I am about to let me first property. The tenant works part time and will have her rent topped up with housing benefit.
I have started referencing via Openrent and the local council are going to pay the 5 weeks rent deposit and 6 weeks rent in advance. They have offered to do the tenancy agreement but I have already paid for Rent now so was planning on using Openrent one.
Which one would you choose and what would the advantages and disadvantages be?
the council will pay upfront?WOW. I have not seen an openrent agreement .I use the National Landlords Association agreement ,which is simple to understand
Thanks Colin. I have joined the NLA on your recommendation! Being a new landlord there is much to learn.
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I was also surprised that the council were willing to pay so much up front. I asked for five weeks rent and a deposit £1350; and a months rent £1200. They agreed and offered to round it up to £3000!
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maz.m That is quite staggering. I have never heard of that .They must have been desperate to find a place.
Hi @maz.m, just so you know, it isn’t possible to use Rent Now without using our contract (AST).
Using rent now handles many a great deal of the tenancy creation admin, such as protecting the tenancy deposit for you and serving the tenants the prescribed information about how their money is protected. Hopefully these things will make it easier for new landlords like yourself!
Sam
I would not bother. I used Rent Now and Open Rent made such a mess of it, took weeks and can never speak to a person, just a call handler and bland email reply.
Open Rent were good but got too big to care, I would never use Rent Now again.
Use NLA or ALA contracts
you can speak to a human voice thru the NLA
Hi Brendan, I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience. We’re a small team so I know everyone that works here well, and we absolutely care about the experience of landlords using OpenRent.
I appreciate that Rent Now has limitations and might not be your best option going forward.
What exactly went wrong within the process? It’d be good to hear about it so I can pass on feedback to the team to stop it happening again in future for other landlords.
Many thanks,
Sam
I’ve had a wonderful experience with rent guard referencing, so I’m not sure if it’s the same team? I’ve been able to get through and speak to someone quickly each time. Each time I’ve rung the person has understood the case from the notes and been able to help.
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I’ve used Rent Now twice, and it has worked really well for me on both occasions. Sorry to hear you have had a problem, but I have recommended Open Rent to a few people now after a good experience with it.
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I’m a fairly new landlord (2 years) and I have always used Open Rent who have been brilliant.
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Apparently this a new scheme run by the council. I have since found out the £3000 payment is an incentive for landlords to take tenants in temporary accommodation. It is kept by the landlord at the end of tenancy.
Probably cheaper than temporary accomodation in a hotel
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That’s really interesting @maz.m! I’ve never heard of this before. Could I ask which council this is? I would love to find out more.
Sam
It smacks of desperation .Dreams can turn to nightmares. only time will tell.