Is it all AI based or does a human being telephone the employer referees on the phone for confirmation of their references?
@Howard1 I think it is partially automated- I’ve seen messages here from tenants saying their employer has not received email from Openrent or is unable to open a link.
Exactly how Openrent check an employer ref is legit is probably secret and varies by employer- if they published their methods it would help scammers get round it. I expect sometimes they call but they will try to automate as much as possible. I’m sure it’s more difficult for the self employed or people moving from abroad…
"When completing your reference, we will obtain any information we need to confirm your employment and letting history from your referees directly. Alternatively, you can also connect your bank account using Open Banking to verify your income.
Unfortunately, we cannot accept copies of documents, such as payslips or employment contracts, to complete your reference. However, you are welcome to provide these to the landlord directly if you wish"
https://help.openrent.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/115000969391-Where-do-I-send-referencing-documents
Using openbanking they can see regular income amounts which will need to match the tenant’s claimed income. The payments usually also indicate the employer
Somebody at the end of a telephone pretending to be the HR dept of an employer can be fake, just like psyslips (it takes effort to find a different tel number for the employer such as the hq switchboard and get through to hr independent of the tel given by the tenant but may be worth doing if you want to do your own checks).
Good luck
Employer income will generally be confirmed via Openbanking link and hence, viewing the salary going into the bank account. Where this is not possible, then an email link will be sent to the employer to fill in. I think its safe to say none or very few would be a telephone call to an employer. I suspect that would be quite an unsuccesful process nowadays with data protection at employers meaning most would not reply to such an approach.
1 Like
I have just let a property with openrent, but I was wary of their referencing because I met someone who told me that Legal For Landlord denied an RPI claim, saying that Openrent did not adequately check the employer’s references. So I decided to use the Legal for Landlords referencing service instead.
What I saw was that they telephoned the employer, to be sure that his reference wasn’t fake. I was impressed. Yes, as @David240 says, the person at the end of the line could be a fake, but at least the same company who supplied the reference also supplied the insurance – my guess is that it would be harder for them to reject a claim.
1 Like
@Howard1 there is a whole chain about this. Openrent did referencing then sold RGi from Legal for Landlord which then didnt provide the cover needed due to insufficient OR referencing of the employer.
(So in that case OR both did the referencing and were an agent selling the RGi (so should have recommended and provided appropriate cover). Still didn’t help.)
1 Like