Have you heard of CANOPY and PLAID?

Molly4

I am looking to rent a property in Scotland whilst I look for a new property to buy. 

I have never rented at all having owned my own home for most of my adult life.

CANOPY is a referencing company who provide you with a Rent Passport to enable you to provide instant credit and financial details to potential landlords. 

To get a Rent Passport you have to provide all of your personal details including financial, previous rent history, employer details etc. 

During the process you can opt to have another company PLAID do instant bank and credit checks by allowing them access to your bank accounts. 

PLAID are described as "Secure Open Banking" and by giving them full access to your bank accounts they can instantly check whether the financial details you have provided are true and correct. You also have the option to upload your own documents, account details, bank statements etc. for them to check that way. 

I am not comfortable in giving an online company access to my details. Only certain lettings agents use CANOPY whilst others use different systems to carry out check on you, the potential tenant. 

I wondered if any one has first heard of these two companies? Have they used them? How secure are they? 

Having a very vivid imagination I can see me entering my details and then my bank accounts being cleared of their balances. 

Regards


Molly4

Herzlos

I'd stick to whatever the letting agent requires for you, and not worry about doing anything speculative in advance.

I'd also be very wary about any agency that wants access to your bank accounts, for one it's almost certainly against the terms and conditions of your bank account, and will give you no recourse should anything suspect happen. Normally printed bank statements are sufficient.

Molly4

Herzlos said:

I'd stick to whatever the letting agent requires for you, and not worry about doing anything speculative in advance.

I'd also be very wary about any agency that wants access to your bank accounts, for one it's almost certainly against the terms and conditions of your bank account, and will give you no recourse should anything suspect happen. Normally printed bank statements are sufficient.

Thank you @Herzlos

Some of the agents want me, the potential tenant to complete these details via CANOPY and PLAID before they will even contemplate allowing a viewing of the property. 

Other agents allow you to view first and then do their own financial checks if you are still interested in proceeding. This to me is the correct way to proceed as there is no point in doing financial checks if you are no longer interested in that particular property. 

user1977

I'm not familiar with those platforms, but if several agents are using them it seems unlikely that they're all part of some conspiracy to steal your money.

Herzlos

A bit of digging shows that Plaid is a banking platform that connects services to each other, rather than a service in it's own right, and has an option for view-only access somehow. It seems to be the main provider for that banking service so it's probably safe enough to use.

Your post makes it sound like Plaid is an optional part though, so what is the process if you reject it?

Assuming you are dealing with reputable high street estate agents, then you should be fine using what they recommend.

Nebulous2

If you're in one of the big cities, then demand is likely to exceed supply, and they can ask whatever they want from you. If you don't do it someone else will. 

My daughter was renting in Glasgow with some friends as a student. In addition to parental guarantees the landlord asked each of the girls to write an essay saying why they wanted the flat. 

Bookworm225

Molly4 said:

Herzlos said:

I'd stick to whatever the letting agent requires for you, and not worry about doing anything speculative in advance.

I'd also be very wary about any agency that wants access to your bank accounts, for one it's almost certainly against the terms and conditions of your bank account, and will give you no recourse should anything suspect happen. Normally printed bank statements are sufficient.

Thank you @Herzlos

Some of the agents want me, the potential tenant to complete these details via CANOPY and PLAID before they will even contemplate allowing a viewing of the property. 

Other agents allow you to view first and then do their own financial checks if you are still interested in proceeding. This to me is the correct way to proceed as there is no point in doing financial checks if you are no longer interested in that particular property. 

there is no right way to do it

agents want to spend time and money with potential tenancies who can actually afford the property 

potential tenants do not want to waste money on being vetted for a property they then don't want

sounds like someone decided a business model was to set up as a middleman in just the same way as quote comparison websites operate - single place to come to provide get info that can then be used by multiple agents trying to "sell" you properties. 

which agent uses which method is probably down to how much the agent is willing to pay the middleman for the convenience of not having to organise the vetting themselves, some will, some won't. Not a reflection on the integrity of the middleman themselves.

Molly4

Herzlos said:

A bit of digging shows that Plaid is a banking platform that connects services to each other, rather than a service in it's own right, and has an option for view-only access somehow. It seems to be the main provider for that banking service so it's probably safe enough to use.

Your post makes it sound like Plaid is an optional part though, so what is the process if you reject it?

Assuming you are dealing with reputable high street estate agents, then you should be fine using what they recommend.

If you don't complete the reference and financial checks with CANOPY and PLAID then you cannot proceed any further with your interest in that property, not even to view. There does not appear to be any other option if you want to use that particular agent. 

Molly4

Nebulous2 said:

If you're in one of the big cities, then demand is likely to exceed supply, and they can ask whatever they want from you. If you don't do it someone else will. 

My daughter was renting in Glasgow with some friends as a student. In addition to parental guarantees the landlord asked each of the girls to write an essay saying why they wanted the flat. 

I've already provided a write up giving my reasoning for wanting to rent that particular property. I didn't get the property but not sure why. Whether my write up wasn't good enough or for some other reason. 

glennevis

Herzlos said:

I'd stick to whatever the letting agent requires for you, and not worry about doing anything speculative in advance.

I'd also be very wary about any agency that wants access to your bank accounts, for one it's almost certainly against the terms and conditions of your bank account, and will give you no recourse should anything suspect happen. Normally printed bank statements are sufficient.

It is not against the T&Cs of your bank if PLAID are using Open Banking to access your accounts. This is common practice now when sharing financial information.

OB requires you to give explicit read-only access to your transactions and definitely does not require you to reveal your bank login details. Access is for 90 days which can be renewed but also can be revoked by you at any time.