We have stringent systems in place to ensure that tenants are protected from malicious activity and are dealing with the landlord directly, however, unfortunately these measures are not invincible.
Setting up a tenancy directly with a landlord outside of Rent Now can leave you vulnerable to certain risks. We have outlined these risks below so that you can be wiser about your property search:
The Risks:
Stolen Funds - Transferring any funds directly to a landlord means that they are unprotected by Rent Now. Therefore, if a landlord doesn’t make it clear how they intend to proceed, we don't have control over releasing these funds back to you.
Illegal Tenancy Creation - There are certain legal requirements that landlords need to meet when creating a tenancy, such as registering the security deposit in a government approved scheme. Proceeding outside of Rent Now, you could risk that these requirements are not met, which could jeopardise the tenancy as a whole.
Data Mishandling - When proceeding outside of Rent Now we can’t guarantee the security of any personal data that you provide to the landlord for referencing (or anything else). All referencing ordered through OpenRent is handled securely on our portal. You can see how OpenRent protects your data here.
With this said, many legitimate landlords do prefer to create tenancies themselves and, on the whole, you won’t encounter any of the issues above. It’s just better to be aware of these things when proceeding outside of OpenRent.
Rent Now
The best way to protect yourself as a tenant is to use Rent Now - our tenancy creation service.
Rent Now ensures that your tenancy is set up in line with best industry practice, giving you peace of mind that your money is being handled correctly.
We look after the holding deposit during the application, protect the tenancy deposit in a government-backed protection scheme, and only pass on the first month's rent to the landlord once you have moved in.
You can find out more about how OpenRent protects you as a tenant here: