Updating post from Reddit.
Hello all. My partner and I have been flat hunting, and we finally decided to move forward with one.
The flat was listed in OpenRent. We met the landlord and viewed the flat and made an offer.
He seems very friendly and flexible, but the doubts creeped in when he asked us to send the money via bank transfer, and not through OpenRent. I also am having slight skepticism as the flat is still being advertised on the market. In my experience, once there is an agreement in place, the listing gets taken down so nobody else can enquire.
I understand this in itself may not be cause for concern, and he may just want to reduce his fees. However, it’s quite logical that we would like to be as secure and cautious as possible in order to avoid getting scammed out of a large sum of money.
I don’t have a bad feeling at all, but can never be too cautious. I have attached screenshots of my correspondence with him, and was just curious to get some second thoughts.
Many thanks in advance.
You can place a holding deposit through openrent, it’s held by them not the landlord.
Then they (openrent) collect first months rent and full deposit.
They then transfer this to the landlord roughly 7 days after the tenancy starts (assuming everything happens as it should).
Do it via openrent, you shouldn’t have any issues.
I don’t think this is a scam, just an inexperienced landlord not knowing how to use openrent.
He’s been on the platform for 7 years and I can see he had another property which is now off the market. I do imagine he prefers to do these things directly, just to minimize his expenses.
If he’s sent a request for holding deposit on openrent just pay that.
Means he’s got the package which does that so it’s no additional expense to him.
Covers everyone.
Sounds safer
Just seems like a private (possibly inexperienced) landlord to me. OpenRent isn’t the agent, no reason for anything to be through them after this point.
I use OpenRent too, and typically use the contract from the NRLA and have in the past had transfers/holding deposits paid directly instead of through the platform with no issues.
Personally, I don't get involved in references and certainly wouldn't ask for pay slips (unless it's a house share and 1 person is leaving and 1 person is replacing them). I leave that to openrent or the NRLA referencing scheme which is pretty comprehensive & is around £20.00 per person
To put your mind at ease, might be worth doing a quick land registry search, it's a few pounds and tells you who the owner is. If it doesn't match, then probably a scam. I'd also request references be done through openrent, cite GDPR concerns, because legally speaking the landlord is not allowed to hold your data unless they're registered with the ICO
> I’d also request references be done through openrent, cite GDPR concerns, because legally speaking the landlord is not allowed to hold your data unless they’re registered with the ICO.
As a landlord, I’d 100% refuse that request. I always fi my own referencing - that way I know it’s actually done properly and I am able to form a complete picture if the applicant myself, and am not relying on some third party.
“GDPR concerns” - seriously? You do realise that carrying out referencing isn’t the reason for landlords having to register with the ICO? Unless you’re letting property to an anonymous tenant (eg through an agent) you should be registered anyway.
He is of a similar mentality. All he asked for was the payslips, and he said he has many properties, and generally can tell beforehand if a potential tenant will be problematic or not.
I also get his point of view, because I preferred to deal with the landlord directly and also get a feel for how they will be, as opposed to dealing with agencies.
And of course it’s easier on us as tenants to not go through the whole referencing process.
In fact - we are very much not of similar mentality.
When I vet applicants, I want references from employer and previous landlord, which I do personally, taking steps to verify who I’m contacting first. I’ll also get credit checks done, via the NRLA. I’ll verify IDs, and carry out ‘right-to-rent’ checks, as mandated for all applicants, not just those with foreign accents.
The fact that your landlord apparently isn’t doing any of this stuff, I would say definitely warrants further investigation before you pay him any money.
Fair enough. I had a viewing with another landlord a few months back. All he wanted was last 3 months bank statements and said he knows what to look out for. However, he said deposit and first month’s rent would be paid through OpenRent, so I didn’t think much of it.
The only thing making me weary about this landlord is how easygoing he is and that the payment will be directly to him.
If the landlord has any record of the tenants' name and phone number or email address, they'd need to be ICO registered. I can't imagine any landlord who is self managing a property to not hold any details of the tenant.
I don’t use OpenRents deposit platform. I don’t take deposits ahead of signing the tenancy either and then ask for deposit and first months rent as I had the keys over.
Yea someone might mess me around but if I’ve not given keys and not taken any money, no one is at risk - but I don’t think using a standard bank transfer is in itself a red flag unless it goes along with a few others. I’d never give (or accept) cash so there is at least a record.
Same here, never used Openrent’s deposit thing (“Rent now”) because I use Openrent for advertising and nothing else - I prefer to keep full control of the whole process. I give the tenant a signed receipt stating the T&Cs of the holding deposit. £700 (or even £400) is a very high holding deposit though. That’s the only slightly pinkish flag here.
Same here, but I do everything myself and like to get a gut feeling aswell. Deposit and 1st month in advance when signing contract by bank transfer and after that standing order. I dont see the point in references especially from previous landlords as the landlord may see it as a chance to get rid of Tennants they dont like, as has happened to a friend. Maybe I've been lucky but sofar gut feeling / easy going approach and honesty has gone really well and all the Tennants I've had have been more like friends by end of tenancy.
I've had 3 landlords through OpenRent and 2 went this way. No problems ever they're just trying to avoid fees. If you like the place I'd go ahead
Any more than 1week rent is not legal as a holing deposit.
Yes! Why did it take so long scrolling to get to this comment. Changed in 2019 so the landlord may just not know the current law, but worth OP bearing in mind that the landlord probably also isn't up to speed with other tenancy law. Could work in their favour or against them depending on the situation.
He agreed to one week’s rent in the end. He seems too easygoing 😂
He might have agreed to it in the end, but it seems dubious that a ll who knew what they were doing would suggest an illegal holding deposit in the first place
Make sure your deposit goes into a protected scheme
Seems standard. Except the ongoing dialogue.
