Openrent paused my ad without warning - before 3 months were over

OpenRent Chat
1

hi,
i was shocked to read openrent email that they paused my ad as 100 enquiries were received. act of pausing my advert without any warning is slap on my face and really bad service. i was not aware of such a thing going to happen. many enquirers were not serious-they gave no number or response. many could not afford the rent and i started advertising 2.5 months ago thinking your service is valid for 3 months. u nowhere told me 100 enquiries criteria-if i knew then i would have paused until now when my property is 10 days away from being available. some tenants stupidly enquired and then did not rent as there is no driveway although clearly mentioned in advert. some who have pets turned up knowing pets not allowed as per ad. some benefit recipients applied although ad mentions they will not be considered. someone found it too far from workplace. overall it was hardship but openrent made my hardship worst possible. so much attitude. i used them from 2015 and this is the first time they have acted so unreasonably

and serious enquiries only come in the end

and the current tenant just left and she had lot of luggage so house looked unappealing and kitchen needed work which i started this work-making kitchen new.

i feel i have been treated badly by my ad being unfairly paused without warning. your terms say ad will be live for 3 months.

if openrent criteria i knew then i would have paused myself or advertised 4 weeks before date of availability and not 2.5 months in advance.

u could go by number of viewings and that too let us know in advance.

i want to complain about this openrent unfair treatment and openrent gave misleading criteria of 3 months. how to complain please?

2

In my opinion, you perhaps put your house on the market too soon. My experience is that those enquiring need to be filtered promptly, and viewings arranged without unneccesary delay. I personally, wouldnt market a propertry until any work required (eg your kiutchen upgrade) was almost complete and the property was available for viewing.

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3

yes u r 100% correct. we learnt lesson hard way. but it is openrent poor attitude and shocking action that i want to complain about.

and last 7 years i have been with them so i m not rogue landlord and there has not been even one instance where property was not let before tenant notice period ended. this time u r right tenant gave notice early so i put ad so early for the first time in my landlord capacity. but openrent cannot be so inconsiderate and rude. i got stressed and upset by their action. so i want to know how to complain as i was made aware of 3 months rule and not 100 enquiries rule. how bizzare. viewings happened only may be 20. and we could not have done kitchen renovation and house painting before tenant left property which was this weekend.

4

Iā€™ve just looked on the website under the ā€˜Contact usā€™ link, and there is a send a message option. Would seem a viable solution if you wish to contact them

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5

i contacted them. they just told me generic answer. i have replied to know how to complain. thank you

6

Perhaps someone from Open Rent will answer your question on here.

7

thanksā€¦ one more concern i have is that-when they paused my advert without* any warning - in their email telling me they have paused - nowhere did they give me any option to re-advertise. i assumed i can no longer advertise via them for this property. now they responded to my complaint saying i can pay again and advertise. they would have saved me a lot of shock and panick by simply warning me and or emailing that i need to pay again!! i was out shopping in market on sunday after they suddenly paused my advert

8

Hi @Shalini1

Thank you for sharing your feedback.

As part of our fair use policy there is a limit to the number of enquiries that listings can receive. This is outlined in our terms of service which landlords are asked to agree to before publishing any listing.

While our fair use policies are in place to protect our users it is very rare for any listing to be affected - at the moment fewer than 1% of properties reach 100 viewing enquiries.

Where we notice that listings are receiving a higher than expected number of enquiries we reach out to the landlord to remind them of the policies and advise on the options that are available to them.

I can see that we have contacted you a few times and that a member of our customer service team has also responded to your most recent message earlier today. If you have any further questions then you are welcome to reply and weā€™ll be happy to provide further assistance.

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9

I think you are completely overacting. Shock? As openrent have said it states this in their terms you agreed to. Having so many applications makes it difficult to reply to and makes openrent look bad as landlords have failed to respond to tenants. Is it too cheap? By not replying you have not fulfilled your part of the agreement.

If itā€™s so problematic just relist the ad and pay the fee.

Why do people always try to blame others for their lack of effort in trying to understand something? Itā€™s all very clear to me as a LL as I take time to inform myself.

