My wife and I have been renting for over 15 years and our current home we have been for renting for 6 years. We’ve never missed a rental payment in our lives and have no credit issues. We are in full time, permanent employment.
We have completed the OpenRent referencing checks and all is green/clear. And now the landlord has messaged saying he wants a guarantor.
My main question is: this normal??
We’ve not rented somewhere new for over 6 years and understand the market is completely different these days but why would a landlord ask us to provide a guarantor when we have provided evidence that we pose no risk to missing any payments?
Most letting agents state that a guarantor must be provided if you don’t meet the affordability criteria. Is it just OpenRent that works differently?
Our problem is that we are in our mid 30s and our parents are retired so who would we even provide as a guarantor?
There was also no clarity or information about a guarantor being needed at any stage until now. If we had known that from the start we would have been asking a lot of questions before even starting this entire process.
Ok but why was this not made explicit either on the listing/advert, during the viewing, or at the start of the process when holding deposit was paid and reference checks begun?
It is coming across as the landlord making it up as they go.
I’d like to know if this is a normal experience on OpenRent or have I come across a “unique” landlord?
It varies a lot from landlord to landlord, so I don’t think there is a “normal”. I generally don’t ask for a guarantor if the referencing is satisfactory but perhaps the landlord in your case just wants the additional reassurance. Maybe the referencing report didn’t “pass” by a wide enough margin? I’m just speculating. Since you don’t have a guarantor, and both your referencing report and your rental / credit history is satisfactory, then I would simply go back to the landlord and tell them your situation. Ask them why they feel they need a guarantor. It would be a big hassle for the landlord, after having paid for referencing and missed out potential other candidates during this process, to cancel your application at this stage and start again, so this is unlikely to be a deal breaker in my opinion.
They have said it is a deal breaker. They said “the first application from a potential tenant has got a guarantor” so they are asking us to provide one.
I’m genuinely shocked. I understand the landlord wants extra protection but why not make this clear at the start? We can’t get a guarantor. Our parents are retired/deceased. This is wasting our time. We’ve now missed out on other properties because we stopped viewings once we had the go ahead from this guy, and knew we would pass the referencing.
Thanks David122. Will try again. We will definitely be asking upfront about whether or not a landlord will be requiring a guarantor regardless of the result of our reference checks.
Sorry to hear that, I am surprised that the landlord has chosen to do that. Perhaps they will regret it when the other tenant doesn’t have as good a referencing report as you. I would much prefer a tenant who passes the referencing checks on their own rather than one who doesn’t and then requires a guarantor. I hope you find something!
I suspect it’s not a personal opinion of your suitability.
In Ten years I have never requested a guarantor. However having a tenant in arrears does somewhat change your mindset to belt and braces approach going forward in the rental market.
Even Prince Harry would need a guarantor to rent from me, I trust no one.
It’s the uncertain times we are living in, Landlords are understandably nervous. It will only get worse for Tenant’s with the Government interfering in the lettings market. We can’t even evict scum bags now. But good luck hope you find somewhere.
I see the property has now been relisted on OpenRent. I can only imagine the landlord has set some unknown parameters for who they are willing to accept as a tenant and willing to waste potential tenants’ time (as per myself).
Just be open and honest about your requirements from the start maybe?
Doubt I’ll be using OpenRent at all now. A traditional Estate Agent will at least be able to pass on information and answer questions between us and the landlord during any application process.
The landlord would have also wasted their time and money by re-listing it - not sure what their tenant find strategy is (or if they even have one) but sounds like you’re probably better off not going with them. Not all landlords are like that, just like not all traditional estate agents would necessarily offer a better experience. After many years of dealing with multiple traditional estate agents, I was totally put off using them again, which is how I ended up on Openrent. Swings and roundabouts I suppose!
It’s not unique to Openrent but on a case by case basis. By case I mean YOUR case and the Landlord case. Rather than waste any more of your own time I’d say if you can’t do it just step away and be sure next time to ask up front if a guarantor would be required. The greater the perceived general job market risk and the landlord’s selling power (shortage of properties) the higher the likelihood you may be asked for one. It’s not personal.
I now ask for tenants to both pass affordability checks and have a home-owning guarantor. I know how difficult this can be, and it is with reluctance that I’ve now imposed this extra requirement on any perspective tenants. This is because of the erosion of landlords’ rights if a tenant stops paying. With ‘breathing spaces’ and the expected end to S21s, landlords want this extra reassurance that they will be able to recover rent and costs from someone.
I had tenants who were paying their rent. Then they announced that they loved the property and wanted to stay. But they also announced that they no longer wanted to pay rent.
I had to give them 4 months notice before I could give them an eviction notice.
then I had to wait a further month for a response. None came.
then I applied to the court for a hearing. It took a month to be a given a court hearing date (2 months delay)
at the hearing the tenant said that the property was dangerous as the EICR had expired. Fortunately the judge saw through this as I provided email paperwork to show that the tenant had obstructed my electricians.
the judgement gave 2 weeks notice, but this is pointless as it takes 3 months to enforce an eviction.
Total: 10 months (4 + 1 + 2 + 3). No rent received during this time.
I trusted my tenants and accepted that they did not have a guarantor. I will never do that again.
Before they left, they wrecked the white goods, stole curtains, stole fixtures, anything. The police were useless. They told me to use the civil court.
I ask for Guarantors now. Ive had several tenants who passed referencing but for various reasons claimed they couldnt pay their rent . Meanwhile their lifestyles never seems to suffer .
Ive found tenants are far quicker to stop paying rent when its not guaranteed by a friend or relative .They have no loyalty to a Landlord but are very reluctant to cause problems to their Guarantor .
No point is legal action as the tenants hide their funds, claim to be penniless, claim legal aid, miss court appointments and offer to repay a huge debt at a laughable rate. And when they stop paying after aa few weeks, do you then go back to court and incur more expense?
Do not waste your time with this.
The court wants 5% of the amount claimed before you start.
Just take it on the chin and ensure that any future tenancy agreement has a guarantor.
Yes, I doubt you would recover much money, but the CCJ would still be on their record and they would find it difficult to rent another flat or get any credit.