Would paying full 6 months' rent in advance be likely to get us a discount?

GenD

Hi all,

My husband and I are about to start our first rental, hopefully for 6 months until we find a house to buy, having sold ours but had 2 purchases fall through recently.

We just saw a lovely house today, and are considering applying for it - the advertised rent is £625 a month, but the agent suggested that the landlord might be willing to accept a lower offer, as it is under refurbishment so has been empty, and particularly as there are currently roadworks going on just outside so it might be temporarily difficult to let. We were thinking of offering £600, as that was our original budget.

But as I was reading through posts on here I saw a few mentions of people paying 6 months in advance. It initially sounded like a crazy idea, but we actually have the money, as we have the £20k deposit that we were going to use for buying a house, so we could easily pay it up front and top up the savings again monthly. But it would only be worth doing if we could use it to negotiate a substantial discount on the rent, so I just wondered if anyone on here would have any advice - what would be a reasonable discount to ask for, and would it be likely to interest a landlord rather than having the rent coming in monthly? Also, are there any potential problems or pitfalls with doing it that way? We haven't suggested it to the agent yet as I only just thought of it

One other point - the house is also for sale, with the same agent. It's slightly above our budget for buying, but if we decide we love it after we've moved in, and we could manage to save a slightly bigger deposit, we could probably afford it at a push, and obviously buying one we already live in would save on removal costs, not to mention the hassle of packing, and the whole moving-out cleaning/inventory palaver. Are there any problems with buying a property from your existing landlord, or would it be just the same as any other purchase?

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

christopher1977

Hi,

you should certainly try and get a discount. Infact if they wont give you a discount i would look elsewhere.

I paid a year up front and got the rent reduced from £740 to £690/month.

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

From a Landlord's perspective, it's often better to take a let immediately for a slightly lesser rent than wait around and risk it being vacant. It depends if you're in a buyers market!

I have taken discounts of up to about 5% (500 vs 525) for up front payment. Any less I might think a tenant was not serious or could not really afford it. That can often link to a tenant not looking after a property or just being hassle, which I am sure you can understand could put someone off.

As for buying from your landlords, think the convenyancing is a little odder, as you're not buying it with vacant possession, but nothing a lawyer can't deal with. Treat it as a 6 month interview for the house!

Good luck

GenD

Thanks to both of you, I'll put the offer to the landlord through the agent and see what happens. If he says no, we just go with the standard rental contract, not a problem for us either way.

tiger_eyes

I'd be really concerned about what would happen if anything went wrong during the tenancy. What happens if there's an emergency and you need to break the tenancy early? There's no incentive for the landlord to negotiate an early surrender when he already has all the money. What happens if the bank forecloses on the house and there's no consent to let so they throw you out on the street? You're homeless and you'll never see the money again. What if the boiler dies and the landlord refuses to carry out repairs? You can't exactly threaten to withhold rent. Extreme scenario, but what if the landlord sends his scary friends around to illegally evict you and move in another tenant? You could take him to court to try to get your money back, but when he ignores the CCJ, what then? I'd be worried that paying the full six months' rent up front would put you in a very weak bargaining position.

donfanatico

We are in a similar position as in we have to move from our current rental to a new place. Our current rent is at least 30% less than the current asking prices for similar properties.

So what does one do? Is there any bargaining that can be done by people like us to get reduced rent? The only two things we can do is pay up front or offer a long term contract. Both of which put us in a precarious position if any of the above described scenarios happen.

Any suggestions?

ognum

I Think itreally depends on how popular the property is. If the house is put on the rental market at the right rent then the landlord should get multiple applications and make their choice from those who apply, no need to discount.

If the property is over priced you may well negotiate a discount, maybe one or two percent!

donfanatico

ognum wrote: »

I Think itreally depends on how popular the property is. If the house is put on the rental market at the right rent then the landlord should get multiple applications and make their choice from those who apply, no need to discount.

If the property is over priced you may well negotiate a discount, maybe one or two percent!

Usually you can see straight away if a property will be popular, thegood ones and if you ask The LAs will tell you if there has another offer been made, however would you trust them?

So one or two percent is all you can get?

Carl31

We did it

Got a 25% discount on the asking rate, and have kept it the same for 3 years

ACG

For 6 months its probably not going to have the effect you think - reason being is that he will have to pay the letting agent a "finders fee", and then pay it again in 6 months.

If you were going to be there for 2 years plus and pay 6 months upfront, then its looking a little more attractive.

But, dont let that stop you going in at say £575 and working up to £600. You dont get if you dont ask

G_M

GenD wrote: »

Hi all,

..... the advertised rent is £625 a month, but the agent suggested that the landlord might be willing to accept a lower offer, as it is under refurbishment so has been empty,
...I saw a few mentions of people paying 6 months in advance. .

Are you planning to live there, or to use it as a cannabis farm? Or perhaps to run a small brothel?

This is typically what people do in order to keep the landlord at arms length (or further).

However, if you can convince the LL you have no such plans he might be willing to negotiate the rent.