This would be very useful as I have just had a tenant leave. The house required a lot of cleaning after just 6 months. No idea where she has gone.
When a tenant has left is the time to do it, with a right to reply and no probs with a landlords list. I would NEVER rely on a landlords reference of a tenant, they may be glad to get rid of them.!
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Hi Sam,
Thanks for the reply. I totally understand the issues here and completely agree that there are difficulties in trying to āread between the linesā and decide where the truth is. HOWEVER I am talking about a registry where certain criteria needs to be met BEFORE a tenant can be blacklisted. For example if the courts have agreed with the landlord and granted then a possession order against the tenant! Additionally if the tenant is 2-3 months behind on their rent; or indeed if theyāve smashed up the property.
These black and white issues are the ONLY ones which should be allowed. This takes out all the āemotionā and all the grey areas.
Iām also ONLY talking about a bad tenant registry that is ONLY visible to landlords.
Believe me itāl wouldnāt be the first time that landlords have rented to tenants who passed referencing and then turned bad! I believe landlords should be given a platform to list these individuals.
There is ABSOLUTELY no argument you or anyone can make to defend not doing this.
Looking forward to hearing back from you
Regards as always
Declan
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what we need is a rich landlord who ,taking pity on us smaller landlords, would set up such a bad tenants website that we all, as landlords can refer to Any one out there?
Agree that bad lanlords no good for anyone. Councils will weed them out , but they will do nothing about bad tenants as they will have to rehouse them if evicted!!
for me a bad tenant is not someone who does not turn up for a viewing, or is untidyā¦, a bad tenant is someone not being considerate to neighbours, not paying the rent and damaging your property
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Hi Sam
Has Open Rent considered a partnership with a bad tenant database company such as this company in Australia
https://www.tica.com.au/
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Iāve been renting out properties for a long time and my tenants seem happy with what Iām doing and have lived in my properties for many years. However, last year I had a situation where my tenants came to the end of their first year and wanted to extend their AST on a week by week basis as they waited to hear if they had work in Europe. I unfortunately couldnāt be that flexible with needing time to find new tenants. They were very annoyed with me and I was worried that they would be able to give me a bad review on Open Rent. So I can understand why Open Rent are worried about that happening as I would then have used a different platform to find tenants.
Hi Karen.
Yes thanks for the input BUT I am only proposing a bad tenant registry for Landlord use only. I believe tenants already have plenty of aces up their sleeve if they want to cause trouble. What I am proposing is very easy for OpenRent to launch and will aid every landlord on the OpenRent platform. I know Sam came up with a few reasons why not to do this but again what I am proposing alleviates all his and OpenRentās concerns as it is focussed to pinpoint the very worst tenants. When we all list property for the first time on OpenRent we need to upload our ownership details. Then why not upload our possession orders, court applications etc to prove we have bad tenants!!! All of this is REALLY easy to move forward. All we need is the cooperation of goodwill of OpenRent to initiate this. However we do need this now.
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Actually just show me 1 landlord who does not believe that this is a good idea and necessary? Also Iād love to hear feedback from OpenRent on what I am proposing! I donāt want to hear feedback about numerous issues that I am not proposing simply feedback on what I am proposing and what obstacles they see in launching this. There isnāt one obstacle here that cannot be easily overcome by the checks and balances that I am proposing. OpenRent???
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declan2 they wont do it you are wasting your efforts
Declan I totally agree with all your posts on this subject and OpenRent are just making excuses BY NOT PUTTING THIS INTO ACTION!
No more excuses please OpenRent you will only be doing the right thing for all the landlords and the good tenants.
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As a Tennant who had the experience from hell with a landlord for no other reason than they didnāt want to actually maintain their property Iām sure he would want to pop me on the bad tennant register as I gave a scathing review of my experience on the agencies website. A half arsed attempt to withhold my bond was made without reason (I had property professionally cleaned before leaving) they did this by purely not responding to the DPS request for return, not even giving reasons for not responding or even wanting to keep the bond. I had possessions damaged due to the condition of the house and a list of repairs I reported but never dealt with and I had to involve environmental health. Where do I stand as a tenant who suffered a rouge landlord? How can I not defend against slander if he was to name me on this supposed list? Would my other positive remarks from other landlords not outweigh the negative or would that one black mark mean I can no longer rent a property despite no rent arrears ever, never damaging a property and my only fault being wanting repairs done and getting my bond back.
