Renter FAQs

Howsy have never believed in unnecessary charges and fees for our renters, as we feel it should be as simple as possible for you to find your home. However, we do need to make you aware of the costs that could be associated with your tenancy.

Before the Tenancy starts:

Holding Deposit: When you make an offer for a property we ask for a Holding Deposit before the referencing stage, so that no one else’s offer will be accepted for the property. We’ll only ask for the equivalent of 1 weeks rent and will cap it at £100 per tenant. Assuming everything is okay with your reference, this will be deducted from your first months rent!

Deposit: We request a security deposit on all properties so that our landlords feel secure that their property will be well looked after. This is a maximum of 5 weeks rent in most circumstances, although we may ask for up to 6 weeks if the rent is £4166 or more a month. We ensure all deposits are protected in a dedicated client account and registered with a Government approved scheme, which is usually MyDeposits unless a Landlord has requested a different deposit protection scheme.

During the Tenancy

If you wish to make a change to the tenancy agreement during its term, we may apply a £50 charge or a ‘reasonable cost’ to cover any expenses incurred. We will always discuss this with you beforehand though.

If your rent is paid after its due date, we may apply a 3% interest charge per day until we receive full payment, and it may be reported to a credit referencing agency.

If you lose any keys or security devices for the property, we may ask you to cover the cost of replacing them or locks as required. We will assess this on a case by case basis, but the fee applied will never be more than the actual cost.

If you wish to end the tenancy before the contract date, there may be an early termination charge. This is based on costs incurred by the Landlord in finding new tenants. These costs will be discussed with you in full and are payable in advance. You would also remain liable for the rent until either the end of your tenancy agreement or when new tenants move in whichever is sooner.

We are here 24/7 to assist with repairs. If you have a maintenance issue or repair please call us on 0330 999 1234 or, if it’s not an emergency, email renter-support@howsy.co.uk

For all emergency repairs, we will do our best to send someone to fix the issue within 24 hours.

For non-emergency repairs, we will ensure that your repair is reported to your landlord within 48 hours. This is because for non-emergency repairs we need your landlord’s authorisation. We cannot obtain quotes or authorise contractors to do these repairs without it. Depending on the priority of the repair, the following timeline has been agreed with the landlords:

• Urgent repair: 2 days
• High priority: 5 days
• Normal/Medium priority: 7 days
• Low priority: 10 days

You can book a viewing through the Howsy marketplace, or from the property portal where you are viewing the property.

After you’ve viewed the property, you will receive a text message from us with a link where you can make your offer via an online form. We will also call you to get your feedback on the viewing and we can send you the link to place the offer via email.

Generally, when valuing a property we will try to agree with the landlord a fair rent. This may be based on current market conditions or previous rents. You are free to make a lower offer and we will pass it onto the landlord, but it is their right to reject without further consideration.

Please start by checking your spam box, automated emails often get misplaced. If the email with the link to the offer form is not there, email renter-support@howsy.co.uk or call us on 0330 999 1234 and we will re-send you the offer form.

If your offer is accepted you will receive a confirmation email in which we will also ask for the holding deposit (a maximum of £100 per adult) so we can start the referencing process. If the offer was not accepted, you will receive a notification email. You are of course still able to apply for other properties that are available with us.

Our team is here to help throughout the entire process but ultimately the landlord chooses what happens next. Sometimes our landlords tell us to accept reasonable offers on their behalf, sometimes they’ll ask us to help facilitate a negotiation. In some circumstances, they will take some time to consider. We’ll do everything we can to speed up the process – by reminding the landlord or offering advice, but ultimately the decision is always the landlords. Please have patience and rest assured we will keep you updated whenever an update is available.

We will request a holding deposit of a maximum of £100 per adult moving in to start the referencing process. This holding deposit is deducted from your first month rent providing the referencing goes through and you do not pull out of the offer.

In the unfortunate event that you do not pass referencing, we might ask you to provide either a guarantor or pay the full rental term in advance.

We work with an accredited independent referencing partner for this step of your renting journey.

You will need to provide your employment details and contact information for an employer referee who can confirm your income. If you are self-employed you must be able to demonstrate your income over a 12-month trading period.

You will need to provide your addresses for the last 3 years. They will be used for credit checks, to confirm you have been located at the supplied addresses by using electoral roll data and information from credit accounts e.g. credit cards, mortgages, mobile phone contracts, etc.

You will also be asked for a reference from your current landlord or letting agent if you have been living in rented accommodation.

The most common reasons for not passing referencing checks are:

• You have insufficient income
• You have credit history problems, CCJs or have been insolvent
• You are unemployed or there are concerns about the status of your employment
• You are self-employed and unable to provide acceptable proof of income
• You received a negative reference from the current landlord
• Your history of residence or identity cannot be verified

If you do not pass referencing because of issues related to your income or for example your employment status, you might be required to prove either a guarantor or pay the full rent for the term in advance

Your guarantor must be in employment and earning a minimum of 36 x the rent. Your guarantor must be able to provide proof of income and be willing to act as a guarantor for the duration of your tenancy. The guarantor will be asked to review your tenancy agreement and sign the guarantor agreement confirming the willingness to guarantee your rent.

Once your references are completed, you will receive an email to confirm your move in date and the amount of rent and deposit you are required to pay. In order to speed up the process in moving you in, we would ask that this payment be made as soon as possible.

If you are not a Howsy Club member renting with zero deposit, you need to pay a tenancy deposit the equivalent of 5 weeks of rent (for properties where the monthly rental amount is more than £4166 this increases to 6 weeks worth of rent).

It is a legal requirement for a tenancy deposit to be protected with a government-approved scheme. We protect deposits with MyDeposits, a leading tenancy deposit protection scheme provider, authorised by the UK Government. Your deposit will be registered with them within 30 days of us receiving it. You will receive a copy of your deposit certificate as well as the prescribed information. Please ensure you retain these documents for your records. If you have not received the documents within 14 days of moving into your property, we recommend chasing them.

The deposit is a maximum of £100 per adult who will be living at the property. If the referencing goes through and you do not change your mind, the deposit will be deducted from your first month’s rent.

Step 1

If you are unhappy with our service then please contact our customer experience team who will attempt to resolve the issues you are facing. They can be contacted by phone or email, Call 0330 999 1234 (Option 2) or Email renter-support@howsy.com

Step 2

If our customer experience team are unable to resolve your concerns to your satisfaction then please request for our customer experience team member to escalate your complaint to their line manager. The line manager will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and will assess your complaint and provide a response back to you within 5 days.

Step 3

If this is still not resolved to your satisfaction then please write to our Directors Team.

Howsy – Directors Team

229 Shoreditch High Street

London

E1 6PN

Your complaint will be acknowledged within 2 days and a full investigation will be undertaken with a formal response sent to you within 28 days which will be Howsy’s final response to the issues raised.

Step 4

If we are still unable to resolve your issues or you are not happy with the resolution then you would need to put your complaint in writing to the Property Redress Scheme (PRS). Their contact details can be found at https://www.theprs.co.uk/