Hello,
It’s my first time renting through openrent and am a bit worried and concerned not to lose my money. So, I would like to know some few things before I proceed with making payment.
Is openrent an agency that I should pay my rent through if am dealing with landlord direct.
Is Landlord being verified with openrent enough proof to trust them they are legit.
If I should pay my first rent through openrent, someone please share their account with me so that I can compare with the accounts I have received claming to be of openrent.
Do openrent have customer care desk I can reach with a phone call to verify the information I have. If they have, someone share with me their contact number.
What measures as a first time person letting with openrent and dealing with a direct client I should take to minimize the risk of losing my money.
Thank you!
Check out the openrent website you are dealing with that the e mail address is totally correct; Check the landlord is the owner of the property with Land Registry for £3 online. … I cannot see anyone sharing their account with you. … You will not get thru on a phone number. Always view before any payment, speak to neighbours/ former tenants if possible
These are excellent questions Stephen21. However, you should be aware that although some landlords use the site as a letting agent, where Openrent provides all the paperwork and collects the rent, many other landlords, including myself, just use it to advertise on the site and then they do everything directly with the tenant. Openrent has no verification process with the landlord that I’m aware of, (or at least there wasn’t the last time I advertised). I would suggest:
be careful if you’ve seen the advert on Facebook marketplace as there are a lot of scams there
ask for proof of ownership/consent to let before paying anything
never give any money before viewing the property
if you’re asked for a holding deposit, make sure its covered by a holding deposit agreement that makes clear the circumstances under which they can keep the deposit.
ask for a draft copy of their tenancy agreement once they agree to let to you so that you can check what you’re signing up for.
Thanks everyone for the positive responses. I really appreciate the help and ideas you people offer. With my case, I have done much of the process including visiting and viewing the house, signing the contracts and successfully passing the reference process. I’m in the final step of making the final deposit and first month rent and it’s where I got concerned. I was just making the payments to the account I was given by openrent the bank name was MODULR my bank LLoyds flagged the transaction and informed me to be sure am sending the money to the right recipient. This left me wondering if OpenRent receives the fund through Modulr bank. This is what I need confirmation from someone who has previously used openrent rentnow platform. Thank you all. Cheers
Sorry just to clarify with Q5 are you a tenant or a landlord as you said
“What measures as a first time.person letting with Open Rent and dealing with a direct client”
Hi there. Lloyds always have that warning whenever you are transferring money. If you want to be sure you’re sending to the owner of the property do the land registry check for £3 as another poster has suggested. I was wary of openrent the first time but I’ve now as a tenant let 2 properties found on openrent and so long as I was communicating with the landlord on the openrent platform, viewed the property and felt confident the landlord owned the property I went ahead and haven’t had any problems. As another poster mentioned, don’t use openrent if you found a rental on Facebook as scammers will use fake openrent sites to make their scam seem more legit.
I think because you’ve viewed the property in person and met the landlord, your risk is lower and you can probably go ahead after a land registry check.
Landlords can use OpenRent either as a tenant finder service only, or additionally as a management / rent collection service. In other words you could be paying rent to OpenRent, if the landlord is using their rent collection service, or to the landlord direct if they are not.
I have a cash card called Hyperjar, which I know gets classed as Modular in banking transactions. I’d be surprised if OpenRent or any respectable landlord would be operating via a cash card, although it would be technically possible.