I have one property let through OpenRent and a second that has been let long term through a high street agent, which I now want to transfer to OpenRent. In this property, the tenant arranged their deposit through ZeroDeposit. I know that the deposit can’t be transferred directly between agents, but I want to know if they can they use ZeroDeposit again for OpenRent in a separate transaction.
(Supporting info: this is a good long-term tenant. I’m happy to waive a week’s rent temporarily or come to some other arrangement so the tenant isn’t out of pocket, and because the high street agent has managed the property long term, all they need for the transfer is three months’ notice.)
Great to hear you want to move your tenancy over to OpenRent!
We offer some general guidance on the process here.
The tenants will be able to use our partner deposit replacement scheme, Reposit. This is contingent on them passing referencing or having a guarantor who can pass in their place.
So back to the above topic. My existing tenant has paid her holding deposit. I think the next step in OpenRent is referencing, although in her case, it’s not necessary as I’ve had her as a tenant for over three years. Can I skip referencing?
As mentioned in my previous comment, the Reposit scheme is contingent on the tenants (or their guarantors) passing referencing. The tenants won’t be able to access the Reposit scheme through us if they have not undergone OpenRent referencing.
@Adam11 just be aware OR’ “modest monthly’ is because they do almost no lettings management. So very little of the admin
‘Rentnow’ is a 10quid a month rent collection service with access to other services plus tenancy creation.
If paid to move to a new OR created tenancy you’ll need to return current deposit, get new deposit, re -serve up to date epc, gas safety certificates etc
“Management plus” is basically emergency cover similar to what you get from Homeserve or a landlord insurance policy emergency cover option.
So no regular inspections, checkin inventory or dealing with tenants or evictions or any sort of property management.
With or without OR services you can still use the OR website to keep track of when new gas safety certificates etc are due (use the offsite tenancy page) without paying for “mgt plus”
Who takes care of inspections, gas/electric checks, ongoing right to rent checks (if necessary), getting trades in to deal with issues or the 101 other things that tenants can throw your way?
If you’re going to be doing that anyway, then you’re self-managing.
The tenancy has transferred to OpenRent after serving a three-month notice with the previous MA. The main lessons learned/questions I still have outstanding are:
The communication from OpenRent suggested that the tenant could choose between paying a full deposit and using Reposit (one-off fee). She agreed to the latter option, which I said I’d reimburse (because it was my decision to change MA, so I didn’t think she should incur increased costs). However, she tells me she’s had to pay the full deposit. Is there any way to switch to Reposit retroactively?
She was previously effectively on a one-month rolling tenancy after the expiry of the initial AST, which gives her flexibility she wants. I set up the OpenRent tendency as a fixed one-month to maintain this flexibility, but it looks like I’m going to have to keep renewing it every month. Is there a way to change this so it runs like a regular AST, with the tenant required to give a month notice and the landlord required to give two months notice as normal?
You’re right in principle. However, I have a good long-term relationship with this tenant. I feel comfortable with having OpenRent as a clearing house and resource for helping with the kind of things you mentioned, basically for £10 per month. My experience on other properties is that they are pretty good at helping sort gas/electric checks, etc.
If she did not have the option to select reposit then that suggests you didn’t activate that option when you issued the tenancy agreement. You can’t change that now.
I don’t understand why you think you’ve got to renew the contract every month.
Don’t quite understand this. The reposit is a deposit insurance /deposit replacement scheme. Not a charge for change of MA. Assume you returned previous deposit for previous tenancy. So this is a replacement deposit insurance with up to 8 weeks rent protection for any damage
I expect OR can return full deposit and offer reposit instead if you and tenant want that. Unless tenant wasn’t eligible (didn’t pass referencing or didn’t gave a guarantor?) or didn’t want to pay annual reposit renewal fee. @mod_harry may be able to help.
On second point I don’t know how OR fixed renewable tenancies work but maybe end it return deposit and set up a new AST instead with the notice periods you want (and using reposit). Note that under RRA there’s no such thing as a fixed term tenancy from may26 anyway. You will need to re-serve the “how to rent” , epc etc
No, but if you change MA to OR, you can’t transfer the deposit from the old tenancy to the new one. You have to create a new tenancy and lodge a new deposit.
I responded to @mod_harry so hopefully he’ll offer guidance.
“using Reposit (one-off fee). She agreed to the latter option, which I said I’d reimburse (because it was my decision to change MA”
-first there’s a recurring annual fee for reposit so it’s not quite one off
-second you’ve not done referencing so tenant won’t be eligible for it I think
-third by reimbursing for cost of Reposit, you are providing the tenant with all its benefits to tenant (not having to provide a larger deposit up front, less time waiting for deposit schemes to return funds if a dispute) but there’s absolutely no benefits to you. Basically at end of tenancy if they haven’t cleaned or caused damage they are still liable but you have no means to get it from them - it doesn’t come from the one off fee. If you want to charge for damage etc they will independently rule between tenant and you and tenant may lose a further ‘dispute’ fee but none of that helps get any damage paid for. If tenant wants a smaller deposit to avoid the large cash held as a deposit, why not just offer a 1week deposit, or no deposit at all? You don’t have to have a deposit and Reposit doesn’t give you as LL any of the benefits of one..so why bother with it ?