The referencing process takes time and money to complete and fees have to be paid by the Owner whether your pass or fail the referencing. Consequently, the Landlord will want to know your application and offer is serious by putting a down payment towards your rent before starting the referencing process. During this time the property may still have other applicants interested in the property that could have rented the property. By paying the Holding Deposit you are demonstrating you are serious about your offer so that the Landlord will proceed with you subject to satisfactory references. If you do not have a poor credit history then there should be no issues passing the referencing process. The holding deposit will then simply be deducted from the first months rent and you will just need to pay the balance. Your holding deposit is paid into a client monies account and is protected under our Client Money Protection
scheme.