New Landlord in need of advice

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi

First time landlord so please excuse my naivety

A few weeks ago i put my house up for rent and had several viewings too.

2 couples were ready to move in and we decided on the one who we thought worked for us more for various reasons.

Went to open rent and requested for holding deposit, this was the biggest mistake as I did not know that as soon as you accept a holding deposit, the house is taken off the market and marked as let agreed. I did not want to cancel my viewings as more people were coming to view the property in the next few days. As per the steps on Open Rent, we went for a holding deposit and then referencing. I paid for the referencing and got one of them back as ok, but they are hesitant in connecting the bank to OR due to trust issues.

Tenancy is due to start on 1/09, but they have since gone on holiday and are not replying. I have had a few messages back from them to say we will do the referencing, but struggling with the tech side of things.

Since it is my first time, I am taking this with a pinch of salt that I agreed with them on around the 5 of this month to move at the end of August, but if they do not turn up for whatever reason, what are my options? Also, since the property was delisted, I have not had any viewings either since so we have lost a whole month where no viewings happened.

Could you please guide me in the right direction as to how to approach this going forward? I obviously do not want to stop viewings till the tenants are reference checked and deposits paid, but I was not aware that once you accept a deposit, they delist the property straightaway.

If they still dont reply lets say in next one or two days am I within my rights to keep the deposit based on the fact that the referencing was requested at the begining of the month and still not finished or should i send a message to say if it is not done by lets say monday i will keep the deposit, I am not sure if this is doable.

What steps would you usually follow when putting a property on the market. I am aware there are further steps in the process and want to try and get them right.

Thanks

2

I would have binned them off within days of the referencing not being sorted. They do not have to do banking, and could have instead entered employer details et cetera for manual referencing.

In future, do a few viewings, ask prequalification questions, be satisfied with who you are picking, then do referencing. If you are using open rent and or taking a holding deposit, you have to stop advertising.

3

Just to clarify further, the reason Openrent suspend the add once you have accepted a holding deposit is it is illegal to take more than one holding deposit at the same time. Once Openrent received confirmation the let has fallen through, the add gets re-listed.

4

Vikas, letting properties comes with over 600 laws governing every aspect of the process. Just the holding deposit alone is covered by multiple rules, most of which can be found in the Tenant Fees Act 2019. As a first time landlord you are very vulnerable to mistakes, many of which carry stiff penalties or prevent eviction of a bad tenant.

Openrent RentNow automates the letting process and assists on some other matters. It also has helpful guides, but its up to you to manage the tenancy. I would strongly suggest some landlord training if you intend to continue self managing.

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5

@Vikas4 Quite rightly to comply with the current laws, as soon as you accept a deposit your listing will be removed.

As an alternative to accepting a deposit, it is still possible to progress a referencing on tenants without excepting a deposit through OpenRent but this does come with the disadvantage that you pay for referencing and the tenant still has the advantage of pulling out at anytime (especially if they continue to view other properties themselves).

I don’t think there is any right answer but my preference has been to not accept a deposit but start referencing my best applicant whilst still advertising until I have 1 or 2 other good applicants on a shortlist. Whilst occasionally I end up paying for referencing and tenants pull out, I find this is the best solution for me.