Hi,
We recently rent out the property via Open Rent. Now they use Mydeposits.co.uk to protect the deposit instead of DPS.
We have created an account with Mydeposits 2 months ago when we rent out a property under a limited company name(the property bought under the limited company name). And the Mydeposits.co.uk account is in the company name as well.
This month, we just rent out another property, but this property we bought is under the personal name. We have received email from Mydeposits.co.uk, saying 'Registered Tenancy - Awaiting Monies ’ last Friday. We have contacted Open Rent last Friday regarding this by phone call and emails, but so far no one come back to us. We have called again and sent email regarding this issue today, still no answer.
We have contacted Mydeposits.co.uk this morning. There will be problem in the desposit protection documents, it will mention the lead landlord is a company name, and then the other landlords are our personal names. Which legally is wrong. Because the current property land register landlorsd only the personal names, the company name is not there.
Before Open Rent used to use DPS to protect the deposit, they always asked for landlord ID before protected the deposit, but now they don’t confirm any information from Landlord, just automaticlly transfer the deposit to Mydeposits.co.uk which is wrong, and leave us with no option.
Once the depsoit is protected, it is very difficult to take it out to protect again. In DPS, it will take 1 month to allow you to release the money if you protect the deposit less than 1 month. But it will break the law if we protect the deposit one month later.
It is so hard to find someone can answer your question in Open Rent, the people who pick up the phone, they normally don’t have much knowledge, they normally just take the message, but because they don’t have much knowlege, and the message they leave to the relatived team always not the right question we want, because they have no idea what we are talking about. We always get a wrong answer later on.
Open Rent should allow landlord to provide the landlord ID or account details or at lease confirm with the landlord first before they take action to protect the deposit.
H.Y.S. I totally agree with you about the message takers not passing on all or part of the correct question, so you get a half-cocked response. I find it very frustrating not to be able to communicate over the phone with OR. But, more to the point, WHY does OR no longer deal with the DPS? Is there a problem there now? I’m sorry that none of this addresses your queries, but I did find your post interesting.
HI Anne1,
Thanks for your message. It is very frustrating that you can’t get someone who understand what you are talking about over the phone with Open Rent. Many years ago, someone who picked up the phone in Open Rent, they always can answer your message at the same time.
The deposit problem, they did a big mess for us no matter how many times I called them or sent them emails. They protected the deposit with the wrong landlord details.
Now we are dealing with Mydeposits.co.uk to try to solve the problem. Very disappointed this time.
Hi,
I am having the same issue. Going round in circles trying to get through to them by phone and receiving responses by email!
Not sure why they ditched the DPS. They are far easier to deal with than MyDeposits. Why not give landlords a choice?
After carefully reviewing the options offered by all three deposit protection providers, the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), The Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), and MyDeposits OpenRent decided to change our partnered provider to MyDeposits.
This decision was reached after careful consideration and because we believe that MyDeposits offers the best opportunities to further improve, and expand, the Rent Now experience for our landlords.
We appreciate that many of our existing landlords were used to working the DPS and we have worked hard to make the switch as straightforward and smooth as possible for all of our landlords. We also offer a free switching service so that landlords with multiple tenancy deposits can transfer them to one provider.
Since we started partnering with MyDeposits we have successfully registered thousands of deposits and we have carefully monitored the feedback that we’ve received from our landlords in the process. We’ve been really pleased to see that vast majority of our landlords have had an easy and straightforward experience.
However, as with any change, we appreciate that this may not always be the case and, along with MyDeposits, we are working hard to ensure that any issues are resolved as quickly as possible. We are working to provide a more permanent solution to your particular situation and in the meantime MyDeposits will be happy to assist in transferring any deposit to an alternative account.
MyDeposit’s contact details are available in both your OpenRent account and your contract.
