OpenRent imply PAT/EICR legal requirement not true!

Give me some feedback please before I proceed OpenRent. I am progressing a tenancy and this year I am being ask to supply details of both Electrical certs and Insurance ! Neither of these (unlike EPC and CP12) are legal requirements currently so your inclusion of these as REQUIREMENTS is unfair and it seems simply methods of money making for your company !

I purchased 2x references in good faith, as I had last year, in order to be able to ‘qualify’ for lost rent protection insurance. After purchase it seems that you also require purchasing an electrical certificate and having buildings and contents insurance before qualifying for this insurance - that doesn’t seem right !! Of course I have buildings insurance as part of the freehold building but why would I need to spend money on an electrical certificate that is not a legal requirement in order to qualify for lost rent insurance !!

There are lots of other insurances to cover non payment of rent

Undoubtedly Carole but my point is that I paid out the £40 for references in order to be able to utilise the rent loss insurance from OpenRent only to find once I proceeded (and the tenants passed referencing) that I wouldn’t be able to get cover unless I also paid for an electrical inspection! That’s hardly transparent! There’s not really much of a link between tenant’s defaulting on rent payment and electrical safety certification!

Hi Robert, Glad to have the opportunity to explain our position on these points if they are unclear.

Are you referring to the page which I have taken a screenshot of, below? The point of this page is for the landlord to confirm to us that any certifications the property requires are obtained or not required.

Re the electrical certificates, they are indeed a legal requirement for HMOs. In non-HMO properties, a competent person can do the checks without need for a certificate. So all we are asking here is to confirm that your property either has had its PAT or that it does not need one.

In addition, the ‘Expires’ fields are not mandatory, so there’s no need to use them if you don’t want to.

Happy to say that we don’t require those things for the RGI policy. If you show me the text that made you think this then we can look at clearing that up in future.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything,
Sam

I too was confused by this the first time I encountered it. It would be a good idea to make it clear that these fields are optional and any information entered would simply be used to enable OpenRent to remind landlords of pending expiry and for them to offer their services as an alternative upon renewal.

Hi Sam, thanks for the answer and sorry for the delay in replying. Firstly, there is a discrepancy between your statement and what is written in the check box on the form re the electrics/PAT. The check box says PAT or been checked by a competent person (which in itself is very vague, so vague as to render it pointless) and you say a PAT or doesn’t need one ! Which is it ? The main point I’m making as this reads to me as a requirement to have the certificates AND enter the expiry. You are correct that in the final analysis the expiry boxes are not mandatory but the form implies that they are as they are related to a mandatory check box. And when I progressed without filling them I have received reminders and suggestions of insurance policys, CP12’s etc from OpenRent ! As I say, it is confusing as it’s difficult to see it as anything other than a deliberate complication of the process for the purpose of generating income ! From a legal point of view one checkbox for a declaration that landlords understand their legal obligations relating to these matters is all that is necessary.