I think you have to consider the fact that malice plays a huge part in all these sorts of things, and itās incredibly easy to write something on the internet without consequence. Are you potentially opening yourself and other landlords up to slander and libel court cases if a tenant finds they have been wrongly represented on this list.
There are two sides to every story and the truth in the middle so I guess a list would be fine, if youāve been to court and had a judgement in your favour otherwise it just becomes a case of he says she says and shit slinging on the internet.
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Samantha another good post. However I am suggesting ONLY registering tenants who have been issued court orders, section 8ās etc. Verifiable facts!! So to answer your message - you definitely WOULD NOT be included on this list. Pls try did stick to the criteria I set on all the above posts and not deviate into what ifāsand maybeās!
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Declan Iām fully in support of your suggestion - unfortunately OpenRent are very tenant centric and clueless on the increasing risk weāre taking. A business that donāt seem to put first, the people who put food on their tables will inevitably have their days numbered. Probably been given a new lease on life with upad being wound up in October 2019.
There was another resource - landlord referencing, they allowed you to put history on. However I used it for over a year, I must have put 30-40 tenants through it and I didnāt find any tenants on there. The website isnāt loading up now.
Iām concerned about my hmo tenants where its much harder to prove theyāve done anything wrong (e.g. Smoking) - but over time as tenants move in and move out your start to build up a picture. Fortunately section 21 allows us to deal with it, but that isnāt going to be around forever.
I have plenty of evidence built up over time in this instance and on a database like this, you could upload your evidence.
I would pay extra for a service like this.
Rent can be put on credit files also, this is something Iām going to into as itāll serve as an accountability tool.
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Sam
Thank you for your reply.
Nobody considers the hmo landlords.
I rent to professionals who can leave quickly, Iāve had 2 cases where they didnāt like their jobs and left within days or had health reasons left within weeks. A typical hmo tenant stays with me 8 months, Iāve had some for 2.5 years.
Could OpenRent consider facilitating a link to the tenants credit file? This both gives the good tenants the opportunity to build up their credit and be in a better position for mortgages and for good landlords to participate in their journey. There are mechanisms already in place for this, but as so many landlords / tenants come through your platform youāre well placed to facilitate this service.
Deposit deduction for damage, supported by evidence / inventory is legal paperwork OpenRent can easily verify, just as you do landlord compliance and ownership documents right now.
A mechanism to report anti social behaviour could be supported by encouraging tenants on here, asts can be used to verify the accounts.
I would be willing to pay for this service.
Why not trial it?
Regards
Mandeep
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Weāll all itās been 4 days since Iāve started this thread. It has certainly received some traction and ALL positive responses from all landlords who have engaged. So far there hasnāt been anything positive or constructive (I regret) from OpenRent! I fail to see what the issue is here for them! Can they help? Yes. Will they? Well Colin believes not! Letās be positive and hope they are taking their time exploring the best way to actually implement this. By Monday Iām sure we will have positive news from OpenRent!!! It is a win/win for them. Letās wait and all landlords who agree that this would be useful pls comment on this thread to show your support for this initiative,
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Declan 2 this is not a new thread I raised this at least 6 month ago and openrent listed similar thoughts >I am sure they wont do this as whoever starts it all off will be concerned about someone sueing them. Will I be made King if I am right?
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Regretfully I think Colin 3 is correct. I would support a list of the really rogue tenants who deliberately set out to defraud. I can also see why open rent are reluctant to do this. The time and costs that could be involved are enormous and I donāt think the gratitude of every decent landlord on the platform would balance it.
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The costs are miniscule. Additionally there is absolutely NO possibility of legal challenge or anyone being sued if it is kept tight and controlled. Personally I would sign a disclaimer that I am 100% responsible for all that I write on this register. These types of things do exist already where ALL liability lies with those who publish the information. This is not rocket science! I stand by everything I say and OpenRent could easily put in place checks to ensure accuracy of what is published exactly like they do when they check ownership details at the moment.
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