Applicants requesting reference fee refund

I met potential new tenants for my property. I liked them and agreed to reduce the rent a bit as it was slightly out of their price range.

When I received the reference checks they had both failed - their combined income covered the rent but with little to spare. Based on this I informed them that I did not want to proceed with a full explanation.

They have since contacted open rent to say “the application was cancelled through no fault of their own”.

Open rent are saying that I need to refund their reference fees.

Is this the case?

Thanks in advance.

As I understand you can formally reject the tenant on Open Rent and the tenant will get their £20 refunded from Openrent

Hi Darren,

In Rent Now, tenants cover the cost of referencing. As Neena says, you can reject their application on the website, although the cost of references will be deducted from the amount refunded.

Here’s some further guidance:

If you or the prospective tenants require any more information then do get in touch with the team at https://www.openrent.co.uk/faq#i-have-more-questions

Kind Regards,
George