An enquiry's harassment!

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi,

I have got an enquiry for my property ten days ago. As I was concerned about his income, job security and the reason why he wants to move ASAP, I have told him that I would request for 3 month rent in advance under this cov19 uncertainty as an assurance if he wants the property. He of course was not happy, and in addition, he accused me of being against housing regulation by doing this, and threatened that he would report to openrent about this. I did not response his message from openrent as I think it is extremely unreasonable and rude.

And today, I received an email from openrent that the property has been taken offlist. The reason that has been given in the email is that the list is up to the 3 months limit. In the meantime, this enquirer sent me a message keeping harassing me saying that openrent has responded to him and my property has been taken off the list.

So my question is:

  1. As far as I can remember, the list can be on until the property is let and there is nowhere mentioned such 3 months restriction when I purchased the ultimate package. It is said in the email: “if we were unable to find tenants in a 3 month period, something is seriously wrong… we know our average time to let is under a week,”. I strongly disagree with this, as is known to all, the current cov19 has serious negative impact to the letting and I doubt if there are many landlords can let under a week! It looks like that openrent does not take into account of this? Can anyone from openrent advise this please?

  2. I do not know if openrent has taken any action, i.e. to take off the property from the list, because of receiving the report from an enquriy. If that is the reason, it is not fair by only taking the views from the enquirer.

  3. I wonder if openrent can do something about the harassment to landlords from the enquirer. I do not see if there is anything wrong from my side but this person keeps harassing me.

2

block them. hope you did not give your phone number

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3

Thanks Colin. He asked for the virtual tour so I sent him the video via whatsapps number so that he actually did have my phone number! !

4

Kai there is a lesson there, I never give out my phone number to general enquiries . He is not the sort of tenant you need . Do not give in. .Get openrent to block him for you

5

Kai,

1 The law states you can only request 5 weeks rent as deposit, you would normally request 1 month in advance. However, bearing in mind the rent guarantee has been suspended, the credit referencing for ÂŁ20 may just solve everything or just reject them.

A guarantor with their own home, employment and passes the credit referencing should always be used, in fact with this case I would go for two separate guarantors and they will be jointly and individually liable if one goes tits up.

2 If you believe you have been unfairly dealt with and believe it is discriminatory you should be able to request under the data protection or free of information acts any communications which have not been shared with you by Openrent from the enquirer.

If indeed that was the reason for de listing.

Why not relist?

Have you actually read Openrents T&Cs?

  1. You can block a caller on Whatsapp, just google how

I have just listed and a tenant in 3 days, in fact I have a queue waiting. It’s down to the landlord’s interview techniques to ensure you get the right tenant. Mine has offered 3 months in advance always but I do not feel that is necessary.

Another tip, why not build your own Wordpress website, its pretty easy to do and you can put all the property info on and a virtual video linked to a private Youtube page. In fact you could just use theprivate Youtube page if you wanted for virtal tours. That covers all most the questions to be asked, plus Openrent you can ask certain pre qualifying questions - both of these to make your life easier.

If all fails with Openrent , your backstop is there are other companies about.

Regarding your tenant, if they are that much of a pain in the backside now, its an easy decision to make.

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6

As I understand it, deposits are capped at 5 weeks but advance rent is not legally a deposit and therefore can be whatever is agreed, presumably within what’s reasonable.
A while back there was a case where a tenant paid 6 months rent in advance due to credit problems or suchlike and later on tried to sue the landlord for not putting it in deposit protection. The court judged in favour of the landlord as it was not a deposit and therefore did not need to be put in a scheme.

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