I am looking for some other views on a prospective tenant. I’m fairly new to all this, this is only my second time advertising and the first was during lockdown so there were only a couple of enquiries (no-one wanted a one bed flat with no garden in Hackney during lockdown!)
There is more interest this time and a prospective tenant sent me a booking enquiry message telling me they would pay the full amount of rent in one go and they wanted me to call them.
I sent them pre-screening questions (When are you looking to move in? How many people will move into the property? How will you pay the rent? (i.e. employed income, self-employed income, savings, benefits, someone else will pay, etc. What is your annual income? Can you provide a guarantor if required? Can you provide past landlord and employer references if required?)
They replied right away saying they would answer all questions over the phone. They appeared to have just joined openrent in the last few hours.
Openrent is a really transparent platform which seems to protect tenants and landlords so the fact they won’t answer on the platform feels risky. This feels a bit dodgy to me but maybe there is a valid reason and I don’t want to make assumptions.
I don’t want to respond again but leave enquiry open. If they then respond in writing, I will call them, if not, I will then decline. I wondered if any of you could give me your opinion on my plan of action?
Be wary of someone paying 6 months rent upront . Its often criminals eg cannabis farms. No problem with a phone call as i can tell liars a mile away with their imprecise abd shifty answers . If after the phone call they sound genuine in my case i insist on lots of information sending by e mail eg present address on a utility bill , Passport photo page ,Bank account details including all deposits and withdrawals for 6 months , employer details and phone number and present Landlord details including phone number . This is where the lane excuses will start coming in eg 'im sleeping on a sofa with my friend 'or 'i dont have a passport or a photo driving license ’ etc.
All the above can be forged too or their employer or Landlords number is just their friends number who is a good actor .I have a phone with 2 sims . One is purely for tenant referencing which i remove from my phone once ive found the right person as i dont want rejected people to contact me afterwards .1p mobile is good for this but there are others
Be very careful
You need to think about whether or not you should be a landlord. this person is trying to turn the tables and get control over you. if you can’t see that then you are going to get into a lot of trouble later.
Phone them by all means but tell them you will not proceed with referencing without a written response to your pre-screening questions, because if you find discrepancies in their reference information you are required to prove you are justified in keeping their holding deposit.
At least speaking to them in person you should be able to establish, to some degree, whether they are genuine or not, before you arrange a viewing, and potentially waste your time in that respect.
However, it would appear quite likely from this approach that they are going to try to sweet talk you around to accepting less from them than you are aiming for.
That is harsh, she says she is new to this and she has sought advice on here. Seems perfectly sensible to me and has resulted in the correct outcome of declining the applicant.
People are different. I always want to speak to an applicant on the phone first then I want a face to face to sign up. Many landlords want to be completely hands off.
In
I disagree that 6 months upfront is an issue. In the recent London market 6 months upfront was needed to secure a property. What is a red flag is using 6 months upfront to avoid credit checks and references. The red flag is not wanting to answer your questions. Be aware that sometimes a lumpy rent payment may push more income into a tax year.
Viewing request with voicemail, no name provided, mobile no provided. I asked ooenrent to have a system of blocking enquiries who dont even give their name. Openrent sent a bog standard reply
When someone makes a phone enquiry it’s not possible to get the name unless they mention it in the message. You basically get a voicemail. These are still legitimate enquiries, just a different method.