With the likes of Upad and Openrent offering complete online letting solutions for UK landlords at rock bottom prices, the question we would like to ask you today is: are they offering you rock bottom tenant referencing and rent guarantee insurance services for your trouble?

We all want to find the most cost effective deal, especially in the buy to let industry. However cheap is definitely not always cheerful.

Lets compare 3 industry leaders:

Advertise Your Property To Let:
TR Lettings: £55
Upad > £118.80
Open Rent > £49

Tenant Referencing prices:
TR Lettings > £40
Upad > £75
Open Rent > £20

Rent Guarantee Insurance prices:
TR Lettings > £100
Upad > £140
Open Rent > £104

Additional Extras prices:
TR Lettings:
EPC Certificate: £75
Floor Plan: £70
To Let Board: £35

Upad:
EPC Certificate: £84
Floor Plan: £96
To Let Board: £48

Open Rent:
EPC Certificate: £49
Photographs + Floor Plan: £104
Inventory + Check In: £125

(all prices are inclusive of VAT)

On the surface, Upad and Open Rent appear value for money against high street letting agents. However when you dig deeper you actually realise that these ‘offers’ are simply a scheme to capture your details.

Lets look at their referencing and RGI offers in more depth:

Upad tenant referencing includes:

• Credit Check, Affordablity Check, Written Employer reference & previous landlord references.

Open Rent tenant referencing includes:

• Credit, fraud and debt check, right to rent check & advice, affordability rating, previous landlord reference & employers reference.

If you haven’t realised already, these is a distinct absence of a Tenant History Report from both companies.

What is a Tenant History Report?

A Tenant History Report is the data we hold on your applicant tenant via Landlord Referencing.co.uk. The data has been provided by thousands of landlords and letting agents over the past seven years about both their good and bad previous tenants.

Why are Tenant History Reports so important?

The more landlords and letting agents that join Tenant Referencing UK and reference using our services to upload their previous and current tenants – the more tenant histories are created.
This in turn protects landlord and letting agents in the future when referencing tenants, as they will no longer have to rely on what the tenant is telling them; or not telling them in some cases.

Uploading applicant tenants also prevents tenants from making multiple tenancy applications in order to use it for criminal activity; such as subletting, cannabis farms, prostitution rings, etc. And no rent guarantee or legal expenses insurance or legal expenses will cover you for massive malicious damage bills done by your tenant

In essence, our Rent Guarantee Insurance may seem to be £4 more than what Open Rent can offer but you need to ask yourself what that insurance actually offers, i.e. amount of cover, excesses, support, etc. For instance, rent arrears on a 2 bedroom property in London could quite easily reach 20-30k.
Plus, the tenant references that Open Rent and Upad offer are effectually just a credit score – so before choosing your online lettings service you seriously need to question the calibre of their RGI policies, their references and the quality of tenant they can provide.

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