Cancel application after accepting holding deposit, what happens to RentNow credit?

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi all,

After accepting the holding deposit usually we go through the referencing checks. I have this experience that when reference check fails, I cancel the application so openrent would return the holding deposit to this failed tenant and re-advertise my listing. I re-use the same rent-now credit when I find another suitable tenant. All is fine.

Now, what if the openrent referencing passes but for some other reasons I would like to cancel this application and find another tenant instead? would I also get back the rent-now credit so I don’t have to pay for it when I have another suitable tenant to proceed?

Thanks a lot!

2

There is no failed tenant, only one in your mind perhaps and at best.

Surely in that instance any open rent credit ought to be forfeited and not released to the landowner.

3

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply; may I ask if you have personally tried this so you know that’s the case?

Is there anyone who has the experience or is anyone from openrent who can confirm this with me please?

Thanks.

4

You should use a pre-application questionnaire to establish the applicants’ circumstances, then if their reference fails, and this information conflicts with your questionnaire, you would be within your rights to reject them and retain the holding deposit. That’s what it’s there for, as well as for applicants who withdraw without a reasonable reason, since you’ve lost time and costs of referencing in the process.

Why would you want to do that, if you’ve already accepted their application? I presume you would have vetted them before hand to satisfy yourself of their suitability.
If a better prospect turns up later, that’s tough, you should honour your agreement with the original applicant.

If it’s a matter of not wanting a "Rent Now’ process, then you need to reject them immediately, giving that / the reason, then Openrent will refund their holding deposit.

5

Your Rent Now credit will remain on your account until it is used. This happens when Rent Now is completed and the tenancy set up.

If the application is cancelled before it completes, the credit isn’t used and remains in your account. You can see your credits at any time here:

6

Yes I understand I should honour any agreements so it’s not like I want to switch to another tenant who pays more.

The thing is, while openrent undergoes referencing for that particular tenant I myself have also asked him for certain questions and it turns out he wasn’t very cooperative. So I got a bit of a sense that something’s not right. But because at that point open rent’s still conducting referencing I was actually afraid maybe referencing would pass but then do I still feel comfortable having him as a tenant, given that recent conversations haven’t been as smooth as I would’ve expected.

it turns out he then failed open rent’s referencing so my worries are legit.

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7

Make sure you ask your vetting questions in a full questionnaire before his application is accepted for referencing in future, then if there are any discrepancies with his referencing answers, you will be within your rights to reject him, especially since his references failed, and retain his holding deposit for your lost rental time and costs of referencing.

One aspect of Openrent’s system that is not good, is that they automatically list your property as let when an application is accepted, then you will likely have lost some potential enquiries, in the event that application is unsuccessful, who will have passed over your advert. This is one of the reasons I do not use their Rent Now facility.

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