays on the relationship, which matters when you have to ask twice.
A link and a QR code. Nothing to sign up for
Every chase email carries a secure upload link and a QR code opening the same page. It asks for exactly what you specified. No account, no login, no app. The link stops working when the chase completes or after 30 days, whichever comes first.
You choose how much it does without you
Three modes, switchable per chase: fully automatic, hold-for-approval when every word matters, or draft-only when the sending stays firmly in your hands. There's a hard turn limit either way, so it can't run away with itself.
Who's using it for what
The document changes by trade. The shape of the problem doesn't.
Conveyancers
What Obtainr chases for them →
Accountants
What Obtainr chases for them →
Estate & letting agents
What Obtainr chases for them →
Mortgage brokers & IFAs
What Obtainr chases for them →
Bookkeepers
What Obtainr chases for them →
Recruiters & HR
What Obtainr chases for them →
Insurance brokers
What Obtainr chases for them →
Construction
What Obtainr chases for them →
The questions people actually ask
What happens to my mailbox and my clients' documents?
Obtainr reads one thing: the thread a chase is running on. It does not scan, index or train on the rest of your mailbox. Connections are made with OAuth, so we never see your email password, and stored credentials are encrypted at rest. Upload links are scoped to a single chase and expire after 30 days at the latest. You can disconnect a mailbox at any time and the chases stop with it.
Will it sound like a machine?
It writes short, specific emails from your address, on the existing thread, naming the document and the deadline — the email you'd write yourself if you had a spare ten minutes. No template, no branding, no signature block advertising us.
And if you'd rather see for yourself before a word goes out: run it in approval mode for a fortnight. Every message waits for your yes, you edit anything that doesn't sound like you, and you'll know within a few chases whether you trust it to send unattended. Plenty of people never leave approval mode, and that's a perfectly good way to use it.
What if they just ignore it?
Then you'll need to pick up the phone — and we'd rather tell you that now than let you find out later.
Where it stops, plainly. Obtainr is reply-driven. When a reply arrives it reads it and, if your requirements aren't met, sends the next chase. It does not yet follow up on a timer against total silence — if someone never responds at all, the chase waits and you make the call. That's a real limitation and it's on the roadmap. Everything else it doesn't do.
It's also worth being clear about what it isn't. Most stalled files are not silence — they're a reply that arrived, looked like progress, and wasn't. A “sending it over now” that never came. Half the documents. The wrong date range. That is exactly the case Obtainr handles without you, and it's the case that eats the most days.
How do we know it works?
Because the numbers are small, we'll give you all of them rather than a percentage.
Small numbers, and real ones. There are no client logos on this page because we haven't earned any yet — here's the full data set.
Try it on the file that's been sitting there since last Tuesday
14 days free. No card. Connect Gmail or Outlook, start one chase, and see what comes back.
£49 per user per month after that, 100 chases included, billed to the firm.
14 days free · no card · cancel any time