Has anyone been dealing with a landlord names Guiseppe P? He appears to be part of a group called Banksia. They insist on dealing with us outside of OpenRent, eventhough they advertise on the platform. This feels dodgy. But we are now at crisis point as move in is meant to be tomorrow and they are asking for money up front and lots of personal details on a guarantor form. Can’t find any real info about Banksia so wondered if anyone else has had a similar situation.
NEVER money up front …Have you checked with Land Registry that he owns the property?
Some Landlords use Openrent to advertise but do not use their services to handle any deposit, payments, agreement etc. This is ok, but I understand why this might be of putting to tenants. In these cases, you do have to be more careful and check the Landlord out more thoroughly.
I disagree with @Colin3 though, as some Landlords will ask for a Holding Deposit upfront. Again, this is perfectly legal as long as it is no more than the equivilent of 1 weeks rent.
Likewise, its normal for Landlord to be asking personal details of the type that you’d expect they would need to verify your circumstances & affordability etc, in the same way a Bank would ask them for a mortgage or loan.
Just take care, & do your checks first to make sure who you are corresponding with, and if they are sole trader / Ltd company etc so you know who is asking for the money.
landlord asking for info the day before ??? Dodgey. Michael never said it was a holding deposit , said it was money upfront and not doing that thru a 3rd party leaves it open to misuse
Hi Michael,
I just wanted to find out if you ended up moving forward with the property and how you have found Banksia so far.
I’m currently in the process of possibly renting with them and can’t find any information about them. Quite a few red flags also like not having a UK contact number amongst other things.
I really love the property so would like to move forward but feeling pretty cautious.
Would be great to hear from you about your experience if possible. Thanks