Question

Deposits and Tenancy Deposit Schemes (England) | Start of a Tenancy (England) | Tenancy Agreements (England)

Asking for deposit or rent before signing contract

2 Nov 2017 | 3 comments

Are there any pitfalls asking a prospective tenant to pay the deposit and rent ‘on or before the signing of the contract’?

Answer

3 Comments

  1. guildy

    No, not currently (the law will be changing on this at some point in the future).

    Normally, a landlord would only take a deposit to hold the property before signing. Then, on the day of signing and moving in, the first months rent would be paid in exchange for keys. It wouldn’t be normal to ask for rent before this time (and few tenants would want to pay it we expect).

  2. JungleProperty

    Thank you – when I referred earlier to ‘deposit’ I should have more correctly said ‘tenancy deposit’ so it is not confused with ‘holding deposit’ – the rent and tenancy deposit are permitted payments under the Tenant Fees Act (as it will become) so don’t see how this will affect the response to the question above or have I missed something?

  3. guildy

    I was more answering the “before” signing point to be honest.

    Nothing much in regards to your question should change. A deposit of up to six weeks is proposed to be allowed and a “holding deposit” will also be allowed up to one week worth of the rent.

    We await a few more updated drafts before drilling too much into the detail!

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