Referencing an existing tennant via openrent RENTAL GUARANTEE

Landlord Discussion
1

Hello,
I have a letting agent in place but want to regain control of my flat. I have an existing tenant in place for a couple of years and has always paid without fail despite 2 years of rent increase.

I want to keep the tenant and set things up via open rent, AND GET RENTAL GUARANTEE CONVER. I wasn’t nervous before, but as my margin is squeezed it makes sense for me to take out rental insurance.

Will open rent accept my existing tenant? What does the reference check exactly?

I think the tenant would be happy as self managing means I can keep the rent the same.

thanks

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2

Someone else will answer the question you’ve asked, but I wanted to ask you to think about whether you know enough about the legal obligations of managing a tenancy to keep yourself from a heavy fine or penalty?

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3

Hi David, yes while I have had an agent for the past few years, I have been learning and following what I need to do and feel I would be able to.

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  1. Hi they will check their credit history going back 6 years or as long as they have been in the UK.
  2. Affordability, I believe they have to have a household income of at least 2.5 x the rent.
  3. Employment reference confirming income and the type of contract they have i.e. permanent, fixed term etc.
  4. References from previous landlords.
  5. I forgot to mention ID checks including right to rent.
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5

To transfer your tenant to the OR platform, they would need to be prepared to pay a new new holding deposit, new SecurityDeposit etc, as they would need to go through the RentNow process.

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6

Thats good to hear Ricky. Can I suggrst you join a landlord association if youre not already a member of one as it will help keep you up to date with what is likely to be a huge amount of change in the coming year.

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thank you, this is a great suggestion, yes, the changes do not seem too bad off the face of things, though I do wonder what will happen to any existing tenancies in place. Good idea. Do the landlord associations have regular discussions?

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The have regular bulletins and some have local meetings.

9

I had the same issue. In London the agents’ costs were unreasonaby high so I became self managed and everything is absolutely fine. However, in Southampton the agents fee’s are extremely acceptable for what they actually do so this saves me the hassle - when things go wrong they locate and find appropriate services - for the small monthly fee - it’s worth it. So my advice would be based on area, rent, type of tenant, management service provider, state of the property, your knowledge and finally how ‘hands on’ you’ll want to be. Good luck.