New tenancy asking for single payment from multiple tenants

edwardmluk

Thanks all for the advice. I don't mind being lead tenant (and frankly knowing that I've paid the rent etc gives me peace of mind). The thing that worried me was what if someone doesn't pay me the rent, then I'm down that person's rent. But hopefully with standing orders etc that'd never happen.

I know about the dangers of the joint account linking so I won't be doing that.

BitterAndTwisted

If someone doesn't pay their share of the rent on time the two remaining fully-paying tenants should be down that person's rent along with you. But that is what would happen in a joint-tenancy in any case even if you were paying direct to the agent separately. Having three joint-tenants on your back where you live for not paying your share on time is a huge inducement to behaving reasonably and decently. If you don't trust the other three implicitly you should never have entered into a joint-tenancy with them in the first place!