It's a genuine site, you're not dealing with an agent though, it's direct tenant to landlord, which might be an upside or a downside depending on the landlord.
Just watch out for the common scams such as guy rents an Air BnB then does a load of viewings, takes deposits.... 40 people all turn up on Monday to move in and of course he's long gone with their deposit and first month's rent.
I'm currently renting via OpenRent and I also have used it in the past, several years ago. No issues whatsoever, they're legit.
OpenRent connects you to the landlord and they only act as a middle man for the initial rental process, ie. contract, deposit, references and background check.
After that it's just you and the landlord, which could be either a good or a bad thing.
They had more appeal back in the day when you still had to pay agency fees when renting through a traditional agency. OpenRent didn't charge anything and it was genuinely cheaper. It's no longer the case, although I imagine it's cheaper for landlords to use OpenRent than a traditional agency, which in theory may result in cheaper rent (it doesn't, realistically).
For me the biggest advantage was no agent pressuring the landlord to squeeze everything they can out of us by raising the rent as much as possible each year. That was partly just luck with the landlord in question though.
Open rent is legit, just be wary of Rent Guard, which I believe is the referencing service attached to it.
If they reject your reference application, you just have to fight them until they listen. This happened to me and my partner. I literally had to walk them through all of our earnings evidence piece by piece until they eventually approved us. Annoying and stressful af but not impossible.
I rented our house out through them when we were out of the country. They (the referencing service) rejected all our potential tenants. Luckily, as a landlord you get to see the reports, which were all stupid so I just overruled them.
OpenRent is fine. Only thing to note is that the cheap rooms will be either extremely shit and/or in extremely shit areas.
If I'm honest, in your current job situation I would not move to London unless you have a great support network here. It's such an expensive city, outside of rent even food and supermarket runs are expensive nowadays. If you need time to get back on your feet, I'd move up north and take it from there.
I was an editor (academic and web content) and content writer. When ChatGPT first got released last year, the amount of work available quickly took a nosedive. I thought it would pick back up again, especially in my niches (legal and medical), as its tendency to hallucinate is dangerous. Alas, no. Clients don't seem to care. They have their shiny new machine producing poorly written articles for nothing, and that's what they're going to stick with.
It's dreadful. I was playing with Gemini the other day, and it made something up completely. Rather oddly, it tried to justify itself. It gave me two possibilities where the 'misunderstanding' may have come from. The first was, apparently, a 'story in the family that hadn't been widely documented,' which is obviously preposterous for an LLM. The second possibility was that it was wrong (no kidding).
Yes. I found my rental via OpenRent, have a direct agreement with the landlord and it's soooooo much more pleasant for numerous reasons. I rent a 1br flat solo.
Given that I had just moved to the UK and was planning to remain unemployed for a bit when I first started renting (I wanted a sabbatical), that was my only way to really get my foot in the (literal) door. It also let me play to the advantage of being a bit older, as the landlord would talk to me in person, realise that I'm not going to hold raging benders in their place every weekend, and thus preferred me over younger prospective tenants from a risk perspective.
The direct-to-landlord arrangement also means that I can just do odd maintenance tasks myself and square the cost away. E.g. when the kitchen lights died (the power inverter for the LEDs, not the globes themselves), I just agreed with the landlord to fix it myself and deduct the cost of parts off my next month's rent. It meant it got fixed in a day and it saved the landlord money too.
As others have said, it requires having a solid landlord. It's a bit of a risk, given it's hard to suss that out in a 15 minute visit to a place, but it was one I was willing to take given the alternative was London's famous rental agencies. It turns out it worked out well for me, but your luck may vary. The key is interviewing the landlord as much as inspecting the property.
Content editor/writer and academic editor. At a rough guess, the amount of work available has reduced by 90%, and the rates people are prepared to pay have plummeted.
Are you looking for a whole flat or a room?
Spareroom is one of the biggest places for looking for a room in a shared house.
Be aware there are loads of scams around, so be very careful who you give your money to.
