Rentguard Referencing Avis 

This is the most dreadful reference agent we have encountered. Their service is awful, with incorrect names for tenant, inconsistent information requested and unable to contact. If this was my business I would be mortified to either own it or work for it. NEVER to be recommended and should come with a health warning for extreme stress.

Terrible company. Don’t use. They don’t have competent staff to run checks on references. They Provided false information about me to landlord. Horribly bad.

I have looked at the reviews of this company on here purely because I wanted some knowledge on the concerns I’ve had with my reference check.It seems to be a re-occurring problem this company has and not just for Tenants but landlords also.My credit score came back as a medium risk but way off my actual score that is pretty good considering the covid situation.My employment as a key worker kept me in work throughout the whole pandemic although I actually lost a few thousand to spread work around as the working guidelines changed due to the 2 metre rule.My problem with Rentguard referencing is the fact my credit score is totally wrong and I actually know my score through Equifax Experian Credit karma and even clear score as well as my banking app score.My company was not contacted to verify I am management and can indeed earn a lot more than was checked.I was not given the option to add earnings of my self employed role and have this checked.I’ve come up as high risk without a guarantor with not 1ccj or one missed payment to any company whatsoever for as long as I can remember in probably over 10 years and now I have no confidence in securing a property that I can easily pay for that’s well with in my budget and would cost a quarter of my whole household income pa.Not only have they got this wrong but they have left me and the landlord in a situation.Absolutely terrible company.My guess is they want to keep charging landlords for the service then eventually hand them with a lifeline.Would be interesting to hear if any landlords got a perfect tenant through this company that actually turned out bad.

I have had a terrible experience. There were very few pieces of information in the report that they have given me that were actually correct. Not only did they say I did not give them valid bank account details (which was false) or that my residency was not confirmed (again, false), but they also stated that my nationality was Czechoslovakian despite this country being non-existent for almost 30 years now.

Disgusting company
Rude on phone
I had one day to wait for my next payslip after a rise and more hours since being ferloughed they said that you as fine …, but no sent my report without out it

Disgusting company and complaint sent to trading standards these people need taking down

Atrocious! Failed my guarantor despite the fact that there is a large pension coming in from a joint account. Numerous errors on the report. Failing decent and trustworthy tenants just so they can get extra money via referencing and insurance. LANDLORDS beware - do not fall for their checks. You may as well do the checks yourself! OpenRent was easy to use until Rentguard got involved. Unbelievably stressful experience!

Avoid. I am a Landlord and have experienced this company as I a guarantor for a my son who is renting a property. I have been approved as a guarantor but the experience was unsatisfactory and showed a lack of judgement in risk assessment. I will not be using this company for my own letting.

Rentguard made several mistakes when checking my info:

1. They put the wrong salary by checking my open bank details instead of taking the effort to contact my employer.
2. They couldn't check my current rent payments from open banking and instead of asking for this info, they left this section blank in the report
3. Sent a declined report to the landlord just because my current landlord didn't provide them with letting reference.
4. Once my landlord got back to them with a letting reference, they filled in wrong details such as length of my current tenancy. So I ended up emailing them several times to correct the info in my report.
5. They never pick up phone calls.

Overall, a horrible experience that made my prospect landlord very suspicious to rent the property to me.

I use openrent quite often and they are linked to rentguard referencing , so I have ended up using them a few times. Dealing with them has always proved to be a nightmare for both tenants and landlord. Your average tenant would never pass any of their checks. Most tenants who where employed with payslips before are working as self employed now due to Covid and have no way to show their employment via the last years tax returns . The only way they can prove there income would be via using the open baking route where the referencing company can see the payments coming in every month. But unfortunately if they haven’t selected this option during the application stage then the the only way to prove their income would be via tax returns . Rent guard doesn’t allow tenants to later authorise them to check their income later via the open banking route and would just decline the application . This is just one of the several issues I have experienced dealing with them. You need to pay again so they can send in a new application to the same tenants . Ridiculous , this is a money making scam . So they can keep refusing tenants so you loose your referencing fees and they get to make more money every time you get new tenants for referencing

They forwarded a report to the landlord before getting all the details from me. For this reason I came off as a high risk tenant, although I never did with other referencing companies!

- They provided the landlord with a visa that expires before our move in date.

- They asked me to send more documents and without receiving them in the following hour proceeded to send the report to the landlord.

- They couldn’t do a credit check on me because ‘there is no information on me’ although they did one in 2018 and it came back fine!

- They could not confim my previous residency although again, I did I referencing check with them 3 years prior.

On top of this, they try and defend themselves instead of admiting they made a mistake and letting the landlord know. We had to defend and explain ourselves to the landlord, for their mistakes.

I purchased referencing for two tenants via OpenRent. One of the references came back within a couple of hours, there was a problem with the second one (id issues). I did try to call three times, the automated service sated 'if your call is urgent please stay on the line and someone will answer your call'. Unfortunately twice the call was disconnected, I then sent an email which was not answered I called a third time and my call was answered and the advisor was helpful. My experience from RR was ok, but room for improvement!!!

Do not use. Unprofessional and borderline rude on the phone (after many attempts to get through). Asked for far too much personal information including complete access to current and savings accounts. Ended up losing out on the flat we wanted because of this company

Very unprofessional.
Their system is not good to asses any credit terms.
They are evaluating with not true information.

Rarely pick up the phone. Keep hanging up on me before I get a chance to speak! Called new business dept who picked up immediately (of course they did...) and put me through where someone promptly put the phone down. Tried again through the insurance department who put me through but still no one picked up. A message said to try again later. Money back please and never again!! AVOID! Been in the property business 18 years and thought I would give them a try. How about NOPE.

My estate agent RNV Properties Ltd, Nikesh Vadher used this report and I found out tenant is growing cannabis after 2 months. Then when I contact the company he pretend to work was a big lie. I was traveling and got stuck due to Covid. I am starting to take legal on all the related parties. Don't use this service

I have spoken to two people in this company today and they was very rude and aggressive, manager Stuart doesnt have clue, beware do not use this company at all, this company discriminated against my company for trying to help one of my employees, this company is a joke, in over 15 years running my own company and having to deal with this company is a waste of time

Unfortunately I am utterly not satisfied by their services. They took one week to analyse my application, always asking me, my flatmates and my landlord the same documents every time. Finally. when the report was issued it was wrongly completed, with plenty of mistakes. Starting from the rent I am currently paying now and without taking in any consideration my income. Now, I will have to waste my time again, to try to solve these problems.

I would recommend a different company for referencing.

Just going through a nightmare with them at this very moment. They never answer the phone (when they did once they hubg up on my face when realised it was a complaint) let alone emails. Run away from this awful “company” made of no. professional people.

Awful experience, provided all requested information and was repeatedly told I had to resubmit it as they did not have the information. Then had reference declined because they stated my income was 0 on the report. Completely ineffectual and useless.
Would strongly advise landlords to not use this service.