I’ve been reading some of the comments, and I’ve also found the same problems not being able to log in to MyDeposits. Why is it so difficult to see my ID details? I’m fairly savvy and can’t find them anywhere on the info page related to the tenancy. I’ve queried it with you today, and can’t find a resolution in the forums. Has a solution been found?
I have had to give up
trying to submit deductions dispute.’It would be earlier to get an audience with the pope than get a response from My Deposits i’m considering not using Openrent anymore
I’m having the same issue, I can’t seem to get to my account to release the deposit and my tenants think I’m stalling, I’m going to have to contact my deposits and hope they can help!
And now to add to insult to injury I have been waiting for Mydeposit to return some deposit in relation to an adjudication from Aug I am going to move my current tenants deposit whatever it takes. I am not prepared to deal with these Jokers
This really is outragageous and arrogant. I think open rent is completely missing the point. You have no more right to choose my deposit custodian than choose which bank I use. The fact people are not impressed with MyDeposits is secondary, as the landlord I want to choose where my deposit goes - in my case DPS
Thus is made worse by the fact that Open Rent previously mandated DPS, so they unilaterally decided to switch to MyDeposits and ask all customers to do likewise.
I am staggered OpenRent maintain this blind arrogance. They create a new MyDeposit account with each deposit in my name that I don’t want, I have to identify myself to this 3rd party, withdraw the deposit and have it placed into DPS. Half a dozen emails and hassle. Then repeat next time.
Not clear if MyDeposit is giving kick backs butI sincerely hope enough people vote with their feet- this arrangement stinks
I agree the switch to Mydeposits had been unfair to landlords who were not consulted as to their preferences. This has resulted in some of my tenancy deposits being held by TDA and more recent deposits held by Mydeposits which is most unsatisfactory
Worst of all, in a recent dispute despite mydeposits’ adjudicator decision that the tenant had returned my immaculate flat in a worse condition, I was awarded one third of the cost of making good. Am I the victim landlord supposed to cough up two thirds of the cost?! There is no logic or justice whatsoever - my tenant from hell had been reckless and willful in causing damage to my bedroom carpet (iron mark), dented wall and pockmarked window sills (candles), burnt marks on my living room wooden floor (candles), burnt holes in my sofa (smoking), damaged microwave, marked bedside unit …… all in just 4 months and despite me providing nearly 20 pages of statements and 80 attachments (including quotations, photos of damages, a signed and witnessed checked in form and video of my flat before tenancy started) I was told I have “not provided a detailed claim”?! 2 statements uploaded by the monster tenant to mydeposits.co.uk contained a Trojan virus and after I reported this, it took them 11 days to respond to me and they concluded that the 2 infected files (which I had to download from their website to read them) were somehow infected on my home computer which has Norton 360 AV on it!!
Based on my personal experience, Mydeposits are a joke - their pathetic decision has left me feel physically sick, totally devastated and let down and my advice to all landlords is to stay well clear of them if at all possible!
Sorry to hear about your woes, Jeremy. To be clear, the point I was making was not about who was better, just that it should be the landlord’s choice. Yes - you can go through the hassle (and I do) of retracting your deposit from MyDeposits and relodging in your preferred custodian but it’s a cheek that this has been sent to a company I have no affiliation with to start with.
I ask OR periodically about this oppressive limitation in their service and it usually distills to 'If you don’t like the RentNow service - don’t use it. That’s a pretty disappointing response from a young company to an obvious opportunity to make their RentNow service (which to be clear - I think is excellent otherwise) so much better and also avoid any accusations of being anti-competitive by supporting one particular scheme. I did ask if they were incentivised by MyDeposits - this was not made clear. I wonder if this is behind the reluctance…
Thanks Richard. I think I’ve already agreed with you at the outset that landlords should not only have been consulted but be given the freedom to choose who should safeguard their deposits. The point about sharing my experience here is that I wanted to go a step further and warn landlords that if they choose Mydeposits they will be doing so at great perils.
I am going to move my current tenants deposit whatever it takes. I am not prepared to deal with these Jokers