Tenant claiming £10k damages?

As per my previous post, the fine for not protecting the deposit is only 3 x £420 = £1,260. ("only" in the context of a £10,000 claim)
Maybe you could negotiate with the tenant, along the lines of "2nd month in advance may be deemed a deposit, for which you could be awarded up to £1,260. However, if you persist with the rest of the claim, I will be forced to contest in court. Alternatively, if you want to settle now, I agree to not charge you rent for 3 months". Or something like that.
That said, do run it by a lawyer first to ensure wording is correct and, if agreed, it's what you intended.
Also, this requires you to climb down (a bit) and, more importantly, there is always the risk that the tenant turns really nasty and either trashes the place or refuses to leave.

As Ian Cognito & Ian Narbeth have stated the additional months “rent in advance” could well be found to constitute a deposit even though your AST states that it isn’t. It will depend largely on whether your tenancy agreement states how that extra months rent will be treated. If your agreement states that it is the last months rent you should be fine. If the tenant is expected to pay the final months rent and you will return the extra rent, or your agreement is silent on the issue you could be open to a claim. Certainly nowhere near £10K though. If your tenant is in arrears you also should be fine. When asked to provide a rent record you need to apply any rent in advance to the arrears. What you tend to find with taking two months in advance is that the tenant views it as a deposit no matter what you tell them in the beginning, or what your agreement says. Even the most well meaning will believe they have paid a deposit. I speak from experience here as my father in law, whose properties my husband and I now manage, took two months in advance from 2007 until we took over, so I had the headaches associated with it.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 18/02/2020 - 18:15
Yes, he did pay again at the beginning of the second month. But the intention was always to keep in advance with the rent. Throughout his time there, he has on occasion paid 3 or even 4 months at a time through the bank. When I asked him about this , his response was somewhere along the lines of ' I just pay you when I get paid' . But I suppose anything is open to interpretation, id just hope that a judge would side with whats in writing not what one perceives something to be.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Cognito at 18/02/2020 - 18:38
Id agree, id be happy parting with a thousand or two to put it in the past and word my tenancies a little differently. But I get the distinct impression he will fight this to the bitter end. I have a meeting with a specialist solicitor on Thursday , so hopefully will have a clearer idea then.

1. did you not do any inspections?

2. Asking for 2 months rent up front could be deemed by the court to be one month's deposit, unless the agreement is well worded.
3. tenant voluntarily paying in advance should not be an issue.

Reply to the comment left by Trapped Landlord at 18/02/2020 - 15:36
Ian Cognito 's response could be correct though i would like to know the source. I rented out to a company that sublets while we travelled after retirement At the end of their contract they issued an s21 to the subtenant. The subtenant's solicitor argued in court that the advance rent which was supposed to be 6 weeks (they only paid 5) was really a deposit. The Judge agreed and the case was thrown out. The company had never had this decision before and was loath to place in a deposit scheme and reapplied the s21.
this time they quoted from Johnson v old as the subtenant was on housing benefit and had poor credit. The same Judge never even looked at the papers and threw it out again. In the meantime, my wife and i are homeless in limbo while we ait. a process that has taken over a year and a half.

Reply to the comment left by zhorik at 19/02/2020 - 08:44I should have added that there was no deposit and the subtenant never paid any rent for the advance period and nor was any rent demanded for that period. Thereafter the rent was paid normally in arrears.

Reply to the comment left by zhorik at 19/02/2020 - 08:44
If- when taking advance rent, it should be perfectly clear in the tenancy agreement, Possession Friend.uk would recommend in multiples of a rental period, making it clear the date rent is next due. This avoids all the comments here about advance rent being a Deposit.
Of course, Landlords should be careful to only take Advance rent, ONCE - as it if becomes a regular practice, it could determine the period of the tenancy and consequently a potentially longer Sec 21 notice period.

Reply to the comment left by Trapped Landlord at 18/02/2020 - 20:28
Sorry, Trapped Landlord but there is a high probability this will be viewed as a disguised deposit. Try arguing the point in court and the judge is very likely to punish you with an order to repay 2 or 3 times the deposit.
As I said, get legal advice and you will probably be advised to repay the "deposit" straightaway.