I listed my property on Thursday, had over 80 enquiries in the first day… did a few viewings on Saturday and was currently doing a few referencing checks on the potential tenants we liked…
I log in to Openrent this morning to see that my advert has been taken from Openrent and a ‘let agreed’… I have the option to republish but does anyone know why this happened?
I definitely haven’t agreed a let yet.
Thanks!
Did you take a holding deposit?
It becomes unavailable then
There was 8 people who placed holding deposits straight away (before viewing etc). I hadn’t taken any action on any of these requests just yet as I was waiting for the reference checks to be completed!
If you use Openrent’s system that should not happen as you can’t legally take a holding deposit from more than one tenant.
As soon as a holding deposit is put down on a property it means you should be satisfied you want to proceed with that individual (subject to referencing and contract of course).
You can refuse the holding deposit (and I would do so for anyone that hasn’t even viewed the property yet)
As a new landlord user of OpenRent I got a shock when I discovered tenants can put holding deposits down without the landlord’s agreement. It happened to me on the first letting I did through OpenRent. A totally unsuitable applicant placed a holding deposit without asking me first. I can’t remember exactly which buttons I had to click to get rid of the deposit and continue marketing the property. If I am not misunderstanding the system I think this is a flaw. Tenants should have to send a message through the system to tell a landlord they want to place a holding deposit and the landlord’s agreement should be needed before the system accepts the deposit.
I totally agree! But we live and learn!
Yes, it is most definitely a flaw and something that needs to be changed.
Openrent are putting their profits above the needs of their landlord customers. They have been urged to do something about this for months and refuse to act.
Happened to me today as well .
I had a property advertised for rent and I looked today and its listed as “Rent agreed” and its been removed .
I think you should be able to republish the listing, this is what I did and i started getting requests back within the hour & all my older requests were still available on my profile! Hope this works for you
It’s all fine if you have your mobile on you. As soon as a holding deposit is placed you get a text and can reject it via return text. Just make sure you have it on you.
But it is a bit annoying and should be an easy fix.
I do not see any replies from Open rent staff !
OpenRent please comment on this flaw and if there’s intention to stop this from happening again.
OPEN RENT we are ALL awaiting your comment and solution
Yes, agreed that this is a pain.
It’s not even that unsuitable tenants are placing holding deposits - I’ve actually paused advertising due to high demand; there are a lot of very suitable tenants & I’ve had to reject multiple holding deposits from those over eager. Once I decide who to proceed with, I’ll then continue & request a holding deposit myself. Probably outside of rent now unless they substantially improve their AST to meet the quality NRLA & GRL ASTs.
Surely the easy solution is to make the wording much clearer that tenants must not press the green Rent Button without agreement from the landlord. As it stands now, it actually seems to encourage them to do so unilaterally. No wonder people get it wrong.
I think three things should happen:
The landlord activates the “rent now” button on a tenant once they’ve agreed terms. Have a vague incling that this was the case several years ago?
An automatic message should NOT automatically be sent to other parties that the property is unavailable and the advert should not be taken down immediately.
I should be able to continue to take enquiries and communicate with prospective tenants.
It’s just such a hassle - all because Openrent want the “end customer” (tenant) to be happy and get a pleasant experience rather than landlords who are paying for it.
As soon as you decline the holding deposit the property will be relisted within a very short period of time.
I have had same experience. Property is in such short supply tenants will click ,Rent Now’ without even having any contact with the Landlord.
Could you let me know what property you are renting please
Thank you