I’m not signed up to Rent Now and I don’t plan on doing so. Sending potential tenants a link to pay the holding deposit via Open Rent is making tenants confused and doubtful of signing up directly with me. How can I turn this feature off? It seems to be a ploy to force landlords to sign up to rent now.
You can’t. Either use a different provider (eg Hello Neighbour) or just tell any tenants during viewings that you are not accepting holding deposits or doing contracts through OpenRent and if they press the ‘Rent now’ button on the advert and try to put down a holding deposit without having talked to you first, they will be instantly blocked and the holding deposit returned. Explain OpenRent try to get people to use their ecosystem (just like Apple) as it means more fees to OR but you are using OR for advertising only.
Good luck
I already did but as my tenants are students, they see that OpenRent is a safer option than paying a landlord directly. OpenRent shouldn’t really be doing this for those who aren’t subscribed to Rent Now. If a tenant pays their housing deposit to OR we’d have to refuse the payment which is frustrating to the tenant and to us.
And they’d be right - it is safer just like paying via a letting agent is safer. Openrent hold on to the holding deposit and balance of first month’s rent up to 10 days after move in date. This protects tenants from dodgy LLs who take it all then disappear and never hand over the keys.
If they dont trust you, either a) point them to nrla guidance on how to avoid landlord scams,
or b) get previous tenants to vouch for you, or c) simply find someone else.
Why would you want to enter a financial relationship (which they can end easily by giving notice but which for you to end requires months of going through courts to gain possession and evict with loss of a year or more of rent plus legal costs) with anybody who doesn’t trust you. Madness.
Good luck