Risks of accepting 12 months Rental Payment Upfront?

“The agents initially decided not to carry out any reference checks based on the full rent being provided upfront”
THEREFORE Time to find a new agent!!!

I don’t like rent up front one bit, I would rather have 6 month’s rent as a deposit, and rent paid monthly in advance. What happens at the end of the 12 months if he does not leave and does not pay any rent?????

Hi
I have only taken 6 months rent up front once, when new and green. The letting agents didnt do all the checks as they said it wasnt necessary. At the end of six months the letting agents assured me it was ok for it to become a periodic tenancy, with rent now being paid monthly.

Unsurprisingly the rental payments became more and more unreliable and it became clear the tenant had a drug problem. He eventually left just before i got a possession order. When i was able to check the property properly there had been two water leaks of longstanding which he had hidden when i had visited. These resulted in £4500 of damage and the flat was uninhabitable for a couple of months while i got everything fixed. Towards the end of the works my builder went in quite early one morning and was surprised to find the ex tenant trying to let himself in “to collect his post”. The builder got rid of him and gave said post to me. It was his housing benefit cheque. I contacted the council to tell them what had happened and then found myself being investigated by the council fraud dept!

It all got sorted out ok in the end, but i never took rent up front like that again.

I am less suspicious than most, so up front payments from a group of students would not bother me (however I would have met them and quizzed them and then trusted my instincts, never having trusted Agents in my landlord life). The norm is a guarantor for students and the usual reference checking….

One odd thing to look out for, that I read recently, was that if you receive a twelve month payment upfront you are supposed to give six months notice to quit! Seems excessive, but I am sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to verify whether or not that is correct. I know that it is normally two months.

Hello all, I am a brand new landlord, am renting my flat to a company who uses a service apartment as intermediary and they are paying me 6 months rent in advance too, I am not employing an estate agent and have not done any ref check because they are a massive london based company and the upfront rent. Would really appreciate some advice as to whether I should do some checks and if so what kind of checks I need to do specifically pls? I met them once and they don’t look like drug dealers and they have emailed me with their work email address which kind of prove that they work there… Any advice appreciated as I am very new to this business 🙂 thanks a lot!!

Reply to the comment left by “CT ” at “08/08/2014 – 22:31“:

I suggest you arrange an inspection visit. If they decline you may have a problem. Please report back.
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