It could be as simple as him sending you an offer form with all the relevant details you read and then reply back with all your details when you have them without all the dialogue.
Legally holding deposits can’t be more than one weeks rent
It can can happen. Some landlords just advertise for free on open rent but do not sign up for all the features and follow due process outside open rent regardless.
BUT he seems a bit disregarding the law though. Have you seen the certificates yet? If he’s asking for more than 1 week deposit, which is against the law, what else they’re easy going about?. Before you sign the contract request the certificates if they didn’t come with the contract from the landlord. If they don’t have them do not rent the property and request the holding deposit back.
Also make sure that contract has their full name and address and other contact details. If they do not give you receipt for deposit being protected by the government scheme within a month you can report them and court will make them do that and they will also pay the fine. Hence you need their details on the contract.
As a previous (now fortunately exited) landlord who used Openprent for advertising I would definitely never have contemplated using any of the other services such as deposit collection or holding deposits. In my opinion any landlord who used these services would have been rather stupid. The failure of the landlord to wish to use these services does not in itself mean anything at all one way or the other.
Doesn’t seem like a scam, just seems like a landlord with lack of experience with OpenRent.
In order to list the property on OpenRent you need to show ownership docs to them before it’s listed. Landlord is probably asking for deposit via bank transfer as he’s done this in the past via other tenancy agreements outside of OpenRent. Although he’s been on the platform for 7 years it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s created any tenancies on there before.
The flat will continue to be shown as available until the deposit is paid to OpenRent. Just ask him to request any deposits via OpenRent. Simple.
Source: I am a landlord via OpenRent and sometimes can forget the process if it’s not used regularly. Eg tenancy lasts for 3 years for example.
Just out of interest what payslip system do you use. Was in the same situation for my payslips when renting a new place this month, just wondering if it’s the same one
I'm renting from a landlord who I found via openrent. He didn't want to be paid through the platform either for whatever reason, though he never asked for a holding deposit as he'd narrowed it down to us (after we expressed strong interest) and had already received our landlord reference and payslips.
Also, we didn't pay deposit and first month's rent until we met him again at the property to sign the contract. He had the keys in front of him and as soon as the money came into his account he handed the keys over and that was that, no issues all round.
If you pay them directly there's a strong possibility they'll take your money and run or they'll just screw you for the deposit in the end. Trying to bypass the system is very suspicious, I would report it to open rent and look for a new place.
I was able to speak to my bank and they provided payment protection. They were able to do a check on our landlord from their end
This happened to me at the place I'm currently renting. The landlords advertised it through Open Rent and then didn't want to use the platform for holding deposit, rent etc. The landlords are just quite tightfisted and wanted to keep as much money for themselves as possible but it did make me feel uncomfortable (and I was relieved when the actual deposit at least did go into a proper scheme!)
The holding deposit I paid was smaller though, I think it was around £250. Your £700 seems too high and that would push it into too high a risk for me.
Maybe not tight fisted - Tennants seem to think the average landlord is rolling in money , well we aren't.
We buy a house, renovate, jump through a lot of hoops and cost to become a registered landlord, insure the property & pay for 99% of repairs within the property during the lease which is all fair enough, not to mention PAT testing, electrical certification, gas certificate, fire alarm and heat sensor compliance, insulation rating / cost of running property certification and all the other things the council can think of that cost us money.
Ontop of this depending on the route we choose there are companies who lease the property on the landlords behalf which also cost us money for all the little they do. Some of us prefer to do this ourselves so we can at least break even or make a little bit of profit from the risks we take - and they are big risks if the Tennants turn out to be troublesome.
So you can excuse us if we dont like throwing our money away hand over fist, it's a bit like expecting you to work for free or in some cases even paying to be able to work.
Look I’m also a landlord so I know what it’s like. I own a flat in London and rent where I live in Bath.
I can assure you that in this case, they are tight fisted. There are some quite major issues with the house (leaks in particular) and they come and do makeshift repairs themselves. So far we’ve paid them 26k in rent and only once have they had a professional in to look at an issue (and only because the landlord’s partner got electrocuted when he tried to fix it himself)
I also think they’re not being completely honest as all their banking post and some other official mail still comes to the house
Ok I see where your coming from. Appolgises as I thought you were branding us all as the same.
Also the tightfisted comment was more to explain why I eventually felt comfortable that they weren't trying to scam me by avoiding use of open rent deposit etc. there was a simpler explanation!
lmao
You're not a Landlord out of the kindness of your heart, so cut crap. You're a Landlord because you're having an appreciating asset paid off for you. Okay, fine. But don't saying that you "jump through hoops" as if you demand to be respected and recognised as someone who is looking out for someone other than number one, because that's just horseshit, tbh
Certainly sounds scammy to me. That desk and chest of drawers bit sounds a bit con’ish to me.
Might be a scam. Or possibly scamola.
Those were asked by OP, not by the landlord 😂
I know. That’s a confidence trick.
Sounds scammy to me.
Off platform. Claims to be the landlord (how do you know? A guy showed up and had keys) He's willing to discount the rent??? (since when is this a thing?)
Once you transfer the money out there'll be no recourse. No deposit protection, no guarantee he'll exist the day of the move.
I would report it to the platform
Absolutely nothing wrong in taking a holding deposit “off platform”: https://help.openrent.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/360003112818-What-is-the-difference-between-a-holding-deposit-and-a-security-deposit
It’s up to the applicant if they want to take steps to verify the landlord’s ID, but that’s another issue.
By checking the land registry and the ID of the person claiming to be the landlord.
Has OP done any of those two things?
He did say the deposit would go through a protection scheme when we attended the viewing. But at this point we only have his word.