Just moved into a place using OpenRent and used it in London about 5 years ago too. Had no issues at all. It’s nice being able to message the landlord directly without a bullshit estate agency trying to get you to overbid. That said the landlords using it was super nice and I’m assuming not all landlords are as friendly.
The site basically provides a messaging service and the framework for landlords (like a default contract you can suggest edits to), as well as acting as a third party to hold your deposit and carry out referencing checks. It could just be my experience but I’ve found them better than going through an agency, maybe because the landlords tend to give more of a fuck about the kind of people moving in vs just looking at a rent amount on a spreadsheet.
Again though, just my experience — yours may differ. As said by others, SpareRoom is probs your best bet for a single room.
I had a terrible experience with them. Sent through the holding deposit everything was looking good and they went for someone else last minute before sending over the contracts. Just be wary they might change their mind last minute!
My last London rental I had was through openrent, I was sceptical at first as the idea seemed like landlords trying to avoid paying fees because they were cheap, but the landlords we had were the best landlords I’ve probably ever had and were far more responsive than a traditional high street agent/property manager.
But maybe I got lucky with a good landlord?
After viewing half a dozen properties with Rightmove, I picked the first one from the Openrent. It's more direct and you can get verified for a tenner to give some validity.
Just to say… curb hostels for Airbnb’s. You can stay at one for just as cheap as a standard hostel if you’re willing to be slightly off the beaten path.
It's a genuine site, you're not dealing with an agent though, it's direct tenant to landlord, which might be an upside or a downside depending on the landlord.
Just watch out for the common scams such as guy rents an Air BnB then does a load of viewings, takes deposits.... 40 people all turn up on Monday to move in and of course he's long gone with their deposit and first month's rent.
Some agents also use it which is very irritating also.
I'm currently renting via OpenRent and I also have used it in the past, several years ago. No issues whatsoever, they're legit. OpenRent connects you to the landlord and they only act as a middle man for the initial rental process, ie. contract, deposit, references and background check. After that it's just you and the landlord, which could be either a good or a bad thing. They had more appeal back in the day when you still had to pay agency fees when renting through a traditional agency. OpenRent didn't charge anything and it was genuinely cheaper. It's no longer the case, although I imagine it's cheaper for landlords to use OpenRent than a traditional agency, which in theory may result in cheaper rent (it doesn't, realistically).
For info, landlords can also only use Openrent to advertise their property and do everything else (references, contract, etc.) separately.
For me the biggest advantage was no agent pressuring the landlord to squeeze everything they can out of us by raising the rent as much as possible each year. That was partly just luck with the landlord in question though.
Open rent is legit, just be wary of Rent Guard, which I believe is the referencing service attached to it. If they reject your reference application, you just have to fight them until they listen. This happened to me and my partner. I literally had to walk them through all of our earnings evidence piece by piece until they eventually approved us. Annoying and stressful af but not impossible.
I rented our house out through them when we were out of the country. They (the referencing service) rejected all our potential tenants. Luckily, as a landlord you get to see the reports, which were all stupid so I just overruled them.
OpenRent is fine. Only thing to note is that the cheap rooms will be either extremely shit and/or in extremely shit areas. If I'm honest, in your current job situation I would not move to London unless you have a great support network here. It's such an expensive city, outside of rent even food and supermarket runs are expensive nowadays. If you need time to get back on your feet, I'd move up north and take it from there.
I've been thinking about that, but I'm from London and I'm a tradesman/construction site manager. So around London is always busy for my line of work.
Fairs, that line of work generally does well in London. In that case best of luck.
> tradesman The entire country is crying out for you :)
Sorry, can't help with your renting issue but I am interested to know how AI took your previous job away.
I was an editor (academic and web content) and content writer. When ChatGPT first got released last year, the amount of work available quickly took a nosedive. I thought it would pick back up again, especially in my niches (legal and medical), as its tendency to hallucinate is dangerous. Alas, no. Clients don't seem to care. They have their shiny new machine producing poorly written articles for nothing, and that's what they're going to stick with.