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11

i see your point. my error was only to miss their message inside an email at 70th response. but when they paused my ad they did not in their email give any option to pay again etc. their email which i read few times - seemed to indicate that it was the dead end and they will not let me advertise more. they should have written in email that to continue advertising i would have to duplicate ad and pay again. i would be more than happy to do it. it was only a day later that they mentioned this option only after i complained to them hence the shock. and u will be amazed that i replied to each and every message with due care. and i am trying to get to open rent and get them to be more helpful when terminating ad although when buying they say 3 months. they should say 100 messages many of which were unsuitable people including agents and benefit recipients or those who have not read ad properly etc. u r quick to judge but there r so many like u when we write in a forum. best wishes to all

12

100 enquiries is a lot and nobody took it, Iā€™m kinda not surprised to be honest. Iā€™d be looking to sell, houses are going to go the same way as bitcoin, the bubble burst, Iā€™m happy I cashed in when I did

13

Really sorry to hear you missed our messages about this - we are totally transparent about this, and there is no benefit to OpenRent when landlords hit this limit. However, the reality is that there are 100 tenants on the other side who, without wanting to comment on your account / responses directly, may have had a bad experience as a result. This isnā€™t something tenants or landlords want, but sadly we have to put in place measures to prevent abuse.

You were sent emails, specifically about this (as well as general guidance due to the sheer number of enquiries), at:

  • 21:26:29 12/05/22
  • 15:17:26 18/05/22
  • 08:04:25 14/06/22
  • And finally, at 11:07:21 03/07/22.

Again, sorry you missed this, but our email specifically states:

If you did want to receive more enquiries from us, you can create a fresh listing for your property by clicking here: (followed by a link to duplicate and re-advertise your advert)

We arenā€™t trying to hide anything, and appreciate there is a lot of detail involved in renting out a property, but hopefully above goes some way to re-assure you that there is no ill intention here. Weā€™re trying to ensure both tenants and landlords enjoy using OpenRent, and sometimes that means putting limits in place to prevent abuse.

Sorry again you missed our communications on this matter. Our team are always trying to improve communications and will continue to do so.

Thanks,
Daz.

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14

thanks - what makes u think some sort of abuse can be happening-which u r trying to prevent? i have been letting property with openrent from 2015. and what type of bad experience from tenant r u trying to refer to?
i got so many enquiries as i put property in market 2.5 months in advance. openrent is making me feel as if it is a crime to receive high number of enquiries. most of the people r not serious that time including some agents and benefit recipients and casual enquirers who do not read ad properly.

and you saying that the package will allow advertising for 3 months is misleading. u should clearly advertise that u will allow 100 enquiries only-at the time of purchase.

15

Apologies - Iā€™m not suggesting you are trying to abuse the system. Our limits (for example 3 months) are there to prevent abuse and degradation of the platform.

In your particular case, from what you are saying, it seems your advert had a few restrictions that werenā€™t necessarily made clear to tenants enquiring. For example:

  • Move in date: The first 30 enquiries, whilst itā€™s on your advert, it was in the property features. If itā€™s a really long delay (advertising 2.5 months in advance is unusual) weā€™d suggest making this front and centre on the advert. After 30 enquiries our system kicked in and ensured tenants were aware of this - hopefully that was helpful going forward, and you can set this as default behaviour in future if you like.
  • Viewing availability: It seems your advert had restrictions on when viewings were available. Notably, viewings werenā€™t possible at the weekend and you were working around the requirements of the sitting tenants. This wasnā€™t mentioned in your advert at all. Weā€™d suggest being up front about this.
  • Outstanding work: Your advert says the property is in ā€œexcellent conditionā€, however youā€™ve stated above that the outgoing tenant left it in a less appealing condition and the kitchen needed work. Again, being up front about this in your advert (and ideally with photos of the current condition) would help you to find appropriate tenants.

Furthermore, I can see we let you down in certain occasions and let through a handful of enquiries from agents. In those cases, there is a button on the enquiry screen to allow you to report spammy enquiries. We take such notices very seriously, investigate them, and of course spam enquiries donā€™t count towards the enquiry limit - we need some support occasionally in getting these reported to us however.

