So I am in a fairly unique postion that I am a LandLord that uses Open Rent as well as a Tenant who uses Open rent.
At the moment I have aplace I want to live and put a holding deposit in. I am dealing with the Landlord who seems a bit confused as to how the process works.
He doesn’t want to Rent Now it’s not clear why ( however it’s fairly obvious he is being tight and does’t want to pay).
He wants to personally take (via this bank account) the holding deposit, First months Rent ,Deposit ( which he says he will put into a holiding sheme).
There is a clear risk involved in doing this so I won’t be doing it. I assume the only reason why he doesn’t want to use Rent now is to save money. I do get that for exampleafter I build up trust with my current tennant I stopped using Rent Now to collect payment and trusted him to pay me directly.
He also wants to use a his own AST ( I have aksed a for a copy of this first)
However for a new tennant I think it’s a bit much for a Landlord to expect the tennant to take this much risk? do you agree?
on my places I take no holding deposit. I take deposit cash ,rent cash , give receipt, give keys, sign up all in one blow after I have checked them and they can check me
Many landlords here only use OR purely for marketing and do everything outside of it.
For me it’s nothing to do with the cost, (it’s dirt cheap) it’s solely to do with having control and knowing 100% things are being done right. It means I can control timescales better and sort issues directly rather than having a middle man to slow things down.
I have never had an issue with any tenant paying me direct or using my non openrent AST.
I am not a tenant anymore but I wouldn’t be comfortable paying upfront to landlord’s personal account before I move in. Unless everything is done on the same day of moving in, I do think there is some risk here.
What if you pay the deposit and first month rent in advance then the landlord disappears or unreachable on the moving day?
With online banking these days, I guess it’s quite possible to pay everything on the day you’re moving in; it only takes a few clicks on a banking app.
It’s an illusion that OR is any more secure, tenants payment hits openrent account which then transferred to landlord account same day.
Only way to be “secure” is pay on move in day. Issue is bank transfer isn’t guaranteed same day, typically instant, often hours and sometimes next day or later. If in doubt they can bring cash (what if it’s funny money?!)
In my case at least you would be wrong, even when we used an agent we had them tailor the AST to cover some specifics relating to this development and its lease conditions, most AST are woefully brief ino our experience.
If you pay the landlord a holding deposit you will utilise that sum towards the first months rent / bond. The holding deposit is to cover the landlord in the event the tenant changes his / her mind and walks away, or makes false representation on an application, after the landlord has already paid for reference / credit checks and wasted time in that process.
So, you’d prefer all the risk and costs be laid at the landlords doorstep, and the tenant can walk away scot free anytime he chooses.
It was a travesty when the legislation prevented fees being charged to tenants, after all it’s a 2-way street, you want to rent and the landlord wants a tenant. If you applied for a mortgage to buy a house, you would be required to pay valuation and application fees to the bank / mortgage company to obtain a loan.
Well with respect you would say you have never had an issue. The fact is that I am not a solicitor and I certianly aren’t going to waste my time seing one to show them an AST from a random Landlord.
The AST from Open Rent & Rent Now is part of “The Property Ombudsman”
No… it was how I let my properties for years and how most indepenent landlords who dont use an agent work. For years i wrote my own tenancy agreements.
I now use openrent and rent now and it is useful for various reasons. But does have both positive and negative aspects for both tenants and landlords.
In this case you have a choice. If you don t want to it his way you can withdraw your application.
Bur you cant insist the landlord runs his business your way.
(what if it’s funny money?!)