As a landlady of 20yrs experience I would say 12m up front rent is a red flag. I’m thinking a weed grow-house, I’m thinking illegal sub letting, illegal brothel, all sorts. Don’t be blind sided by a years rent up front, there will be a reason and its probably negative. Bearing in mind the legislative changes around evictions etc right now, I would advise you not to take this prospective application any further. Do yourself a favour and avoid a whole load of heartache, listen to the landlords on here, they will give you honest advice without rose coloured spectacles.
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Thank you for the honesty, appreciate it
Hey Ana
I have 5 properties i rent out and typically take the unusual cases. But I’ve been doing this a long long time and I have always been fair with my tenants. If they want to leave early you have a responsibility yo try and fill the property and return their money. But you can have a separate contract on the terms of that.
I’ve had tenants pay a year up front, there is nothing wrong with that. You have guaranteed rent for a year! People have their reasons, listen to their story.
You still need a deposit, proof they are able to legally rent in this country (is that still needed?) and ensure they can afford the rent for the property. These are available through the very affordable tenant checks that open rent provide.
Rent is still payable a month in advance so month 11 you’d expect a months rent as someone else has said you cannot expect them to pay any earlier as it is classed then as a large deposit.
I actually gave them a discount and agreed separately the terms of this payment. Both were signed and witnessed at the same time.
If you are both signing an AST and want the property back after a year you have to provide the sufficient legal notices well before the tenancy is up otherwise the tenant doesn’t have to leave, the contract rolls and they have 1 months notice and you 2. You could look to issue the section 21 at the appropriate time of the tenancy.
Id speak to open rent, they have advisors you shouldn’t be making legal decisions by the views of an open forum.
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Has Sue3 says,
This is a big red flag to me too. People can and do use rented properties for illegal means of earing money. Having a cannabis farm in your rental property could invalidate your insurance for instance.
What ever you decide to do please make sure that you regularly inspect the property, something which is rather difficult at the moment with covid.
Mike.
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Any terms you set for early release from a tenancy agreement have to fall within the scope of the Tenant Fees Act, which basically says you can cover your costs but no more.
I totally agree with Sue3
Hi,
Just joining on to this thread as I am in a similar situation.
We have two international students who are willing to pay 12 months upfront as they have no income and no UK guarantor. We think they are trustworthy and have verified they are who they say they are and are students for the next year.
I wanted to ask do people still think it is a bad idea to go with them, and also specifically @A_A if you were able to explain a bit more how the 11 month 1 month idea would work? I understand why you would want it but not how you would arrange that payment to still be ‘monthly’ rent.
Thanks,
Anna
If you are confident they will move on at the end of the year then you could take the risk. If you have any doubt then bear in mind that it would take up to a further year to get them out.
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Based on what I have read here on OR before and in another thread, its best to take 11 months up front then 1 month in last month of tenancy. Reason is that if the tenancy becomes periodic and unless there is specific wording in the agreement stating otherwise, the periodicity of the tenancy becomes as that of the last rent payment by default. So if the last rent payment was 12 months ago, the notice period will become 12 months in the periodic tenancy. Anyone more knowledgeable care to comment?
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The notice period is capped at 6 months, but you are right to raise the possibility that the tenancy period could follow the rent payment. Its best in my view to make clear in the TA that the tenancy period is monthly and that any up-front payment represents 12 x monthly payments.
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