Rentguard Referencing Avis 

The idea is good but the customer service is appalling!

Called to chase up references as due to covid 19 my job had closed so I called to offer alternative ways to obtain references. The vile little man on the phone would hardly allow me to speak and kept interrupting me. When he did respond his tone was abrupt and arrogant!

The team really need customer service training!

As a landlord I've had a problem with an incorrect report sent from Rentguard via openrent.

It looked a simple error in that the rental amount had been input incorrectly. I rang Rentguard as directed and was told I needed to contact Openrent. I did, only to be told I should contact Rentguard. After another email in which I said I didn't wish to be caught between the two companies OpenRent said they would sort it out. I expected a refresh and reissue of the report with the error rectified. The next day I saw that the referencing process had restarted and the tenant had been reset and asked for some personal details in order to continue. I contacted OpenRent via email again using the thread from the previous query to question this as I thought all info had been adequately provided previously. I received a standard response saying I should contact Rentguard! Deep breath!

I did and, because they don't seem to have a log of any previous communication about the issue even when provided with the reference number, I explained the situation again. Another deep breath!

Rentguard said they hadn't asked for any further info (even though the the OpenRent system says so) and that I would receive a new report by COB. The response I received, albeit factual (I hope) was abrupt, with no apology. It made me wonder why, at the outset I was passed back to OpenRent when it was Rentguards responsibility in the first instance as proved by the fact they are trying to sort it now.

Its very frustrating having to repeat myself and being passed from pillar to post. Take responsibility and sort out with Openrent a way of working that means the customer is not having to do the chasing, it reflects badly on both companies.

Finally, and directly related to Rentguard but reflecting badly in OpenRent, because of the error, I'm now concerned about the legitimacy of the information contained within the rest of the report.

I’ve been living in Uk for almost 10 years and rented many flat without any sort of problem. When it comes to this company, they declare FALSE on the report, declaring FALSE information given by the landlord (I’ve read the email with references myself).
They should be reported.
I still don’t understand why a company like OpenRent would work in partner with such a DISGRACEFUL company.
False declarations and also, they think with an income of over £3350 Per month We cannot afford to pay £1200 rent. RIDICULOUS.

Just the rudest and most incompetent company ever.A referencing company, which OBVIOUSLY makes mistakes that end up someone not getting to rent a property, even though YOU make sure to correctly pass on every information, even most private details and try everything to communicate clearly with all parts.
The communication in the end fails completely and information is differently shared between every single party.
Why is Openrent working with a company like this? And can please someone explain to me, why it is completely impossible to rent a flat, when you do not have an UK bank account yet?

Terrible company, uncommunicative, unhelpful, rude

Most invasive site I’ve ever dealt with, don’t do it. It smells of scam! Rentguard asks for full banking passcode and access to your banking app. Don’t do it!

Was a bit worried because they have so many bad reviews here, but it was an absolutely pleasant experience. The referencing was done in less than 3 business days, Rentguard replied to any questions we had in a matter of minutes and they always made sure to give us a detailed answer so we are completely informed about what's happening to our application.

I would give -5 stars if I could, My mum and sister were getting referenced for a landlord because they wanted to rent a property from him. They both failed so the landlord asked for a guarantor, my brother nominated him self as a guarantor for them and he failed too, the landlord didn’t rent the property to them and when my brother called them to find out why he failed they said they couldn’t verify he’s addresses, turns out they made a mistake and typed up he’s address incorrectly and because of that he failed the referencing and my disabled mum and my sister that cares for her didn’t get to rent the property. VERY POOR SERVICE..DONT USE!!!!!!!

This is the worst reference check service I’ve ever experienced. They just don’t let you pass, without verifying in depth your case, no calls to landlord or employer have been made. I don’t understand how OpenRent can benefit from such a poor service!

This is the most depressing rude and invasive dystopian form I've ever encountered, how dare they ask to see my bank account and my guarantor bank details. When the person requesting the info I know nothing about.

Just bad..plain, simple bad.

Half their stuff doesn't work and the support number is dead. It's incompetence in the most grotesque form.

I agree with some of these reviews.
The amount of time it took to get the references done was too long and I had to keep chasing them.
Rent guard said it was the prospective tenant not replying soon enough, the prospective tenant said it was Rentguard not informing them.
It is a shame as OpenRent is very good - Rentguard at present lets them down!!