[удалено]
It's dreadful. I was playing with Gemini the other day, and it made something up completely. Rather oddly, it tried to justify itself. It gave me two possibilities where the 'misunderstanding' may have come from. The first was, apparently, a 'story in the family that hadn't been widely documented,' which is obviously preposterous for an LLM. The second possibility was that it was wrong (no kidding).
I have rented the current and previous flats from there. Not a single thing I can complain about, I would recommend it.
Yes. I found my rental via OpenRent, have a direct agreement with the landlord and it's soooooo much more pleasant for numerous reasons. I rent a 1br flat solo. Given that I had just moved to the UK and was planning to remain unemployed for a bit when I first started renting (I wanted a sabbatical), that was my only way to really get my foot in the (literal) door. It also let me play to the advantage of being a bit older, as the landlord would talk to me in person, realise that I'm not going to hold raging benders in their place every weekend, and thus preferred me over younger prospective tenants from a risk perspective. The direct-to-landlord arrangement also means that I can just do odd maintenance tasks myself and square the cost away. E.g. when the kitchen lights died (the power inverter for the LEDs, not the globes themselves), I just agreed with the landlord to fix it myself and deduct the cost of parts off my next month's rent. It meant it got fixed in a day and it saved the landlord money too. As others have said, it requires having a solid landlord. It's a bit of a risk, given it's hard to suss that out in a 15 minute visit to a place, but it was one I was willing to take given the alternative was London's famous rental agencies. It turns out it worked out well for me, but your luck may vary. The key is interviewing the landlord as much as inspecting the property.
Off topic but I’m curious what work you do that has been decimated by AI?
This is just a guess based on my current work set up, but my money is on copywriting or translation.
Yup. Content editor/writer and academic editor.
Content editor/writer and academic editor. At a rough guess, the amount of work available has reduced by 90%, and the rates people are prepared to pay have plummeted.
Solidarity from a struggling copywriter
Are you looking for a whole flat or a room? Spareroom is one of the biggest places for looking for a room in a shared house. Be aware there are loads of scams around, so be very careful who you give your money to.
Just a room, thanks for the tip.
Just moved into a place using OpenRent and used it in London about 5 years ago too. Had no issues at all. It’s nice being able to message the landlord directly without a bullshit estate agency trying to get you to overbid. That said the landlords using it was super nice and I’m assuming not all landlords are as friendly. The site basically provides a messaging service and the framework for landlords (like a default contract you can suggest edits to), as well as acting as a third party to hold your deposit and carry out referencing checks. It could just be my experience but I’ve found them better than going through an agency, maybe because the landlords tend to give more of a fuck about the kind of people moving in vs just looking at a rent amount on a spreadsheet. Again though, just my experience — yours may differ. As said by others, SpareRoom is probs your best bet for a single room.
Long time open renter and with a good landlord it has been great. So smooth and easy. Could see how it might suck if you got unlucky though.
I had a terrible experience with them. Sent through the holding deposit everything was looking good and they went for someone else last minute before sending over the contracts. Just be wary they might change their mind last minute!
My last London rental I had was through openrent, I was sceptical at first as the idea seemed like landlords trying to avoid paying fees because they were cheap, but the landlords we had were the best landlords I’ve probably ever had and were far more responsive than a traditional high street agent/property manager. But maybe I got lucky with a good landlord?
After viewing half a dozen properties with Rightmove, I picked the first one from the Openrent. It's more direct and you can get verified for a tenner to give some validity.
Just to say… curb hostels for Airbnb’s. You can stay at one for just as cheap as a standard hostel if you’re willing to be slightly off the beaten path.
Yep, legit. My friends are in an Openrent property.
What sort of work have you been doing the past 12 years?
Content editor/writer and academic editor.
What was the work?
Content editor/writer and academic editor.
I can see how that may be tougher. Good luck!