As part of the Rent Now process, we use our standard tenancy agreement and we need to handle all the initial funds.
Contract-signing, rent collection and deposit registration are all essential parts of Rent Now, because we need to be involved in all these areas in order to vouch for the fact that the tenancy has been set up properly, and our standard contract specifies how we will treat the rent and deposit.
The deposit will be protected and transferred to your control within a government approved custodial deposit protection scheme as soon as funds clear, and rent is released shortly after move in. Making the initial payment is also typically easier for tenants when using OpenRent since we support payment by debit card as well as bank transfer - and notify you as soon as it's made so that you can hand over the keys when convenient.
If you are engaged in a Rent Now application and find that it is not a suitable service, you just need to cancel the application on the website.
Upon doing so, the holding deposit will be returned to the tenant. You are then free to proceed with the tenancy off-platform and can still make use of referencing and our other services on a standalone basis.