This is probably the worst company I've ever dealt with. What should have taken 1 or 2 days at the most has taken two weeks. Even though you are sending highly sensitive information, rentguard doesn't even review what you send, but fails you anyway. On top of that the people who answer the phone say different things from each other, and have little to no knowledge about these matters.

Avoid this company at all costs. Frankly I have no idea how they stay in business.

This referencing company is absolutely useless and incompetent.
They provide mixed information, yield requirements left and right, and provide no updates, forcing you to chase and find information you provided wasn't enough.
I highly urge all property agencies to stay away from this company.
A process that should have taken 2 days, has dragged out over 2 weeks.

Referencing took so long, there was misunderstandings everywhere. We spoke to 5 different employees that seemed like they didn't really know what was going on.

They were supposed to contact our accountant and just heard 3 weeks later from the accountant that they were never contacted. Extremely bad service and feel sorry for good tenants and landlords as rentgaurd seems like a complete wedge between a process which is supposed to be exciting.

Really unhelpful and felt like we should of been getting paid as we did most of the job for them.

It must be the poorest service a referencing company could ever offer! This surely can't be legal... they are just sloppy and poor at communicating and disregard too many things. Instead of combining our income, they calculated affordability individually for entire rental amount for my husband and I. They also disregarded my husband's salary because he was on fixed-term contract, which I find absolutely shocking. One can get a mortgage whilst being on a contract (as we had!)but not rent a house?!

After 3 or 4 hours with them intermittently on the phone, we managed to sort things out which should have never caused an issue in first place. It was impossible to bring some sense with regards to my husband's wages, which were not taking into account, but at least they accounted properly for my salary and thus, "passed" the checks.

Open rent should really reconsider this partnership because after this experience, I would rather pay agency fees and undergo a fair and proper referencing and assessment, without the need to worry that we might lose the house because of their undue process. I shared open rent's vision in being on the tenant's side but they bear responsibility too in choosing their partners. It is all part of the rental process via Open Rent and thus, they should really do a proper due diligence in the quality of their affiliates.

It is a shame that a company like Openrent work with these guys

Please avoid using this reference company at all costs.
I have just undergone referencing through Rentguard, and due to repeated delays on their part, had to call them to ask whether they required any further documents. the first time I called, they said they had received everything. The second time I called ( as they still hadn't given any decision to the landlord), they informed me that they were missing a letter to from my employer. I requested for my employer to send it out again, after which there was still no decision report sent to the landlord. I carried on chasing and they assured me the report would be sent out immediately. 2 days later, I was shocked to hear that I had failed. I was sent a copy of the report from my landlord, and I had passed all criteria - Income verification, landlord checks, credit score, yet they still failed me.

I called them again to ask the grounds, and they said that If I write to them, they will reply within 28 days (my Move-in was due the next day).

From reading the reviews below of similar experiences, I can only assume they draw balls out of a bag to decide who passes and who fails. I have written to them for an explanation and cc'd my lawyer with the threat of Legal Action.

Luciano

Absolute useless service. Our landlords used it to do the referencing and they completely botched the job. First they contacted my employer without saying who they were therefore couldn't get any information from my jpb as it is private information. We got some of their answers after a very long period of trying to find someone who could speak to us.
In order to verify if I could afford to pay the rent, they made their calculations using our rent (£2000) for the flat but instead of dividing the amount by 2 renters (for my partner and I), they used the whole amount for a single person and out of the calculations they deducted that I couldn't pay because they made it look like we were to pay £4000 rent. We spend a week and a half calling them to get everything in order and they seem to be more pre-occupied to go home at 5pm than being professional. We nearly missed the deadline for our rental agreement but managed to get everything in order just in time. Their scoring system is also bogus because my partner passed with a score of 260 and I was failed with a score of 270.
As a tenant I wouldn't trust them, as a landlord I would avoid them at all cost.

Absolutely useless company, who have no idea what they’re doing! I was told that they could not get a tenancy reference without me paying a fee, but when I spoke to my agents, I found out the fee was for them, and I was not legally allowed to pay it. They refused to pay and left me stuck in the middle.

I was asked again and again to provide a tax return to prove my self employment, even though I had never said I was self employed and explained several times I am in full time employment.

They NEVER answer the phone to discuss issues.

They failed my referencing after completely ignoring all of my emails and attempts to resolve the issues they had created, and wasted over a week of my time.

Absolutely useless!