1. Making An Offer
1.1 A holding deposit is required when making an offer to rent a property. Your card will not be charged unless your Landlord accepts your offer but we do ask your card provider to reserve the holding deposit amount of 1 week's rent to ensure you have sufficient funds.
1.2 Please find a draft tenancy contract here Draft Tenancy Contracts
1.3 Before placing an offer, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to use the above tenancy contract as this will form the official contract that you will need to sign before you move into your new home. Any special conditions that you agree to as part of your offer will be added in the ‘Special Conditions’ section.
1.4 If you have not physically seen the property you are offering on, your offer is based on the below conditional clause which will also be included in your tenancy agreement;
“It is noted and acknowledged that the Tenant has requested that they be granted a Tenancy on a 'sight unseen' basis. The Tenant therefore unequivocally agrees that if a Tenancy is completed that they will accept the Premises, it's aspect and location, the furniture, fixtures, fittings, appliances, contents, carpets and condition of the premises, however so defined, together with the decorative order both internally and externally 'as provided' and or as detailed on the inventory and schedule of conditions as at the commencement of the tenancy. It is furthermore agreed that in the event that the Tenant should thereafter find that any of the aforementioned is not to his preference, liking, satisfaction, standard or expectation or gives rise to complaint, inconvenience, contention, claim or nuisance, the Landlord will have no liability for the same and will be under no obligation to release the Tenant from the terms of tenancy, replace, remedy or compensate the Tenant in any way whatsoever, save for where the tenancy agreement provides otherwise.”
1.5 When a tenant makes an offer to the landlord to rent their property on the PropertyLoop website, we will collect a holding deposit of one week's rent via an online card payment to initiate the process. The tenant’s card will not be charged unless the landlord accepts the tenant’s offer, but we ask the card provider to place a reservation of the holding deposit amount to ensure the tenant has sufficient funds.
1.6 If the landlord accepts your offer, the holding deposit is taken and will go towards the first month's rent payment upon the successful signing of your tenancy contract. This means that you get the full holding deposit back, and it is put straight towards paying the first month's rent. The only instances where you will forfeit your holding deposit is in the following cases:
a. You withdraw or cancel your offer after it has been accepted for whatever reason including if you change your mind about renting the property.
b. You provide false, or fraudulent information in your offer or references.
c. You take an unreasonable time to respond after your offer is accepted. The following timescales for your obligations are listed below;
a. You have 24 hours from your offer being accepted to complete your reference forms and submit them.
b. You have 24 hours from when your references have been completed to sign the tenancy contract.
c. You must pay the balance of move-in monies via bank transfer within 48hrs of signing your tenancy contract.
i. The tenant makes material changes to their original offer that the landlord rejects.
ii. The reason for making an offer with a holding deposit is to show that you are serious about renting the property. If you pull out after placing it, or if an unreasonable amount of time has passed with no contact, the money will go to the landlord to cover the costs and losses of taking their property off the market in order to pursue your offer.
iii. If the landlord makes a decision not to proceed (for example, the tenants fail referencing), the full amount is returned to the tenants.
d. If you decide you don’t want to rent the property after it has been accepted by the landlord, you will forfeit your holding deposit and the landlord has grounds to claim it under the Tenant Fees Act (2019).
2. Referencing
2.1 Placing an offer online does not imply a guaranteed tenancy. Tenancy is subject to you passing reference checks that are processed via a third party referencing company called Goodlord. Please note that in the event of you not passing a reference check, your holding deposit will be refunded unless you have provided fraudulent or inaccurate information.
2.2 Below are the guideline requirements for a successful reference:
2.3 All Applicants must be in full-time employment or contracted for at least the initial term of the tenancy.
2.4 The total yearly income of all the applicants must be in excess of 2.5 times the annual rental value of the property.
2.5 ALL occupants must be referenced for tenancy and have not been declared bankrupt or have an active IVA or any County Court Judgements (CCJs) or adverse credit information.
2.6 All students and applicants who do not satisfy the above requirements must provide a suitable UK guarantor, earning in excess of 3 times the annual rent and in full-time employment for at least 6 months.
2.7 Full details of our referencing criteria can be found online: Tenant Referencing Criteria
3. DRS and Security Deposits
3.1 PropertyLoop offers an optional Deposit Replacement Service (DRS) as an alternative to a traditional 5 weeks security deposit through a thrid party provider. The charge for this optional service is a one-off fee of 1 weeks rent (+VAT), payable at the start of the tenancy. For the sake of clarity, if your weekly rent is agreed at £200, you would pay £240 inclusive of VAT for the DRS.
This service enables you to start a new tenancy without the financial burden of raising an initial upfront traditional security deposit which will be retained for the term of your tenancy. You will still be responsible for covering all costs and losses of all damages, rent payments, or any other breach of your agreement during and at the end of the tenancy. This service provided the landlord with the assurance that in the event that you are unable, unwilling, or fail to pay what is due, the landlord is protected. Please note, however, that failure to cover any damages, rent or breaches of your agreement may result in legal action being taken to recover any amount due. Full terms of this service can be found on the draft tenancy contract which you can access here: Draft Tenancy Contracts.
3.2 For all tenancies, if you pay an upfront Security Deposit, it must be registered using a government-approved Deposit Scheme within 30days. PropertyLoop is a registered member of a government-regulated tenancy deposit scheme. The prescribed information for this scheme will be supplied to you at the beginning of the tenancy. By signing this agreement, you agree that any funds received by us are not considered part of your security deposit until the start date of your tenancy at which point, all the funds you send us will be allocated to your security deposit. For the avoidance of doubt, this means that either PropertyLoop or the landlord has 30 days to register your deposit from the start date of your tenancy and not from any of the other dates that you may transfer funds or make payment to us. At the end of the tenancy, the deposit (less any deductions agreed between you and the landlord if applicable) will be returned to you. Please note that the property should be cleaned to a professional standard that you received it in and in accordance with the tenancy contract.
4. General
By placing an offer on PropertyLoop’s website, you agree to these Terms and Conditions of Offer, General Website Terms Of Use (Terms of Service), and our Privacy Policy (Privacy Policy).
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
By placing an offer on PropertyLoop, you accept that all holding deposits are non-refundable in the event that you change your mind about renting the property. In the event that the owner decides not to proceed with the application, your holding deposit will be refunded in full. By making an offer of PropertyLoop you authorise PropertyLoop to carry out a consumer credit search for each tenant as part of the referencing process or for debt recovery if required. Please be advised that all reference material received may also be forwarded to the Owner for review.