Landlords could see tenants moving in without paying rent

Does anyone pay rent before they sign the tenancy agreement? I guess very occasionally it may happen if a tenant is doing everything remotely and can't get to grips with signing a pdf online, hasn't got a printer, etc. However, they have had the opportunity to sign it. It isn't the landlords fault if they can't manage it.

I thought the normal procedure was to pay a holding fee of no more than one weeks rent to reserve the property while referencing is carried out. This then becomes part of the first month's rent. Pay the deposit either when signing the tenancy agreement or at some other mutually agreed time between then and the moving in date. Then pay the balance of the first month's rent by the commencement date on the tenancy agreement. They may choose not to actually move in on that date so may not be physically present to sign a paper tenancy agreement at that point.

Occasionally international tenants may experience a slight delay with a bank transfer but they usually expect such a delay and organise things a few days in advance.
Tenants often choose to pay rent several days early, usually to coincide with their pay day. About 25% of mine pay between 1 and 10 days early every month. I've never asked them to and certainly don't require them to.
Occasionally people with trust funds want to pay several months rent in one lump because of the admin issues involved with trust funds. There needs to be a clear distinction between "requiring" and "accepting". There is no way we should be penalised for accepting a payment the tenant has chosen to pay early.

I have always taken rent and deposit a couple of days before the tenancy begins, but got the tenant to sign all the documents together on move-in day before handing over the keys. I would in future either have to insist they pay in cash on the day or make a separate journey to meet them to sign the agreement a few days before. Its another inconvenience amongst many for landlords in this RRB.

Well this is going to be massively inconvenient for tenants. It's reasonable (as a tenant) to expect to pay deposit and first month in advance and prior to entering the property as it forms the contract. So what would happen in the scenario demonstrated if I sign etc "on the day" as I can't see any other way for LL to protect themselves. I would have no contractual security if the rug got pulled post leaving and or giving notice on a current property. The ripple effect of those could be awful.
So is there going to be a pre contract agreement which is more cost to LL and subsequently more cost to go to T through rent.
Is anyone thinking this through

Does any of this make more accommodation available to renters?

If not then it doesn’t help anybody overall.

Beats me why tenants don’t see through this political grandstanding, started in earnest by the Tories in 2015 with Osborne’s budget and now turbo-charged by Rayner and Pennycook (with Reeves cheering them on with the upping of SDLT premium to 5%).

Best thing to do is sell up like i did and move your money buying property in Dubai.Tge best move I made

I supply services to construction companies. The idea of me sending an invoice and getting paid up front some cash before works actually even start .is for the birds. The deal is , you do the job , then invoice , then wait for the money and eventually get paid
Whether my company has is leveraged up to the hilt and I need that payment to pay the bank that month is irrelevant.
Why shd tenants be any different?

UC do this there must be a signed tenancy to claim. You phone them up they confirm. What the person may get.

Then once they have tenancy it may be turned down this has happened to me several times now.

Having a tenant in arrears leaves a sour taste.

Where are the NRLA In fighting these ridiculous rules

Reply to the comment left by Guy Malone at 22/01/2025 - 08:22
Completely different scenario. You haven't done the job yet and there is no certainty you actually will. There is no tangible product. If you go into a supermarket you are expected to pay for your groceries before you can eat them.
A house is already there waiting for the tenant to move in.
When someone buys a house the lender expects a huge deposit up front and performs in depth analysis of the person's ability to pay.
When someone rents a house it's much lower up front cost and less stringent affordability requirements.

Surely the intention of the new rules is for a landlord/agent to get the tenancy agreement signed on the commencement date but to withhold keys/access to the property until all monies are paid & cleared

Reply to the comment left by Guy Malone at 22/01/2025 - 08:22
I doubt you would take on contracts on that basis unless you were reasonably certain that you would get paid (or recover through the courts).

The only time I took rent in advance was for overseas students for whom it was not possible to do credit referencing and there was no option for a UK guarantor.

Academic for me as I’ve sold up, but the students who were pretty wealthy to be able to pay £25k plus a year for uni fees had no objection to paying the year in advance for their rent.

Renters will be no different from anyone else who enjoys credit - they won’t get accommodation not just for poor credit history but for not yet having a history or being unable to prove one established overseas.

The difference will be that you could deviate from the business norm for a high value job for a firm with poor or no credit history and take payment in stages or in advance if that was what both parties wanted to do. Many large PLCs take out insurance against credit risk and if they can’t obtain this because the counter party’s rating falls below an acceptable level they will revert to payment up front before supplying goods - The law will override the tenants ability to come to any agreement to mitigate adverse factors.

I’d also say property rental is more akin to leasing - would anyone think it a good idea to make it illegal to pay an initial rental of more than one month on a contract hire agreement? I’ve only ever leased vehicles and have paid anything from 3 to 12 months as the initial rental - I saw a deal advertised yesterday for a £105k BMW 750e on the basis of 12 + 23 months payments at £450 month. Around £15k total cost over the two years. Obviously there is an oversupply or something but nobody in their right mind would risk handing over the keys at 1 + 23 at, say, £700 a month giving the same overall cost if the law forbade more than one month in advance.

Sorry for the long reply, but you did ask!