Is there a charge for smarter rent collection? How are others taking rental payments? I have added banking details to OpenRent prior to the rental starting. Will payment be automatically taken this way?
You think Openrent will collect your rent for you for free? Really? What would they get out of that? Youāre having a laugh.
Try this
Source: OpenRent Smart rent collection service to take care of hassle free rent payments for Landlords | OpenRent
To use it you first need to have paid for the OR āRentnowā service creating the tenancy agreement as this allows them to collect rent from the tenant
Good luck
Its Ā£10 a month per property regardless of how many tenants, well worth it.
Can it be done via standing order for free?
You can collect rent however you wish. Personally, my tenants pay by bank transfer or set up a regular standing order directly to my bank account.
Can āwhatā be done for free?
Try reading what they say it includes
and decide if you are willing to offer that for free?
Openrent rent collection is their service to collect to an Openrent bank account and pass on to you, and includes chasing if late. You wont find any agents or anyone else offering that as a service for free.
You can arrange the rent collection yourself and get paid direct however you like - standing order, cash, bitcoin whatever. But thatās different isnt it?
.
Good luck
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Iāve never understood the point of this. I mean, you can get the tenant to pay directly into your account and easily check whether the payment has been received. What do Openrent offer which is actually worth Ā£120 a year?
The same can be said for any rent collection service (OR is at least much cheaper than traditional letting agents) or any other service you could do yourself āfor freeā.
A) Possibly some tenants may be more likely to pay if there is an organisation to pay not a private individual
B) They dont get to see your bank details
C) A small % of tenants dont pay or pay late and in the first instance Openrent will chase up etc
If you only have 1 property and youve experienced a tenant being a bit inconsistent (not paying by standing order) eg because when they get paid can move a bit between months, chasing them up can be stressful and time consuming
Itās like insurance- those providing it do almost nothing for 99% of customers who complain they are wasting their Ā£. You hope to have a reliable tenant but its a small service if not. And reduces your landlord profits for tax purposes by 120 so (if you pay 40%) reduces your tax bill by 48 quid so real cost is 72 quid or 6 quid a month - so not a big amount to try to avoid some stress/hassle. A bit marginal whether to get it but if youāve ever had a tenant telling you āoh sorry itll be a day late this month because of Xā etc etc you may feel itās worth it to delegate to someone else. Over long run and averaged over multiple tenants it will of course be cheaper to do everything yourself if you have the skills/time, just like any other service you pay OR for - otherwise they wouldnt make a profit
Best
What exactly is the problem with letting the tenant see your bank account details?
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Same as not giving out other personal info like a home address - privacy, risks of ID theft. The less you share to strangers or the web, the harder it is for ID theft to happen.
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For example, using your real name in your username 
What could a criminally minded tenant do with the sort code and account number of one of my bank accounts?
I think it might be with other info like your name the address, perhaps if a bankstatement got sent by accident to the address, they could start to build enough info to pretend to be you. I dont know and Iām not sure as iām not a professional ID scammer.
(Put it like this, why dont you use your full name on your profile? Surely nobody can do anything just with your name? Etc)
They could use your details when pretending to be a legitimate business for when someone checks if a bank account is legit then when someone is asked to pay they supply their own details. Or pretend to be you and run up debts.
I dont know every id theft scam nor how much info they need to carry it out. But if you know anybody who has suffered it or even just had their email hacked, youāll know itās worth avoiding. Whether thatās worth a part of 6 quid a month to you or to others - Iām not sure that will depend on your and their risk appetite.
Some people pay for a registered business address so tenants cant get their home address and come by if they have a beef. That will also cost something for what should be only a small risk if you are a good LL. Is it worth it? To them it is. To you maybe not.
Some people have special door locks that cant be copied at a normal locksmith. Costs more esp if replacement or extra copies needed. But reduces risks of keys getting into wrong hands. Some people have burglar alarms, others not.
Best
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Well, if you donāt know, then giving advice on this is probably not wise.
The only thing someone could do with your account number and sort code is set up a direct debit against the account. But any scrupulous account holder checking their next bank statement would see that and get it cancelled and refunded under the direct debit guarantee.
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Selecting portions of someone 's answer out of context to criticise.. (not the first time) how exactly is that wise or helpful or constructive advice??
Perhaps i should have written āiām not sureā. Is everything black and white in your perfect world? I havent given anybody else advice what they should do. Is nobody able to say they arent sure about part of a deal? Iāve made clear some people will choose to pay to mitigate some risks others wonāt
Have a lovely day. Drink more coffee 
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Good example of something they could do. How do you know itās the only thing? What about using it in a scam where someone calls pretending to be your bank, asks for access to your computer claiming youve been hacked, or asks you to confirm your password? As a tenant or from a tenant 's info they may know an amount they can quote that is going into your account regularly and even the date. I think there are scams like that. You likely wouldnāt get tricked by them. But some people do. Otherwise banks wouldnt warn against them. See eg Latest scams | Barclays
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Iām decaff all the way mateā¦
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They keep a record which you will need for rent statements. It just makes it much easier sometimes, particularly if you forget to chase the tenant till a few days later, because they will do it on time!
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