A business planning to roll out a tenants’ passport has appointed ex-Belvoir and Northwood managing director Eric Walker as a consultant.
The Lettings Hub is to launch a beta version of its new property passport after the summer in a trial involving 25 agents, with a further 100 set to join.
Walker said: “There is a lot of talk around ‘passport’ in the industry currently, and it’s become a bit of a buzz word.
“But it’s rare you find innovation which helps landlords, tenants and agents simultaneously. The Lettings Hub have it with Property Passport.
“It delivers everything a letting agent needs to reduce their view-to-let ratio and saves everyone involved in letting property time and money.
“The amount of upfront and free information a letting agent, landlord and tenant can receive is the key game changer here, and it’s unrivalled by any of the other products I’ve seen.
“I’m looking forward to working alongside The Lettings Hub team to help with launching the product in the coming weeks.”
The product works by providing free pre-qualification information about tenants as a first stage.
A letting agent can use this to decide whether to complete the second stage of the reference, which can be paid for online by the agent, tenant or landlord.
The product will have competition, notably from Rightmove’s tenants’ passports.
Comments (15)
Back Eric all day long. Rightmove already are selling insurance to your tenant long before they send them to you with a ‘passport’
how much commission is being paid to the agent? You need to flag that up with the purchaser
Agents will receive £6 commission if an applicant they have introduced opts to purchase certification of their Property Passport themselves, which will be declared in our terms and conditions.
Good luck to whoever is throwing money at this and I hope they get a return. Hopefully something substantual will come out from this project. I’m sceptical.
Looking forward to this. I’ve been with the Lettings Hub for a long time and very happy with both their referencing and insurance products (not to mention customer service).
Thank you so much for your kind comments. We’re thrilled that our customers are as excited about the launch of Property Passport as we are!
I’m pretty sure no part of the referencing can be paid for by the tenant ….
Actually, a tenant can pay for the passport should they so wish. It could save them time and appeal to landlords fed up with increasing costs. It also demonstrates to the agent that the property is affordable and the tenant suitable so fewer wasted viewings.
The tenant fee ban only prohibits payments upon which the grant of a tenancy is contingent. It does not prohibit charges or fees for services which the tenant elects to pay for. For example, an agent cannot compel a tenant to take out liability insurance however a tenant can choose to do so.
I still don’t see why a tenant is going to want to pay for this. Why is saving the landlord/agent time a concern of theirs?
If the landlord/agent will only show the property to a tenant with a passport then the grant of the tenancy is contingent on the tenant entering into a contract with a third party. If I was a tenant without a passport trying to view a property and after being asked for my passport id I was then refused a viewing, I would be reporting the agent.
We are expecting that, in most cases, the purchasing of verified references will be paid for by the letting agent or landlord, but that doesn’t mean the tenant shouldn’t be offered the opportunity to as well. Typically tenants don’t know how they are being assessed or if they will pass when it comes to referencing. 69% of tenants we surveyed said they would welcome the ability to see their final results, with almost 8 in 10 stating they would have found it helpful to check their verified affordability before applying for a property. This is why we have added this payment option, but it is entirely their choice whether they use it. The legislation does also allow agents to request the tenant provides information in order to carry out credit or referencing checks, and may withhold any holding deposit paid if they refuse. As the first stage of a Property Passport is totally free, this should not pose a problem as the agent is just using this data to assess tenants earlier in the lettings process, which is much more logical.
Attempts to circumvent the fee ban is exactly the reason the ban was implemented in the first place ….
Giving tenants the ability to purchase verified references doesn’t equate to attempting to circumvent the fee ban. We are still expecting landlords and letting agents to primarily be the ones to make payment, but allowing tenants the option too simply allows all parties involved to make more informed decisions earlier in the lettings process. The Property Passport process highlights the legislation to the tenant and clearly states payment is optional, allowing them to make the decision for themselves. When desiging Property Passport we did not originally have the intention to offer the facility for a tenant to make payment. We introduced it based on feedback from tenants that told us they would welcome this as no other product extists that allows them to see how they appear in the eyes of the letting agent or landlord. It’s a huge waste of time and effort for all involved to only check the tenant’s credentials after they’ve already paid a holding deposit and the property has been withdrawn from the market. Tenants have only a 14% chance of getting a property (based on 7:1 viewing to let ratio) so they want to target the right properties faster too.
‘We are still expecting landlords and letting agents to primarily be the ones to make payment, but allowing tenants the option too simply allows all parties involved to make more informed decisions earlier in the lettings process.’
‘they [tenants] want to target the right properties faster too‘: what happens if the property they’re interested in for their next move isn’t with an agent/landlord who accepts the ‘passports’ – bit of a waste of money eh? Or are they told up front that other agents may not accept the passport they’ve paid for? Would the passport need updating if the tenant wanted to move, say 18 months down the line? Would the tenant need to pay again to ‘update’ their passport?
Hmmm, I’ve just looked on The Lettings Hub website [I’m not 100% sure if it’s this poster’s site] and under the property passport section it says:
‘pre-qualifying multiple tenant applicants costs you absolutely nothing with Property Passport‘ so why would tenants need to pay anything? Or is it that the intention is to sell a ‘full’ passport to a tenant for which the agent gets a cut?
Don’t get me wrong, I guess this is currently legal, but wise? If it looks like a fee and sounds like a fee …. Is that another PPI scandal I see?
Let me think “Tenant passport backed by Rightmove or Eric Walker?”
Eric all day long. He knows about lettings and genuinely cares about the industry. If i do ever accept a tenant passport it would never be Rightmoves.
To be fair, now that they are “contracting it out” to Van Mildert, there should be enough professional integrity to make it work? Oh and if they let a “wrongun” through the net….. my client can always claim against an organisation with deep pockets?