Overall, and as I said before, Iā€™m not suggesting malicious or abusive behaviour in this case (although we do see that with properties that hit these limits), simply some missing information from your advert that would help save you time, as well as the time of tenants, in being transparent about the property and any restrictions around eg. viewing times.

I honestly hope the above is helpful, and am not trying to suggest youā€™ve abused our system. I also understand that landlords want to put their properties in the best light, to find the best tenants, but weā€™ve always found that the more transparent the better even it means talking about restrictions from the outset. Iā€™ve waived the fee for your second advert, as I believe this was simply a set of honest efforts to put your advert in the best light, and hope you donā€™t mind making a few adjustments to prevent you running into any limits in future adverts.

Thanks again for using OpenRent, communicating with tenants promptly, and I wish you all the best in finding your ideal tenant at a fair rental amount.

Thanks,
Daz.

16

Thanks Daz. U can contact the tenant enquirer number 101 as she has offered me holding deposit and will start tenancy on 15th july.

I am saying that sometimes things happen at an unpredictable time.

U should investigate and not pause landlord for 100 enquiries.

Viewing restriction was due to tenant. I canbot do anything for that

Everything was fine except openrent bad approach.

So u let me down on sunday at 100th enquiry and please check on monday even after u paused a lady enquired 101th enquiry please check your system and she viewed yesterday and she gave depisit today. How bizzare!! So u must* review your wrong policy and be smart when pausing. Do some homework. Just after u paused on the same paised ad how can i get enquiry n same person offers deposit?
So open rent was wrong in many levels

**So can u refund my new ad cost as i got property let by original ad at 101th enquiry? ****

If u had investigated n let me remain in last 2 most imp queries then i would have saved stress mkney n hard work.

U should work with landlord or give them stress n stop their advert?

Stop advertising that u allow for 3 months. Start saying 100 enquiries to be fair

My only fault was to advertise 2.5 months jn advance n nothing else. Serious buyers only come in last 4 weeks.

And your advice about saying run down house is wrong. show me a single ad which says house being advertised in in bad state?

Kitchen had scope to be changed. It was still usable

And tenant living in house had too much furniture n luggage making house disorderly. This is not landlord fault

And i got many people asking for reduces rent n came asking for viewing with Ā£3000 income per month for example so many failed affordability test. Some came expectind driveway. Some after viewing asked for reduction.

These r not my fault.

U r victimising a good genuine landlord. I m appalled.

Least i expect is to get refund of Ā£29 i paid yesterday as u paused my ad unexpectedly and i got tenant from first paused ad itself.

** can u explain why after u paused by ad still j m getting responses?? Even today i got tenant enquiry from paused ad??

How can this ever stop then?

Thank you

17

** can u explain why after u paused by ad still j m getting responses?? Even today i got tenant enquiry from paused ad??

Yes, that is explained here: https://help.openrent.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/4413120836113-Why-am-I-still-receiving-new-tenant-enquiries-after-I-paused-my-listing-

**So can u refund my new ad cost as i got property let by original ad at 101th enquiry? ****

As per my previous reply, it was already refunded. We do try to be very clear, but I appreciate there is a lot to read and understand.

U r victimising a good genuine landlord. I m appalled.

Your advert was paused, you could still communicate with tenants, take a holding deposit and proceed with Rent Now, etc. As you even said yourself, your best tenant came via the original advert. As such, Iā€™m not sure what you mean by stating you are being victimised.

As per my last reply, I do wish you all the best in letting your property and hope you can read our guidance and my posts above for any clarification on why your advert was paused.

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18

You can please some of the people some of the timeā€¦

19

Drama queen! Mountains and molehills come to mind

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20

On and on and on.
What is the big deal? Appalled and victimised? Imagine if something actually serious were to happen?!

21

u r right Mark. i tend to agree with your balanced comments. u r lucky that your reactions r balanced but i actually get very troubled by issues which may not appear significant to others. i have listed what i went through and not a single one is exaggeration. it will benefit me if i take things easy and not get affected by any unexpected obstacles. best wishes to everyone.

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