I’ve had referencing done on a Guarantor who is self employed. They don’t use online banking, so can’t verify income via Open Banking.
They’ve supplied their accountant who will be their referee. He’s sent in his reference and the income he’s declared for them is 5.5:1 so covers the ratio, and some.
OpenRent Referencing have notified me that they won’t accept his reference as in their own words “The email address provided is inconsistent with what we’d expect from this employer” so they are unable to accept his reference.
The accountant is a semi retired, one man band who uses a btinternet email account.
I’m not sure what they would consider as an acceptable email address for a referee.
Has anyone heard of referencing being rejected on this basis? Is there any alternative way of getting his reference accepted?
This was their response when I asked about getting a letter from the accountant and why they can’t accept a reference from a referee with a personal email address…
"This is a standard fraud prevention measure to prevent referee fraud. This cannot be amended I’m afraid.
If applicants are unable to provide a reliable referee, they’re welcome to verify their income via Open Banking instead. In this case, they should contact us and we’ll reopen the reference application to allow them to do so."
