In particular, how can you be sure that an applicant isn’t using fraudulent documents to verify their income and employment? Which specialist referencing companies get them checked out?
My fear is that they just look at the document and tick the box.
independently cross ref with their HR dept and 6 months of payslips and bank statements
@Howard1 they do what you and I do and more- t h ey don’t rely on docs from tenant. They will check employment with employer; use credit checking; use open banking to check records in an actual account to verify income and history of claimed rent payments. Check for ccjs. Check social media and other sources to see if they’ve been living where they claimed in previous years.
And ultimately if they get through all the checks of a ref agency who can check more than you and much more easily, they also have to pass right to rent checks which means a passport check too. If you are still unsure you can get a witnessed statement from a professional like a lawyer, as you would do for a property purchase.
And like any tenant you can mitigate arrears risks with RGI and legal cover
Good luck
I’m using a company called Letro. They check tenant documents, credit scores, and income. It’s not bad; on one occasion, a tenant used fake documents, and their AI-powered platform instantly flagged the document.
Hi @Howard1
You’re welcome to use OpenRent’s referencing.
We do not accept documents as part of referencing as these are notoriously difficult to verify and cannot be relied upon to form a recommendation.
Instead, we rely on transactions the applicant receives into their bank account and references from their employer to verify their declared income.
You can check it out here:
Nationwide tracing do credit checks and verify it
They have digital data on real time location of tenants etc etc
I would also do your own checks: I used OpenRent referencing and not only were CCJ’s missed, but also they were evicted from their previous home due to noise, mess, general bad behaviour. When I went back to query this with OpenREnt, I was told that the references are just a guide, and it’s upto the landlord to make their own investigations and base decisions on that. Save the money, and do social media checks and ask the neighbours at the previous / current address.
I would also do your own checks: I used OpenRent referencing and not only were CCJ’s missed, but also they were evicted from their previous home due to noise, mess, general bad behaviour. When I went back to query this with OpenREnt, I was told that the references are just a guide, and it’s upto the landlord to make their own investigations and base decisions on that. Save the money, and do social media checks and ask the neighbours at the previous / current address.
How do you check that the references from the employer are not false?
The question is not entirely academic. Some people will lie if needs must, and I know one landlord who said to me that he is in a dispute with his RPI provider because they claim that the referencing service did not verify his references properly.
The references aren’t just a guide, because you need them to be all in place and verified to support an RPI claim. See above.
you can phone up the employer independently to ask the hr dept if they work still there
You can ask for copies of 6 months payslips - these will show the employer- and compare payments agsinst the payment in for the tenant’s bank statements
You can look the company up in Companies House
You can call the company switchboard (find online!) and ask to be put through to the tenant
Nobody is going to fake an entire company website hr dept payslips and payments into their bank account in order to secure your tenancy
Frankly if you dont trust the referencing companies to do their job you have to do it yourself just like every other trade (builder electrician plumber letting agent etc)
My interest is entirely from the point of view of RPI. It’s because I’ve heard that there’s been a problem with Openrent’s referencing for RPI claims with LegalForLandlords – even though they sell both products.
Maybe one of the moderators here will clarify the situation. @mod_harry
@Howard1 so why not just use a different provider of referencing and/or a different provider of RPI. Plenty of alternatives to OR
yes that’s true, but it’s like all big organisations, once you start using them for all of your properties, you are kind of shackled to their processes etc… and their referencing is part of the Rent Now process which includes the marketing, enquiries to view, scheduling, accepting holding deposits, contracts, deposit taking and managing the rent payments etc….
I guess I wrongly assumed that as OpenRent are one of the main players in the rental dashboard / virtual agency sector, that I could trust them to do a thorough referencing process too, and also support you when it goes wrong. My mistake, and an incredibly costly one…… 18 months of nightmares and stress, and £70k out of pocket.
er… what gave you that impression? The buck for accepting a T stops with the LL and LL alone… even if you use an agency for tenant find.
@Danielle13 sorry to hear of your difficulties. May be worth consulting a lawyer to see if you have a winnable claim against OR for damages due to their insufficient referencing report which you relied on, at least if they made egregious errors or failed to carry out basic checks which would be reasonably expected. Even the threat of legal action via a solicitor letter may prompt them to help resolve for you or provide compensation.
But OR are like any lettings agency they will make mistakes. Being a large player is no guarantee of better customer service when things go wrong in any sector. Only that they are more likely to have a formal complaint process and maybe a CEO office you can try as well (i have done this successfully when train companies ‘Delay repay’ wrongly refuse to pay up for delays the company has caused deliberately - the CEO office will sometimes listen more than customer services agents whose main concern is often to find excuses why they cant help - why insurance companies have such a bad rep )
You’ll see on these forums many complaints about services provided by OR subcontractors so whilst often cheap and convenient the advice from LLs here seems to be to find your own trades etc. You certainly aren’t tied to using OR for anything. To get their RGI you have to use their referencing i think but otherwise there are no tie ins im aware of. Small traders have more to lose from bad reviews than a big player (unless like john lewis or m&s their brand is sold on high quality). Big companies will pay to generate lots of fake 5* reviews- just read the reviews for any large property mgt co.
Good luck
How odd that there has been no clarification from Openrent about this, the acceptability of their referencing for the RPI they sell.
I smell something fishy.
It’s not exactly clear what you would like clarifying here. Rent Guarantee Insurance is offered when all tenants have passed referencing, or a guarantor has passed in their place. This is the only way that Rent Guarantee Insurance can be obtained through OpenRent and our referencing process has been built around eligibility criteria agreed with the insurer.
If you have concerns about your specific references, please do get in touch with our customer service team at the bottom of this page.