Time wasting tenants and pushy Openrent!

Landlord Discussion
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There are so many time wasters that either don’t fit the initial criteria, or then apply and don’t respond to the initial automatic questions sent.

I’ve had a property up since the weekend, and had 70 applicants already, over half haven’t responded with information requested, then most who have, clearly don’t fit the initial criteria, and majority, which I’ve never had to this extent before have only been in the country for a matter of weeks or months, which makes reference checks completely impossible or useless! I’ve had quite a few saying they’re bringing their family over in a few weeks to live with them also.

Now I’ve had the messages and emails from Openrent acting as if I’ve done something wrong with my advert, etc, and that I’m in the 0.1% so won’t even reconsider freezing my advert at 100, which happened a a couple of years ago also.

If it’s the case, that a landlord cannot hold out to find a suitable tenant, and all the time wasters and non responders are given free reign to do as they wish, then this product is no longer fit for use or worth the money paid.

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Hi Alan,

As we try to relay in our emails and advice to you when you’re getting a significant number of enquiries, the key is generally making your advert extremely clear.

I can take a more in depth look tomorrow, but for example it seems you’re rejecting lots of applicants because they don’t have a guarantor. If this is a requirement for you, that’s fine, but we’d suggest putting it front and centre of your advert (rather than being easy to miss in a summary at the bottom). If you wanted to make this extremely visible to tenants, then you could add a banner to your photos.

This applies to any other requirements you may have which aren’t covered by our standard filters / screening questions. If it’s extremely clear in your advert you’ll save yourself lots of time, and tenants won’t be disappointed after applying and finding out the criteria later.

Your custom screening reply has 17 questions. I’m not surprised you’re facing some drop off in enquiries as a result, but if your advert lists clearly the criteria for being considered, then I think you’ll solve your main issue here - which is tenants who don’t meet your criteria applying.

Let me know if you want more guidance on how to edit your description, and feel free to pause your advert in the meantime whilst you process the current applicants (I can see you have 10 or so viewings lined up).

Thanks,
Daz.

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I’ve found enqiries from people who don’t care about clearly stated criteria. Many don’t bother answering the screening questions. I can’t even hide all the unsuitable enquiries but have to use stars to give them some order.

Ive come to the conclusion a majority come through OpenRent as opposed to high Street agents because they feel credit checks are foregone and landlords are happy to accept cash in hand.

They think they are bypassing the stringent vetting applied by agents and the landlords are desperate to fill their properties with tenants who would never be accepted as solvent by high Street agencies.

I’m paid up but I am now having to resort to getting agents involved. Perhsps if OpenRent offered a vetting service and addressed their image it might add value to this service which in essence is a great idea.

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@Daz

According to RightMove media criteria spec, they do not allow this.

The 100 limit was determined before the dramatic, now standard, increase in tenant enquiries, This clearly needs extending to reflect the new conditions.

The advert can only do so much to filter enquiries.

Also, when are the new significant changes coming live you talked about months back?

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Hi Daz

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

You state you’re not surprised I’m facing a drop off after a initial 17 question response, mostly yes or no answers, why would you be surprised at this? If someone is serious, surely they can take literally 5 minutes at the most to respond to these, and it’s a good way of filtering through the weeds.

As my questions are set as an automatic response, and I don’t have any interaction with the applicant until these are answered, surely the applicants who don’t bother to answer these questions should be automatically discounted towards the 100 limit?

I’ve found these questions very helpful previously, and it clearly shows who is serious, and who is not. It’s not my questions and advert that’s the problem, it’s the standard of applicants. What am I meant to do with regards to applicants who state they’ve just arrived in the country, and have been here a month or so, who are a very significant amount of my applicants? As stated above, reference checks would be near on impossible to complete for these applicants so are also discounted, but these also add to the 100 limit.

As has been suggested above by another user, the increase in limit should reflect the market and standard of applicant.

I now have the threat of my advert being frozen in a day, that’s literally a week after posting! But, you state it’s to stop data harvesting etc, but you’re happy for me to duplicate my advert, post again and pay again! How does that make sense?

Also, there are 7 bookings currently to view, and 1 that viewed then has gone silent. This is out of 83 applicants. And I’ve had to compromise on some of my criteria to get half of those viewers, due to the standard being so low.

I agree that most of these people wouldn’t get a look in at a high street agent, yet believe they will bypass all of these reference and affordability checks through Openrent.

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I’m about to advertise my property and to be frank I’m dreading the process having experienced much of the problems aforementioned. I’m already anticipating having to pay to renew any advert due to 100 cut off ( I know, it’ll be my fault) but seriously questioning now whether being selective in seeking a tenant simply means being selective in who I market the property with. Daz, I’d be happy to have you look at my ad when it’s up for me to see if your advice smooths the process of cutting down on time wasting ineligible applicants

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Many prospective tenants simply do not look at the criteria nor the automatic questions. They use a scattergun approach, hoping some less stringent landlords will take them on. Seen it time and time again and the last time I had to advertise a property thankfully it was before the current housing madness.

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I understand your frustration, but have you considered how people without a rental history in the UK are able to find accommodation? It can be quite challenging for them as they need an address to have a bank account and a bank account to establish any credit history. So, what other guarantees can you expect from them other than paying cash upfront? I’m curious if you’d prefer tenants who live paycheck to paycheck over those who have savings. Perhaps you should ponder why solvent tenants would choose your property over Airbnb. Just some food for thought. Good luck with your search for tenants!

