So after reading about some of the landlords gripes with OpenRent, I have to say that in most cases I haven’t experienced the same issues. Though it has raised a question about the deposits held by OR when using Rent Now.
To give some background, I used to use Mashroom but made the decision to move everything away from them (before they shut down their lettings business) because the platform was just terrible at consistency. The rental process was great but then once you’d had multiple tenancies the system couldn’t keep track, documents would disappear etc.
When I made that decision to move away, I asked Mashroom to move the tenants deposit away. They told me to set up a new custodial account with whichever scheme I wanted, get the account details and ref. number for the new holding account and provide it to them. I did that, it seemed like the schemes are already set up to handle this, it worked great with no issues.
If I wanted to move the deposit away from OpenRent’s deposits account into a scheme held under my name directly, is this something OpenRent would accommodate? There doesn’t seem to be any legal or technical reason why this couldn’t happen.
Hi @TTJJ - I’m not sure if this has been requested before I’m afraid - if you contact our support team am sure we’d try and accommodate this if possible. As I understand it, we’d require contact from the scheme you are transferring to with transfer details etc. and tenants would need updated prescribed information / deposit information.
This would of course mean our end of tenancy and deposit return tools / support / etc would no longer work, but as long as that’s clear. I would suggest at least trying one deposit return via the system before deciding it’s not for you, but of course that’s up to you as well.
I used to use Mashroom but made the decision to move everything away from them (before they shut down their lettings business) because the platform was just terrible at consistency. The rental process was great but then once you’d had multiple tenancies the system couldn’t keep track, documents would disappear etc.
If you have specific issues with the deposit return, keeping track of multiple tenancies, or anything like that with OpenRent - do let us know. We’re making improvements every day, and feedback from our users is critical in deciding what we build next.
Wouldn’t that just mean it would be the same as before OpenRent switched to this new system? OpenRent just adds another layer. I’ve recently let through OpenRent and once the tenants have moved in, I’ll transfer the deposit to my own custodial account that I’ve used for other tenants I’ve previously got on OpenRent.
OpenRent should do a proper Q&A on this so it’s clear. Landlords have the right to move deposits to a different scheme, should they chose. We’re not locked in.