The rejection rules
What we can’t do for you.
Every agency has a list like this. Most keep it in the back office and let you discover it somewhere around the second wire transfer. Ours is a page on the website, linked from the top of the homepage, written before you have given us a passport or a dollar.
If one of these applies to you, we are not the right people, and you should find that out today rather than in six weeks. Where there is something better to do instead, it is in the right-hand column.
-
Buildings that require a local co-signer
Plenty of towers hand leasing to a management company, and that company mandates a resident guarantor. We cannot argue them out of it, and we will not pretend we can.
Instead
Every building we list is one where the landlord owns the unit outright and sets their own terms. That is the whole selection rule.
-
Visas, residency, or immigration
We are letting agents, not immigration advisers. A lease from us is not a visa, and in some jurisdictions it will not even be accepted as proof of address.
Instead
Talk to a licensed immigration adviser in the country first. Sign the lease once you know it is useful to you.
-
Anyone we cannot identify
Passport plus a video call is the floor, on every tenant, without exception. It is not negotiable and it is not a formality we quietly skip for good clients.
Instead
If you are not willing to be identified, we are the wrong agent, and we would rather say so on the homepage than after you have paid.
-
Money we cannot trace
Above $25,000 we ask where the funds came from. Not to judge the answer — because our escrow agent's bank and the landlord's bank will ask us, and "I did not ask" is not an answer that keeps a deposit safe.
Instead
Have the paper trail ready. An exchange statement or a company distribution is usually enough. It takes one email.
-
Cash on the day, or payment off the books
Everything moves through the escrow agent, on the record, with both names on it. There is no version of this where we hand a landlord an envelope.
Instead
Pay into escrow. It is the same money and it is the only thing that protects you if the key does not work.
-
Terms under three months
Below three months a landlord prices the unit as a holiday let, and the premium you pay us stops buying you anything.
Instead
Book a short-let platform. You will pay less and you will not need us.
-
Buying, mortgages, or rent-to-own
We do medium-term lets. That is the entire product. Anything with a title deed in it is outside what we know how to do safely.
Instead
Use a conveyancer and a local buying agent. Different job, different licence.
-
Beating the market price
Our fee makes these homes more expensive than the same home rented the ordinary way. That is the trade: you pay a premium and skip the document pack. It is not a discount and we will not dress it up as one.
Instead
If price is your binding constraint and you can produce payslips, a normal agent is cheaper. Genuinely — go and use one.
-
Getting a deposit back after damage
Escrow protects both sides. If an inspection finds damage beyond fair wear, the landlord is paid from the deposit, and we do not overrule that because you are our client.
Instead
Photograph the unit on day one and send it to us. It is the cheapest insurance in this process.
-
Pets or subletting where the landlord forbids it
We ask up front and we put the answer in the lease. What we will not do is stay quiet and let you find out in month two.
Instead
Tell us about the dog before we shortlist. It changes which buildings we show you, and that is all it changes.
None of those apply?
Then we can probably help, and the next step is a conversation rather than a form. Tell us the city, the months, and roughly the budget, and we will send the live list.
No form, no email capture. If you would rather write, nadia@keyhold.rentals.