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Any landlord must consider their own interests before anyone else’s. Airbnb would be at-least double the price.

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There are affordable month to month Airbnb rentals. Airbnb is double the price only because they’re empty half the time.

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Air bnb will be the next thing that the gov will destroy.

They are twice the price because the market allows it.

Imagine the uncertainty of an air bnb.

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So what you’re saying, is that I should attach that extra risk to myself, for the better interest of someone who may, or may not be a good tenant and who may or may not continue with their rental payments… All because Ivan wanted to score some social justice points by having zero other opinions or messages on rentals or property management on a rental and property management forum.

Thank you for your input, but you may think differently when that risk is attached to yourself, your property and your incomings.

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Yep - our team would be more than happy to. My suggestion would be to put it live, and then if you get to 20 enquiries in a short space of time, to pause your advert and reach out to us.

I provided an update on that in a previous thread here 6 days ago

We conduct more references than any agency in the UK, so I’m not sure where this notion comes from. Our messaging doesn’t suggest tenants don’t need to pass references unless landlords explicitly state otherwise. I think if you knew someone in a high street letting agency, they’d tell you they also have a volume of enquiry issue - they simply turn their phone lines off / have fewer enquiries by nature of their processes. Sadly this equally applies to the best tenants vs. ones who don’t meet any criteria. However, agents will be sure to make any filtering criteria extremely clear to tenants because they know of the time wasted otherwise.

On OpenRent the landlord controls the specific advert contents, and so we do rely on landlords being up front with their criteria to have a good experience. Whilst we collect some criteria, we don’t know about all landlord criteria and custom requirements need to be placed on the advert.

This entire issue hopefully makes it clear why landlords should be incentivised to do so. On this specific point, if you believe tenants are applying to your advert because they don’t think they’ll need to be referenced - then I’d put at the start of your advert: “Reference and affordability checks required”.

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Why are you assuming that the landlord is social services? It’s reasonable that they would want to rent out their property to someone who is likely to pay rent and they try to mitigate this risk. It is bad enough that most landlords will be paying exorbitant interest rates these days (which can’t be offset against income tax).

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What risk is there with fixed term tenancy with full term advance payment? Is it that landlords want to increase rent every month?

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Of course there’s a risk. Rent advances are normally paid the day before the month start or the first day of the rental month. If a tenant doesn’t pay, this is a huge headache for the landlord and they will most likely be considerably out of pocket by the time they can get a tenant evicted. In the meantime, they’ll still have to pay the mortgage on the property.

Of course, there is always a place for charity in society but it does seem very holier than though for you to presume that on behalf of someone else!

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The risk that they don’t pay again after that initial fixed term tenancy and initial full term payment? The risk that they refuse to vacate the premises? The risk that they do not look after the property? The risk that they sublet the property? The risk that they cannot afford other services so build up debt at the property which becomes a nightmare for the landlord in the future? The risk that they’re criminally active?

Sensible landlords will mitigate all of the above risks and more with as many prior checks as possible. And if for some reason, these checks can’t be carried out, why would a landlord actively and purposely put themself at a higher risk of any of the above happening, when they didn’t need to?

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Of course there is increased risk.

  1. Few or no ties to country
  2. easy to move back to home country with little consequence.
  3. no history available to be able to assess the tenants attitude towards debt.
  4. tenant can stay put after the fixed term creating a huge issue for LL.
  5. no long term job stability

Would you be happy to place yourself at unnecessary increased risk for the sake of overseas strangers?

If you were informed, you would realise that there are systems in place to prevent excessive rent increases. A landlord wants good tenants to stay. The market dictates rent amounts.

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  1. Few or no ties to country

If they have right to rent, why does it matter?

  1. easy to move back to home country with little consequence.

Is it hard to move out of the UK if you have a British passport? If it’s easy to move, what’s the risk to the landlord? I would rather be afraid to let to people who have no property in any country. What about those returning home from overseas?

  1. no history available to be able to assess the tenants attitude towards debt.

If the tenant has a debt, is it a good thing? And no debt = bad thing?

  1. tenant can stay put after the fixed term creating a huge issue for LL.

Sounds strange to me. What’s the purpose of a contract then? What’s the purpose of the landlord insurance? Isn’t it exactly to mitigate mentioned risks?

  1. no long term job stability

If you can’t verify foreign income, it doesn’t mean a prospective tenant doesn’t have a stable job or income from savings.

If you were informed, you would realise that there are systems in place to prevent excessive rent increases. A landlord wants good tenants to stay. The market dictates rent amounts.

This is all theory. In reality, there are all sorts of discrimination happening in the rental market. And tenants would agree to any price increase just to not deal with the fear of being rejected due to some landlord prejudice or preference towards a particular tenant group. Who would better know if not landlords themselves?

Would you be happy to place yourself at unnecessary increased risk for the sake of overseas strangers?

I think overseas stranges are in a much vulnerable position as they risk to never being able leave their home country, even for a vacation. I doubt you understand what it takes to emigrate.

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I think you should become a landlord and only then will you will understand. There is none better to understand risk assessment than those taking it.

If youre unable to see that it is clearly better to see a footprint of someones behaviour than none at all then I fear there is no hope of you being convinced.

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