I have received my referencing report and on the Open Banking section it states:
(Tenant name) successfully connected to their bank account and we obtained the
following information about this source of income:
Bank account holder name: (Tenant name)
Identified transactions: 52
Estimated annual net income: £0.00
Compatible with annual gross
income of at least £xx,xxx.xx: No
The name on the connected bank account is inconsistent with what we’d
expect from this applicant. Unfortunately, this means that we are unable to
use this account to verify their income.
But it doesn’t explain why. To me, the name looks correct. Can this just be an initial that doesn’t quite match or a full name on the bank account that doesn’t quite match the applicant name e.g. Matt vs Matthew?
I have emailed OpenRent to ask this very question but their replies don’t answer my question. They are generic responses. Very annoying. I have told them that I would prefer a phone call. Their response to that was that ‘in general, we believe that emails are the best way of communicating’. Well that clearly isn’t the case in my situation.
Does anyone have experience of my situation above and do you also agree that sometimes phone call can be much better to solve these nuanced questions? I really preferred the service when you could speak with someone about such matters.
Thanks,
Matt
Maybe the tenant has given you the wrong account information or their income gets put into another account. My partner and I are like that. We use my account for income and bills, his is for his personal use. Can you not ask the tenant about the anomalies on the report to see if they have any ideas?
I agree a phone call is quicker than email but having everything in writing is more legally sound when there are any disputes about what was said to whom. Maybe that’s why openrent prefers email.
Thanks for your reply Nichole.
No, this isn’t the case. The tenant looks to have provided the correct bank account. In fact, at the bottom of the report, there is a list of transactions that the tenant has provided through open banking. Again, to me, these should be able to be used to verify the stated income. The point here is that open rent don’t give you any more meaningful information than just saying “the bank account name could not be verified” so it’s not very useful at all.
Why couldn’t it be verified? What name did the tenant provide and what name is on the bank account?
The tenant sent me their bank statement via WhatsApp for the past 6 months, which seems to me to verify the amounts collected via their open banking disclosure.
If I could just speak to someone, these questions could be answered in minutes! And if OpenRent prefer it because of the email trail, then by all means, send me an email to confirm our conversation. Then I’m happy and OpenRent are happy.
I can’t help but think that the real reason for no more telephone communication is manpower and cost.