Hi,
I have tenant who is not comfortable paying to open rent and wants to pay directly to me, is it legal and possible?
Many landlords use Openrent for advertising only. So I assume once they choose their preferred tenant they handle the deposit and rent payments themselves. I imagine if you have already paid for their premium tenancy creation service you are likely to forfeit that cost if you choose to go down that road. Also bare in mind a scammer may not want to deal with Openrent.
Best!
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Very suspicious, find someone else. OR actually protects them - see below
If you want to use OR to create the contract then part of the T&C is paying the holding deposit, balance of 1st month rent, and security deposit (if any) through OR. (For 2nd month on you can collect yourself). This actually protects tenant as OR won’t pass on to LL till up to 10 days after move in to protect tenants from rogue LLs who don’t hand over the keys. It’s the same as most letting agents do (they usually subtract their fee from 1st month’s rent).
If you plan to use OR contract and any of their other services like rent collection or RGI, you need them to pay at least initially on OR.
May be a scam, eg they hope you wont do deposit properly then they can claim back up to 3x deposit as compensation and may also them be v hard to evict. Could be hoping to get contract with holding Deposit, move in without paying rest and need to be evicted so gets a year+ of rent free accommodation.
Good luck
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As part of Rent Now, we collect the holding deposit, register the security deposit and also collect the first month’s rent. You can view our guidance on how to make the final payment for the first month’s rent and security deposit here.
Protecting Your Money
This means you aren’t just paying money upfront to a private landlord you met online. You are using OpenRent - the UK’s largest letting agent - to handle your money until you move in to your new home. We then pass the money onto the landlord if everything goes as planned.
This keeps you safe while you move into your new home.
We Register Your Security Deposit
We also make sure your security deposit is safely protected in a government approved deposit protection scheme. We’ll make sure you get all the necessary information about how the deposit works, and how you can contest any deductions your landlord might want to make at the end of the tenancy.
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The holding deposit, first months rent, and any security deposit have to be paid to OR, if you are using their ‘Rent Now’ service. After that it is upto the LL, if they collect directly, or use OR Rent Collection service.
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