Hi all,
New here. Do you know if open rent carry out affordability checks before allowing a house viewing request?
Thanks
What do you mean by affordability checks? Openrent is just a portal, not an estate agent so they donāt carry out any checks. The viewing request page may ask for combined monthly income if the landlord has switched on the setting for pre-screening questions, but this differs from landlord to landlord.
It certainly does differ. As an example, I wouldnāt let anyone view a property without confirming over the phone that they can afford it. Iād do this by asking them to tell me how much income they have each month, where it comes from, whether Iāll find any CCJs etc if I go looking, as well as various questions to avoid stupid statements when they come round to view like, āIāve got a Ā£1,500 overdraft. Is that OK?ā or āIāll be able to scrape the first monthās rent and deposit together in a month or so.ā
Thatās the first affordability check of three that I make. I donāt let anyone view without that first phone call. Not only that, but my autoresponse asks them to call me and tells them clearly that if they donāt, I donāt pursue them. This process alone saves a huge amount of time.
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Openrent do not do affordability checks prior to prior to viewings, however, there is a facility to pre-screen applicants where they confirm whether or not they are smokers etc. and they are asked to confirm income. My experience with pre-screening is that some tenants tell you what they think they want you to know rather than what you need to know. It is not unusual for for some applicants to select they have no pets on the pre-screening then in the commentary ask if their well behaved cat/dog would be acceptable.
So in answer to your question āDo open rent carry out affordability checks before allowing a house viewing request?ā I believe the answer is no.
Once a viewing request is received we always reply with a standard response asking for further details such as current employment / income status, length of service, current living arrangements. Once we have those details we look to arrange a viewing if suitable.
Affordability checks are completed if you choose Comprehensive Referencing once you have accepted a tenant (unfortunately on some occasions it is at this point you find out what the tenant told you is not necessarily reality). From our experience using Openrent, on the majority of occasions, the first applicants we have chosen failed referencing / affordability and we had to remarket.
Which means itās always worth asking because if they do subsequently reveal something different, you now know you need to eliminate them from the process. Donāt trust anyone who isnāt honest with you at any point in the application process.
I never take the property off the market until I literally have a signed AST. Once Iāve arranged a check in date with a new tenant, any tell any new applicants what the situation is and that itās unlikely Iāll be in touch unless the new tenant fails to sign the ASTā¦ which is always a possibility.