Reference checking shortcuts have failed me

I recently went through referencing, I knew I’d fail as I have no earnings (DSS) but my guarantor was also failed. Wrongly failed. Before we could rectify this (she later passed) my landlord to be saw the failure and rejected my tenancy. Now I cannot contact the landlord and no one seems to care.

It has taken me more than 6 months to find a suitable home for my boys and myself who’ll take dss and I’m heartbroken that I’ve been denied again through no fault of my own. I’m in a horrible situation still living with my ex and I just can’t cope anymore.

If I’d been given time to rectify the mistake before being rejected I’d be happily moved in by now. I feel like I’ve been thrown away.

All I’d like is the chance to explain to my landlord to be and pick up where we left off, + passing guarantor. I won’t get that chance. And I’m just so sad.

Sorry to hear that.
Why can’t you contact the landlord? Were you going through an agency?
Only grasping at straws but you could send a letter to the landlord at the property address. Although I realise that for various reasons the landlord still may not get it.
Ask neighbours if any of them have the landlords number. As a long distance landlord I had to become resourceful and used to make myself known to neighbours and ask if they would take my number in case they noticed any problems. Sorry not much more to offer.

What was the mistake ?

Because they rejected me I can no longer contact them through OpenRent. I called open rent and ask that they contact them but they haven’t. I put a note through the door, they don’t live there and might see it before others view the flat. Ah well. Lessons learnt.

Steve. Only that I didn’t get any time to rectify the mistake on rentguard’s side before being rejected by the landlord. I can now not contact anyone even though we went back to rentguard to sort it out.

Ok I haven’t used Open Rent for a few years I have forgotten how it operates.
Could you sign in with a different email address to send a message?

At what point does this become weird and obsessive? I don’t want to come across as crazy. - I’m obviously pretty hurt by the system but not actually crazy. I could call openrent again and see what they say. Initially they seemed like they were concerned and would actually help me.

I can’t be the only person this has happened to either.

I take your point and am sure you are correct in contacting Open Rent again as opposed to anything else. But if there’s no other way what is anyone meant to do especially as you rightly say, it is not easy to find property these days. I wish you good luck.

Hi Abigail,

When a reference is updated, the Landlord is notified regarding this. Where they have rejected the enquiry, I’m afraid we would advise searching for a different property.

All our available properties are visible by searching on www.openrent.co.uk, where you can contact landlords directly on each listing page using the “Message Landlord or Request Viewing” button. You can also set up an email alert by clicking the green “Create Email Alert” button. We’ll then email you (up to once a day) when new properties become available in your area.

You can find out more about how to set your search criteria and create saved searches here:

https://www.openrent.co.uk/kb/articles/360018359252-How-do-the-search-bar-and-email-alerts-work

If you have any more questions regarding this issue, please do feel free to contact us directly at https://www.openrent.co.uk/faq#i-have-more-questions.

Kind regards,
Matthew

I was rejected before the reference was updated. Would they have been notified then? I’m sure they wouldn’t want to spend another £40 on references.

The landlord was possibly dealing with more than one prospective tenant and offered the tenancy to the other tenant.

Well it’s still there. Not let yet.

Ok. If you’re really keen on the place, can you get a friend to message him on Openrent? He might find it weird but what have you got to lose? And he might be keener now to find a tenant if it’s still vacant.

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