First time landlord here using Rent Now. I understand after signing contract tenant pays security deposit and one month’s rent. After this I want rent to come directly to me. How does this work if tenant is due to move in on 22 August with £2000 p.m. due on 1st of each month? What would need to be paid on signing and what would be due 1st September and 1st October. Pro rata rent and whether it is normal practice for tenant to pay in advance or arrears is confusing me. 
Cheers.
Rent doesnt necessarily pay for whole months individually. The rent and tenancy period in your case would be 22nd of one month to 21st of the next.
So what amounts would be due 1/9 and 1/10? I.e. Different due date than day moved in?
OR would have historically taken pro-rata payment for rent from 22/8 to 30/9, and then next normal rent payment on 1/10, however, RRA does not allow advance rent over 1month, so I believe on move in they will be asked to pay rent from 22/8 to 21/9,
then pay rent on 22/9 for period 22/9 to 30/9,
then pay rent on 1/10 for 1/10 to 31/10.
That said, I’m not 100% sure of this, as haven’t done it under new system. I am confident though that it will be fully explained in the RentNow contract. You could work through to issue & look at the draft before it is sent.
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Get the rent paId on 22 august (or better before and specified in contract) for 22 aug to 21 sep £2000 via openrent
(Holding deposit plus the balance)
Then on 22 sep 2nd month is paid £2000 for 22sep to 21 oct
Then on 22 oct 3rd month is paid £2000 for 22oct to 21 nov
Etc etc. Your monthly ‘rental periods’ start on 22nd
That is the default stick with it. It is a lot easier and legal to have the payment at the start of the rental period which is each month starting on 22nd
Under RRA you cant ask for payment in advance of the rental period any more except 1st month.
If you accepted part payment for say 22nd aug to 31 Aug, you still cant charge £2000 on 1st Sep because that would mean advance payment for part of the following rental period ie for 22 Sep to 30.Sep. That would be rent in advance and isnt allowed.
In theory possible to have shorter first rental period 22 aug to 31 aug, then monthly rental periods thereafter starting on 1st, but not sure Openrent contract allows that
Good luck
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My understanding is Openrent will default the rent due date will be the same as the start of the rental period and i dont think their contract even allows that to be changed. You would have to have a shorter initial rental period then monthly from 1st. I dont think the OR contract allows this but you could ask OR.
There are some problems down the line if they were different which @David122 has highlighted previously
Best
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Nothing would be due on 1st of the month as the payment will have been made on 22nd of the previous month. Its only possible to change the rent payment date and therefore the tenancy period right at the beginning. You would then take a pro-rata initial sum from 22nd to 31st and thereafter calendar monthly from the 1st. I would not recommend this as if you make a mistake, you will have breached the RRA and could be subject to a civil penalty.
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As others have said. It will be much more convenient in the long run to have the rent due on the move-in date. This will make it always clear which rent period they are paying for. It will also make it clear what date is the start/end of a tenancy period when they give notice to move out - search for the rules on “valid notice”.
If the tenant wishes to pay early, e.g. because they get paid on the first, then they are free to do so.
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It does. In advanced settings on tenancy creation. I’m just not sure of the technicalities of how this structures the payments now, having never done it since RRA.
I expect the structure is exactly the same as before, they will take balance of 1st month [ie less holding deposit of 1 week’s rent] by the tenancy start date, as per the APT T&C, and will expect a monthly payment every month after that, as per the T&C. There shouldnt be any facility to require payment on a different date [except maybe in arrears?] otherwise apart from month 1 the LL would be in breach of RRA and the clauses would be invalid
It cant be exactly the same as before (which I used), due to the RRA, but I know there is a facility to change the payment date (& hence the structure of the initial payments) but I don’t know what it is now (as I haven’t used it), but if anyone wants to know, as the OP did, the next time they use Openrent to create a contract, they can have a look in the advanced settings (as per my advise above), and see what it does. We do not need to speculate further. no point.
I think karl11 is exactly correct.
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If it’s causing you this amount of problems as other users are quite rightly highlighting. Then I’d simply Start the contract on the 1st of the month or if you want the payment on the 1st of the month start it on the 2nd. The date on the contract is the date future rents relate to. As all have been saying you can’t ask for rent I. Advance under the new RRA and if you do it could lead to all sorts of issues in the future
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Yes thanks. Now sorted.
How did you resolve in the end? I have the same issue, thank you