Tenants wants to pay 4 months in advance. How is this done with Open Rent? How the remaining rents are going to be collected after the 4th month? cheers
That’s now illegal. RRA.
Under the RRA I understand that a tenant can volunteer (and pay) rent in advance but a landlord cannot require it as a condition of the tenancy.
A key point is that the rent in advance cannot be made before the signing of the AST.
We are still awaiting a commencement date for most provisions, including this one.
@Graham - No it isn’t. Not yet. Your ahead of yourself there, the RRA isn’t in force yet.
@Glenn1 - I think is part of the ‘advance settings’ section when you are creating the contract. Further rents won’t ‘be collected’ unless you use OR rent collection. Tenant will pay it to you. You’ll be prompted to set up your bank details on OR, and if not using Rent collection, they will give tenant them. Although, I always message before first payment to check they have them.
This isn’t quite correct. The LL cannot accept anything in advance of the tenancy except the deposit and a week’s rent as holding deposit. Once the tenancy begins and the tenant has keys, the LL can accept any advance rent payment the tenant wishes to make voluntarily.
My bad wording, I meant additional rent
My understanding is that even that is not quite right. I think the sequence is no rent paid until the TA signed. A maximum one month’s rent can be collected between signing the agreement and the tenancy commencing. The tenant can volunteer to pay multiple months’ rent once the tenancy begins, but the landlord can’t ask for it.
I agree, my wording was neither clear nor complete. For clarity here’s what the n r l a say (their emphasis):
After the assured tenancy is agreed upon but before the tenant moves in , the landlord/agent may demand up to a month’s rent or up to 28 days if the rental period is less than a month (the initial payment of rent).
For all subsequent payments , landlords can only require the rent be paid during the rental period for which the rent is payable. As rental periods are limited to no more than a month in the Act, landlords are prevented from requiring more than a month’s rent… tenants may voluntarily pay earlier or more if they choose to.
Just to be clear, we are not demanding anything from the tenant. They wish to do this voluntarily, and I am simply asking how and when this could be done in a way that does not put us in breach of any regulations. We have their emails confirming that they want this to happen.
So, it’s still not clear when the tenant can pay the 6 months’ advance rent. Let’s say we sign the contract on 6th November, with the tenancy starting on 9th November. Would making the payment on the 7th or 8th November be considered a breach, or does it need to be paid after the 9th November? We’re referring to 6 months’ rent in advance here, which is outside of OpenRent (who are collecting the deposit and the first month’s rent). What is the best way to accommodate Tenants wish???
Hi @Glenn1,
We’ve got a guide on how you can do this through OpenRent here.
After the initial rent period, you can choose to collect the monthly rent yourself or use our Rent Collection service.
Until the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force, which is likely to be at some point next year, you are still able to do this. We’ve got more guidance on the Act here:
If we assume the RRA is in effect, yes it would be a breach. Take 1 month’s rent before the 9th no problem. After the 9th, let them voluntarily pay you 5 months’ worth.
I would be very careful with accepting the tenant’s suggestion of a voluntary payment after the tenancy commences post-RRA because all the power is in the hands of the tenant. In order to get the tenancy, they may tell you they will make a voluntary payment after signing, but you can’t compel them to do it if they decide not to later on once they have signed and moved in. They might even make a payment but then say it was a mistake and demand you return it. You can’t put anything in writing so have no legal protection. Having emails from them suggesting they want to do this won’t help, they are completely free to change their minds. You might think this is a kind of unwritten agreement with them and the basis for giving them the tenancy, but it will have no legal standing.
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but thus it ever was. Any LL under the old rules accepting 6 or 12 months up front (excepting students) was always taking it on trust that the tenant would continue to pay after that point. At that point they were
Personally, I don’t think there’s any more risk and, having declined every offer I’ve ever had of up front payments, I’m glad that this has been legislated against.
On a side note, I don’t understand why the T can’t put anything in writing and I don’t see anything that prevents a LL from requesting that the T put something in writing so I’m not sure that’s a valid argument.
If your tenant wants to pay 4 months in advance through OpenRent, you can arrange this easily during the tenancy setup. When creating or editing the tenancy agreement, specify that rent will be paid quarterly or 4 months upfront. OpenRent will process the first payment through their system, then you’ll receive the funds directly. After the 4th month, rent collection simply continues on a monthly basis unless you agree to another advance term. Make sure the tenancy agreement clearly states this payment structure so there’s no confusion about future rent dates.
er… and this will work under RRA when all tenancies become monthly assured periodic tenancies? 
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Take care about arranging any ‘quarterly’ payments, as this will create a quarterly tenancy period, which will effect eviction / notice requirements etc.
Just stick with a monthly tenancy with the 4months paid in advance, then continuing monthly thereafter.
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